U.N. Report Compares Israel's Actions To Apartheid

From the AP's Bradley S. Klapper via the Houston Chronicle:

An independent report commissioned by the United Nations compares Israel's actions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to apartheid in South Africa — charges that have drawn angry rebukes from Israel.
...
In the report, [John] Dugard, a South African lawyer who campaigned against his country's system of state-sanctioned racial segregation in the 1980s, says "Israel's laws and practices in the (Palestinian territories) certainly resemble aspects of apartheid."

Jimmy Carter said the same thing recently, to howls of derisive laughter -- or something derisive, anyway...

The report catalogues a number of accusations against the Jewish state ranging from restrictions on Palestinian movement, house demolitions and preferential treatment given to Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

"Can it seriously be denied that the purpose of such action is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group — Jews — over another racial group — Palestinians — and systematically oppress them?" he wrote in the report.

All depends on what you mean by "serious", I suppose:

Israel maintains that its actions are aimed at preventing Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed more than 1,000 Israelis in the past six years. Officials say the violence broke out in 2000 after Israel's proposal to pull out of the vast majority of the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for peace was rejected.

Strangely enough, non-Israelis remember the beginning of the current round of violence much differently.

Israel's ambassador in Geneva criticized Dugard for directing attacks only at the Jewish state.

"Any conclusions he may draw are therefore fundamentally flawed and purposely biased," said Yitzhak Levanon.

But in fact the report criticizes both sides, so once again Israel's ambassador is lying through his teeth.

Dugard's report says war crimes have been committed by both sides, though it reserves its harshest criticism for Israel.

"This applies to Palestinians who fire Qassam rockets into Israel; and more so to members of the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) who have committed such crimes on a much greater scale," he wrote.

Can't somebody at AIPAC get the Americans to veto this report before it comes out? There's still time, isn't there?

The report by John Dugard, independent investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the U.N. Human Rights Council, is to be presented next month.

Well, then ...

Burn it!

It has already been posted on the body's Web site.

Ummmm.... Oops!!