Editing Racial segregation (section)

=== Israel ===

{{see also|Racism in Israel}}
[[File:Barrier Gate at Bilin Palestine.jpg|thumb|right|A barrier gate at [[Bil'in]], [[West Bank]], 2006]]

The [[Israeli Declaration of Independence]] proclaims equal rights to all [[Israeli citizenship law|citizens]] regardless of ethnicity, denomination or race. Israel has a substantial list of laws that demand racial equality (such as prohibition of [[Prohibition of Discrimination in Products, Services and Entry into Places of Entertainment and Public Places Law, 2000|discrimination]], [[Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law, 1988|equality in Employment]], libel based on race or ethnicity).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nevo.co.il/law_html/law00/74372.htm |title=חוק איסור לשון הרע, תשכ"ה-1965 |publisher=הכנס השנתי של העמותה למשפט ציבורי בישראל |date=14 November 2021 |access-date=18 January 2023 |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115104823/https://www.nevo.co.il/law_html/law00/74372.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> There is however, in practice, significant institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country's [[Arab citizens of Israel|Arab citizens]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information |first=Bureau of Public Affairs |title=Israel and the occupied territories |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41723.htm |website=2001-2009.state.gov |access-date=22 May 2019 |archive-date=30 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830180358/https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41723.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2010, the [[Supreme Court of Israel|Israeli Supreme Court]] sent a message against racial segregation in a case involving the [[Slonim (Hasidic dynasty)|Slonim]] [[Hasidic Judaism|Hassidic]] sect of the [[Ashkenazi Jews]], ruling that segregation between [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] and [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi]] students in a school is illegal.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1997685,00.html |title=The Jewish Religious Conflict Tearing at Israel |date=17 June 2010 |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619044520/http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1997685,00.html |archive-date=19 June 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> They argue that they seek "to maintain an equal level of religiosity, not from racism".<ref>{{Cite news |date=20 June 1995 |title=Discrimination claimed in Modiin Illit haredi schools |work=Israel News |publisher=Ynetnews.com |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3926221,00.html |access-date=12 December 2012 |archive-date=23 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023065856/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3926221,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Responding to the charges, the Slonim [[Haredi Judaism|Haredim]] invited Sephardi girls to school, and added in a statement: "All along, we said it's not about race, but the High Court went out against our [[rabbi]]s, and therefore we went to prison."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mandel |first=Jonah |date=23 July 2010 |title=Hassidim invite Sephardi girls to school |work=Jpost.com |url=http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=182335 |access-date=12 December 2012 |archive-date=20 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020112751/http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=182335 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Due to many cultural differences, and animosity towards a minority perceived to wish to annihilate Israel, a system of passively co-existing communities, segregated along ethnic lines has emerged in Israel, with Arab-Israeli minority communities being left "marooned outside the mainstream". This de facto segregation also exists between different Jewish ethnic groups ("''edot''") such as [[Sepharadim]], [[Ashkenazim]] and [[Beta Israel]] (Jews of Ethiopian descent),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schwartz |first=Tanya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EwgJDV8Ho0cC&pg=9 |title=Ethiopian Jewish Immigrants in Israel: The Homeland Postponed |year=2001 |isbn=9780700712380 |page=9 |publisher=Psychology Press |access-date=23 November 2015 |archive-date=6 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240806052156/https://books.google.com/books?id=EwgJDV8Ho0cC&pg=9#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> which leads to de facto segregated schools, housing and public policy. The government has embarked on a program to shut down such schools, in order to force integration, but some in the Ethiopian community complained that not all such schools have been closed.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Nesher |first=Talila |date=1 September 2011 |title=Ethiopian Israelis Accuse State of School Segregation |work=Haaretz |url=http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/ethiopian-israelis-accuse-state-of-school-segregation-1.381933 |access-date=26 November 2015 |archive-date=27 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151127041843/http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/ethiopian-israelis-accuse-state-of-school-segregation-1.381933 |url-status=live }}</ref> In a 2007 poll commissioned by the Center Against Racism and conducted by the GeoCartographia Institute, 75% of Israeli Jews would not agree to live in a building with Arab residents, 60% would not accept any Arab visitors at their homes, 40% believed that Arabs should be stripped of their right to vote, and 59% believe that the culture of Arabs is primitive.<ref name="autogeneratedil">{{Cite news |last=נחמיאס |first=רועי |date=27 March 2007 |title=יותר ממחצית היהודים: נישואים לערבי הם בגידה – חדשות היום |work=Ynet |publisher=ynet.co.il |url=http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3381836,00.html |access-date=12 March 2012 |archive-date=14 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314022339/http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3381836,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2012, a public opinion poll showed that 53% of the polled Israeli Jews said they would not object to an Arab living in their building, while 42% said they would. Asked whether they would object to Arab children being in their child's class in school, 49% said they would not, 42% said they would.<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 November 2012 |title=Israelis Should Avoid Using Term 'Apartheid' |url=https://forward.com/culture/165231/israelis-should-avoid-using-term-apartheid/ |website=The Forward |access-date=5 July 2019 |archive-date=5 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190705104029/https://forward.com/culture/165231/israelis-should-avoid-using-term-apartheid/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Fisher">{{Cite news |last=Fisher |first=Gabe |title=Controversial survey ostensibly highlights widespread anti-Arab attitudes in Israel |work=Times of Israel |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/survey-highlights-anti-arab-attitudes-in-israel |access-date=12 December 2012 |archive-date=27 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121127053751/http://www.timesofisrael.com/survey-highlights-anti-arab-attitudes-in-israel/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The secular Israeli public was found to be the most tolerant, while the religious and [[Haredi]] respondents were the most discriminatory.

