Israeli Apartheid Week

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual series of university lectures and rallies held in February or March.

The years preceding 2008, a significant year marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel, saw a sharp increase of literature and analysis that was said to have sought to document and challenge alleged Israeli apartheid, including reports by major international bodies and human rights organizations and findings published by political leaders, thinkers, academics, and activists.

The efforts were also said to have highlighted the role that people and governments could play in providing "solidarity with the Palestinian struggle by exerting urgent pressure on Israel to alter its current structure and practices as an apartheid state.

[3] In 2009, locations included Abu Dis, Berkeley, Boston College, Emory University, Bir Zeit, Edinburgh, Edmonton, Johannesburg, Oxford, Kalkilya, San Francisco, Soweto, Tulkarm and Washington, D.C.

In 2010, locations included Jerusalem, Amsterdam, Bard University, Beirut, Berkeley, Bethlehem, Bil'in, Bogota, Bologna, Boston, Cape Town, Caracas, Chicago, Connecticut, Duluth, Dundee, Durban, Eastern Cape, Edinburgh, Edmonton, Gaza, Glasgow, Guelph, Hamilton, Houston, Ireland, Jenin, Johannesburg, Kingston, London (Ontario), London (U.K.), Madrid, Melbourne, Minneapolis/St.Paul, Montréal, Nablus, New York City, Nil'in, Ottawa, Oxford, Peterborough, Pisa, Pretoria, Providence, Puebla, Roma, San Francisco, Seattle, Sudbury, Tilburg, Toronto, Truro (California), Utrecht, Vancouver, Waterloo and Winnipeg.

In 2014, locations included Vienna, Brussels, Ghent, Botswana, Cuiaba, Porto Alegre, São Paulo, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, London, Montreal, Ottawa, Peterborough, Regina, Sudbury, Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo, Winnipeg, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Joensuu, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Metz, Nantes, Paris, Strasbourg, Tours, Berlin, Freiberg, Stuttgart, Delhi, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Bologna, Cagliari, Rome, Venice, Japan, Amman, Irbid, Seoul, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Oslo, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Gaza, Nablus, Naqab, Ramallah, Tulkarem, Yaffa (Jaffa), Aliwal North, Benoni, Cape Town, Durban, Fleurhof, Grahamstown, Johannesburg, Laudium, Mitchells Plain, Orange Farm, Pietermaritzburg, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Port Shepstone, Pretoria, Roshnee, Rustenburg, Soweto, Stellenbosch, Barcelona, Gijon, Irunea, Madrid, Palma, Sevilla, Valencia, Malmo, Stockholm, Basel, Berne, Geneva, Syria, Golan Heights, Bangkok, Birmingham, Bradford, Cambridge, Dundee, Durham, Edinburgh, Essex, Exeter, Glasgow, Kent, Lancaster, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Northampton, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, Sussex, London, Albuquerque, Arizona, Beaumont, Boston, Cambridge, Chicago, Dearborn, Delaware, Louisville, Maryland, Massachusetts, Milwaukee, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Olympia, Omaha, Philadelphia, Seattle, Toledo and Washington, D.C.[12] In 2012, the Palestine Society of the London School of Economics (LSE) erected an "Israeli Apartheid Wall", which led to a confrontation after pro-Israel students threw water balloons at it in protest.

[15][16] Ben White, a freelance journalist and author of two books on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, has been an active speaker during IAW in both the U.S. and the U.K., including at his alma mater, Cambridge.

"[28] In 2008 Israel's ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, denounced IAW as "crude propagandism, pure hypocrisy and cynical manipulation of the student body.

"[34] On March 3, 2011, Historian Catherine Chatterley wrote an editorial for the National Post outlining IAW's history and its relationship to the BDS movement.

Conservative MP David Anderson said that calling Israel an apartheid state is "abhorrent", and interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said the campaign "continues to defy logic.

This year the focus continues to be on Israel, rather than on the appalling massacres and human rights violations that have reached intolerable heights in countries such as Syria and Iran.

"[38] In April 2011, 16 African-American members of the Vanguard Leadership Group published full-page ads in several U.S. university newspapers with an "Open Letter to Students for Justice in Palestine" saying that the SJP's use of the word "apartheid" in regard to Israel and IAW "is not only false, but offensive.

"[39] Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said that groups opposing the New York LGBT Center's decision to prohibit a 2011 IAW event were intellectually dishonest, saying, "This was not a question of free speech.

"[41][42] In February 2012, Jonathan Kay sharply criticized IAW in the National Post, writing, "In Syria, the Assad regime continues to rain artillery on rebel positions in the city of Homs, killing journalists and innocent civilians alike.

But all of them should understand that IAW and BDS are not what they seem: As some of Israel's own fiercest critics themselves now admit, these are dishonest cults meant to enlist ill-informed activists in a campaign to destroy the Jewish state.