A Different Apartheid: Structural, Legal, and Discursive Foundations for Comparing South Africa and Israel

Global shifts in perceptions of the Palestine conflict coupled with a renewed interest in the historic struggle to end apartheid in South Africa has led to a rise in discourse relating the situation facing contemporary Palestine with that of apartheid in South Africa. The present essay reconciles scholarly and activist perspectives concerning comparisons between contemporary Palestine and apartheid-era South Africa by examining definitions of apartheid under international law, the discourse of race in each context, the foundational myths of South African and Israeli nationalism, the role of black and Palestinian labour in South Africa and Palestine respectively, racialised spatial segregation, and activist responses to the Israeli and South African regimes.