Apartheid. Ancient, Past and Present. Systematic Gross Human Rights Violations in Graeco-Roman Egypt, South Africa and Israel/Palestine

By Anthony Lowstedt

October 18, 2006


This is an investigation into apartheid as a system of gross human rights violations. Although it is primarily a well-documented indictment of the ethnic minority elites in apartheid societies, it also contains substantial criticism of gross human rights violations committed by members of the indigenous ethnic majorities. Among these is victimization of indigenous women, including femicide, as well as sacrifice and targeting of civilians on both sides of the apartheid divide.


Abstract

Apartheid against the indigenous majority in Graeco-Roman Egypt lasted 976 years (332 BCE-642 CE), in South Africa 342 years (1652-1994), and in modern Israel/Palestine 58 years so far. There are others, but according to the author, who defines apartheid in political-sociological terms, these three are the most clear-cut examples of this notorious crime against humanity. An apartheid society can never be stable. It is in a perpetual state of war. If the invading ethnic minority elites and their descendants hold on to power, apartheid can easily slip into either colonialism or into genocide. Liberation from apartheid is a gradual process, which in South Africa may still have decades to go. Although it might hold sway for centuries, apartheid is very expensive and difficult to uphold. The apartheid experiences of the past hold warning signs as well as strong reasons for hope, for South Africa as well as for Palestine/Israel.

http://www.dada.at/gems/gesellschaft/ApartheidR2.pdf