LEAVING THE WEST:

A lengthy report by Amnesty International Tuesday accusing Israel of apartheid may complete the term's transition into the mainstream discourse around the Jewish state. Once made only by the most strident activists, the claim that Israel is ruling over Palestinians in a manner similar to how white South Africans dominated that country's Black majority has now gained the imprimatur of major human rights groups inside and outside Israel.

Amnesty International's report, released Tuesday, follows a similar Human Rights Watch finding last spring that aligned the two leading international rights groups with eight Israeli nonprofits and most of Palestinian civil society in accusing Israel of imposing some degree of "apartheid" on millions of Palestinians.

"There's been an incredible shift in the conversation," said Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at New York-based Human Rights Watch who authored its April report. "There is certainly a consensus in the international human rights movement that Israel is committing apartheid."

The growing adoption of the term may help fuel the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at Israel and modeled after the campaign that helped force apartheid South Africa to eventually accept majority rule. It also challenges the framework that liberal American Jewish institutions and many human rights groups have long used to describe Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza: as a stain on an otherwise liberal democracy. [...]

Kenneth Bob, president of the liberal Zionist group Ameinu, said he was alarmed that the Israeli government did not appear primed to change its treatment of the Palestinians in response to mounting international outcry.

"I can go through and dissect the words," said Bob, who said he rejected the claim that Israel was guilty of apartheid within its 1967 borders. "On the other hand, I think what American Jews should do is point out to Israel that the problem is the policy and not the words."

Bob said that in coming years younger American Jews, who hold overwhelmingly more critical views toward Israel than their parents and grandparents, will take leadership positions at synagogues, Jewish day schools and other institutions and shape perceptions of Israel based on what they see taking place on the ground.

In a July poll by JEI, 38% of American Jewish voters under 40-years-old said that Israel was guilty of apartheid and an additional 15% were unsure, compared with just 13% of those over 64 who said the same.

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