The dark side of dual citizenship

I was proud to hear what the ANC’s national executive committee member for international relations had to say regarding the governing party’s approach to dual citizenship. That South Africa would take this visionary decision to deny dual citizenship where it would lead to South African citizens serving in the armed forces of another country, and possibly committing human rights abuses in the process, is indeed a monumental step; Deputy Minister Obed Bapela and the ANC have my full support. At the same time, I know that there is likely to be a typically knee-jerk reaction from the South African Zionist community. I anticipate reading a multitude of “letters to the editor” from the pro-Israel lobby, filled with emotional outrage but very few facts.

Zionists are thoroughly predictable when defending Israel, and we will undoubtedly be subjected to countless rehashes of the Holocaust in an attempt to arouse emotions; wailing testimonies about Israelis being threatened from every evil Arab country that surrounds them; some ISIS references to spice things up a bit; and all of this tied together with very poor attempts at trying to justify why South African citizens need to go to defend the “Holy Land”. Delving into the history of Palestine would take a lot of time, and I am sure Mr Bapela and the ANC didn’t base their political decision on old Bible stories and claims to the land.

So let us analyse the current situation in Israel as it is now. If we look at the current state of democracy and human rights record in Israel today, it should be very obvious why the ANC has taken this momentous stand.

Zionism, and not Judaism, is the core ideology upon which Israel has been established. Our definition of Zionism is an internal policy based upon racism, an external policy of aggression and expansion aimed at the conquest of “living space”, and a method of political action typified by state terrorism. Zionism is a political ideology and it has no religious link to Judaism; when it was first established most Jews, most prominent amongst them leading Rabbis Samson Rahael Hirsch and Hayyim Sonnenfeld, opposed it. Zionism is regarded widely around the world as a form of racism. Furthermore, based on the fact that Zionism provides the underlying racist principles by which Israel is run, the country should indeed be “singled out” until oppression falls.

It is often cited by those who support the state of Israel that it is the only democracy in the Middle East. There are, though, four apparent levels of citizenship in Israel, each treated with a different level of esteem:

• Ashkenazi (white European) Jews
• Mizrachi/Sephardic Jews from Arab countries
• Ethiopian Jews (black)
• Palestinians (Arab)

Ethiopian Jews living in Israel are treated as second class citizens, due to deep-seated racism. According to journalist David Sheen, who is particularly interested in Israel’s treatment of its black citizens, on the racist colour spectrum, people have privilege in inverse relationship to the pigment of their skin, and in this, Israel is a classic “pigmentocracy”. It should be obvious, then, that an organisation such as the ANC, which was founded in opposition to racism, would be extremely vocal against a country which displays such racist policies.

The treatment of Ethiopian Jews in Israel is abhorrent, but the way in which the Israeli government treats African refugees is incomprehensible. As South Africans, it should be one of our main concerns that our African brothers are being treated in such a way. The Prevention of Infiltration Law allows asylum seekers to be imprisoned for up to three years just for entering Israel, while the government in Tel Aviv is also building the world’s largest detention centre to detain unwanted migrants.

The central feature of a liberal democracy is the state’s neutral approach to ethnic groups within its society. All citizens should be treated equally. Israel does not agree, insisting that the fundamental make-up of Israeli society is not based on the citizen but the ethnic-religious “Jewish nation”. The most basic element of a true democracy — universal, equal citizenship — is absent in Israel. How then is it acceptable for people from South Africa (or any other country) to go and serve in the army of such a blatantly undemocratic state?

I share the sentiment with many others that South Africans and the Palestinian people share a very special bond. The Palestinians’ struggle for liberation and freedom has been supported unequivocally by many of our great anti-Apartheid heroes, including Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Ronnie Kasrils, to name but three. Aziz Pahad made his conclusion very clear after visiting occupied Palestine in the wake of last year’s Israel offensive against the civilians of the Gaza Strip: “The situation of the Palestinians cannot be compared to the situation in South Africa. It is, by its very nature, worse than what we suffered.”

Having achieved our freedom, it is the duty of every global citizen, but especially those of us in South Africa, to help the people in Palestine to be liberated. This is why the dual citizenship decision has been announced; not to single out Jews or minorities, but to uphold the principles and foundations of our democracy in ensuring that South African citizens are not active in an army carrying out gross human rights violations against a people living under a brutal military occupation.

When opposing the illegal acts of the State of Israel one is often accused of being an anti-Semite, and I implore Mr Bapela to brace himself for some of the same baseless allegations. Being steadfast on the path of truth and justice is not always an easy one, and so we applaud Obed Bapela and the ANC on this announcement and offer our full support in combating the propagation of one more evil in our world.

Dr Soni is the Vice Chairperson of the Media Review Network, South Africa. Follow her on twitter.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.