The United Nation's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that "all peoples have the right of self-determination." That the Jewish people, which lost over a third of their population in the Holocaust, should not be discriminated against and uniquely denied this right was recognized by the iconic leader of America's civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., who plainly expressed that "Israel's right to exist as a state is incontestable."

 

The international community, too, recognized this right, and gave its support for Jewish self-determination with the passage of General Assembly Resolution 181 calling for a "Jewish State." (While the Jewish community accepted the UN's non-binding resolution, which proposed a compromise between the two sides' claims, Palestinians rejected it, and immediately after the vote launched a campaign of violence against their Jewish neighbors.)

 

Apartheid Week organizers make clear that they disagree with the international treaty, the UN resolution and Dr. King's views. In fact, potential Apartheid Week participants are expected first to commit to a document that opposes self-determination for the Jewish people by opposing Zionism and the existence of Israel — even while at the same time supporting self-determination for Palestinian Arabs. Whether you call it discrimination, hypocrisy or a double standard, this call to take away from the Jewish people the right of self-determination is simply immoral.

 

The discriminatory document Apartheid Week participants must agree to is entitled the "Basis of Unity for Israeli Apartheid Week International Coordination." It calls on Apartheid Week supporters to oppose Jewish and Israeli nationalism, or Zionism, because, they claim, "it inherently discriminates against those who are not Jewish." (The document, of course, does not raise any concerns about Irish nationalism inherently discriminating against those who are not Irish, Greek nationalism discriminating against non-Greeks, Finnish nationalism privileging Finns, or Saudi nationalism discriminating against non-Saudis.)

 

Meanwhile, in dramatic contrast with Apartheid Week's hostility toward self-determination for the Jewish people, the Basis of Unity explicitly supports calls for "the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination."

 

It should be noted that there are many well-intentioned people, including in Israel, who support Palestinian self-determination. It's when this support is coupled with the denial of an equal right for the long-persecuted Jewish people that the ideology becomes one of rejectionism and discrimination.