Thread by @HonestReporting

Another day, another squalid Guardian op-ed perpetuating the lie that Israel is an 'apartheid' state.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Eno's argument relies on numerous half-truths and missing context. For example, Eno calls a cultural center in Gaza bombed last year, "a place of music, theatre and dance."

Eno doesn't say it was also a Hamas hub of terrorism, weapons and hate.
ynetnews.com/articles/0,734…

Likewise, Eno writes, using scare quotes that Israel imprisoned a poet “for 'inciting terrorism.'”

Of course, the fact that the poem called on people to “resist” and “evict” Israelis at a time that stabbing attacks on Israelis were practically a daily event isn't mentioned.

Misleadingly, Eno seeks to portray Israel as excluding Palestinians from the event, writing that "Israel’s myriad restrictions on the movement of Palestinians will ensure that almost all of them are excluded from the Eurovision festivities."

Reality: There is no automatic right to enter another country. Despite this, Israel grants many thousands of Palestinians permits to enter Israel daily.

And as to the actual Apartheid claim itself: Apartheid is a system in which laws discriminate based on race or ethnicity. There is no dual system of law in Israel for Jewish and Muslim or Arab citizens.

Under Apartheid, people didn't have access to the same public services. They couldn't sit on the same park benches, bus seats. They attended different schools, went to different swimming pools, and if black people were seen in certain areas at night, they could be shot on sight.

None of this is true for Arab citizens of Israel. There are plenty of way to legitimately criticize Israel, but the Apartheid claim is NOT one of them.

Also: Arabs who are not citizens of Israel, but legally enter its territory, do not face this discrimination.

Then there's the patently false description of the Gaza protests as "peaceful".

In the most recent protest, an IDF officer was lightly injured Friday after an explosive device was thrown at him. Are grenades, machetes and guns "peaceful", @BrianEnoMusic?

jpost.com/Israel-News/ID…

Full write-up here:

honestreporting.com/guardian-op-ed…