Some commentators have sought to find commonalities between apartheid in South Africa and the political situation in Israel. A system of apartheid, [[crime of apartheid|a system of institutionalized segregation and discrimination]] in the [[Israeli-occupied territories|Israeli-occupied]] [[Palestinian territories]] and to a lesser extent in [[Israel]] proper. There is near-total physical separation between the [[Palestinian]] and the [[Israeli settlements|Israeli settler]] population of the [[West Bank]], as well as the judicial separation that governs both communities, which discriminates against the Palestinians in a wide range of ways. Israel also discriminates against [[Palestinian citizens of Israel|its own Palestinian citizens]]. Palestinians in the occupied territories live under [[military occupation]] and are progressively segregated, barred from [[freedom of movement]], and discriminated against. After institutionalized segregation, Palestinians face eventual [[forced displacement]] of their homes by [[Israeli settlers]] at which point they barred from returning home, and the Palestinian areas becomes annexed into the Israeli state.<ref name="auto1">{{cite web |title=A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid |url=https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid |publisher=B'Tselem |access-date=12 January 2021 |date=12 January 2021 |quote=A regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime. Israeli apartheid, which promotes the supremacy of Jews over Palestinians, was not born in one day or of a single speech. It is a process that has gradually grown more institutionalized and explicit, with mechanisms introduced over time in law and practice to promote Jewish supremacy. It is alleged that these accumulated measures, their pervasiveness in legislation and political practice, and the public and judicial support they receive – all form the basis for our conclusion that the bar for labelling the Israeli regime as apartheid has been met. |archive-date=8 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508165214/https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{citation | last=Sfard | first=Michael | author-link=Michael Sfard | url=https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/files.yesh-din.org/Apartheid+2020/Apartheid+ENG.pdf | title=The Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid: Legal Opinion | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111112934/https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/files.yesh-din.org/Apartheid%202020/Apartheid%20ENG.pdf | archive-date=11 January 2024 | work=[[Yesh Din]] | date=9 July 2020}}</ref><ref name=":51">{{Cite news |last=Sfard |first=Michael |date=2021-06-03 |title=Why Israeli progressives have started to talk about 'apartheid' |type=Opinion | url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/03/israeli-apartheid-israel-jewish-supremacy-occupied-territories |website=[[The Guardian]] |language=en |access-date=20 January 2024 |archive-date=4 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104213236/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/03/israeli-apartheid-israel-jewish-supremacy-occupied-territories |url-status=live }}</ref>

Other commentators have sought to refute these allegations of apartheid. Palestinian citizens of Israel participate in elections (see [[List of Arab members of the Knesset]]) and members of the judiciary include Palestinians. The Supreme Court contains at [[Supreme_Court_of_Israel#Current_judges|least one Palestinian person]]. Jewish and Palestinian Israelis both attend colleges and universities in Israel. Hospital facilities in Israel treat all Israelis, regardless of religion or creed. Lastly, Jewish Israelis are in the majority in Israel proper, comprising some 73% of the [[Demographics_of_Israel|population]]. These characteristics are not associated with a system of [[Apartheid]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Times of Israel |first=Itai Hachem |title=Refuting the lie of the Israeli “apartheid” |url=https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/refuting-the-lie-of-the-israeli-apartheid/ |access-date=8 February 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Haaretz |first=Alon Pinchas |title=The ‘A’ Word: Why Israel Is Not an Apartheid State, Despite HRW’s Claims |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2021-04-28/ty-article/.highlight/the-a-word-why-israel-is-not-an-apartheid-state-despite-hrws-claims/0000017f-f52a-d47e-a37f-fd3e746a0000/ |access-date=9 February 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Financial Times|first=Mehul Strivastava|title=Israel reacts to ‘apartheid’ label from Amnesty International |url=https://www.ft.com/content/870ab8ec-fd92-41b2-b9fa-41cd530b9cda/ |access-date=9 February 2025 }}</ref> Despite this Arab Israelis, face constant systemic discrimination, and Palestinians in the west bank live under military occupation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/10/world/israel-pew-study/index.html|title=Survey: Israel’s religious divisions run deep|first=Lauren|last=Jackson|date=10 March 2016|website=CNN}}</ref>