Choosing your language
I overhear a lot of discussion in the Palestinian human rights community about using the Afrikaans word apartheid to describe the Israeli government's (and the international community's) policy that the predominantly Jewish Israeli population should be separated from the Palestinian Arab population. The South African idea of apartheid (a word meaning separateness) was essentially that different races are better off if they develop separately. It's an idea that was popular in the early 20th century. Australia had its White Australia policy and the United States had the Asian Exclusion Act, both of which severely limited immigration from anywhere but Europe. From the turn of the 20th century it existed in the United States as the doctrine of segregation - that physical separation between races is beneficial. Oppression isn't inherent in the ideas of segregation and apartheid, but flow from the unequal distribution of economic and power that existed in early 20th century America and South Africa (and that's why the end of these policies didn't result in equality).
American audiences understand the term segregation much better than the term apartheid, so I think that when talking to Americans we'd be better off using that term. Obviously the segregation in Israel and Palestine is more extreme and violent than it ever was in the United States or South Africa, but that's a matter of degree rather than ideas.
American audiences understand the term segregation much better than the term apartheid, so I think that when talking to Americans we'd be better off using that term. Obviously the segregation in Israel and Palestine is more extreme and violent than it ever was in the United States or South Africa, but that's a matter of degree rather than ideas.