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1/ One of the risks of using the term "Apartheid state" is that it could create the impression that Israel is an unusual anachronism - like South Africa was. A relic of a bygone age of colonialism. But Israel is not an anachronism in 2021; it's very much cutting edge.
2/ It's no accident that hard-right populists from all over the world look up to Netanyahu. For them, Israel represents a success story, of how to maintain economic growth and some democratic credentials while promoting exclusivist citizenship and unequal domination.
3/ While Israel is unusual in many ways (which make it interesting) I have always maintained that regarding it as an aberration is profoundly wrong. I think it should be clear to anyone watching world events.
4/ Without the global hard right resurgence, it is doubtful if Israel would have moved to entrench and formalise the regime of Jewish-Israeli privilege in the way it did in the last five years. The global political context facilitated this. Israel/Palestine is not an island.
5/ To clarify, I am not opposed to the term Apartheid. It is inevitable as a shorthand for a regime of domination, segregation, and discrimination. It has moral and political mobilising power. In the same way that I don't oppose calling Trump a fascist.
6/ I'm just cautioning that we should be aware of differences of context: the significant differences between S. Africa and Israel/Palestine, but crucially, also the different historical moment we are in.
