This is the best discussion on the issue I have seen.  I have no problem with people arguing that calling Israel an apartheid state is not useful or that it is wrong.  The problem is when members of parliament or university presidents state it is unacceptable, hateful or anti-semitic. That does create a chill where alot of people are afraid to raise questions or say what they think.

A few years ago I shared the view that Israel Apartheid Week was unnecessarily provocative but I have changed my mind.  I always saw Israel as practicising apartheid even before the wall, even before the checkpoints, Palestinians in Israel were treated as second class citizens even when I first visited in 1970.  But nevertheless I can understand why people, like Cheri di Novo think it is unnecessarily provocative.  However, I have changed my mind.  The meetings during IAW have been very educational, example is the talk i have reported from Na'eem Jenna.  Also it is indisputable that IAW has helped to build a broad Palestinian rights movement on campus that has grown tremendously over the last few years and created a cadre of students organizing around this and other issues.  Finally it is has managed to force the discussion because before the discrediting started, the tactic was to ignore critics of Israel.  IAW has made us difficult to ignore.

Isreal is more democratic within its own borders than other states in the Middle East, especially if you are Jewish.  For non-Jews, and especially for Palestinians in Israel, it is another story. By the same means one could have argued that apartheid South Africa was more democratic than many African countries, if you were white.  By virtue of their ethnicity Palestinians who live in Israel are all under suspicion and subject to different laws or different application of laws as I have described above.  More significantly however, is that Israel is responsible for the West Bank and Gaza through their occupation and here the oppression faced by the Palestinians is terrible and by the opinion of many South African blacks who have been there even worse than what they faced.  I for one do not just focus on Israel.  I have been active in supporting the Tamil against the Sri Lankan government, for example but Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories and treatment of the Palestinians is a central issue in the global poliics. 

Thanks everyone for the tone of the debate.  This is just the kind of discussion we need to have.