CANON
territorial as well as from a functional point of view.”17 Correlations can also be made to international divestment movements that have been focal points of activism in both cases. As Urbina makes clear, industries targeted by the South African divestment movement are also focuses of BDS movements against Israel.18 However, there are limits to the comparison between Israel and South Africa, and it is important to take note of some of the differences between the two cases. In Apartheid South Africa, Black South Africans had a majority while in post-1948 Israel Palestinians were the minority. Due to their numbers, therefore, the Black working class had greater influence through labour unions and strike action.19 The Israeli government tried to create a structural dependency in which Palestinians were forced to depend on Israelis. This was feasible because Palestinians were in the minority. In South Africa however, Black South Africans made up 2/3 of the labour force, so the efforts of the Apartheid government to cultivate economic dependency had to be much more concerted.20 Another key difference between the two regimes can be demonstrated through their ideologies. Farsakh elaborates upon this point and notes that, “ideologically, Zionism sought the land without the people while South African apartheid sought the land with the people,” thus demonstrating how Zionism and the Israeli regime were predicated on the forced departure of Palestinians, while in South Africa, the White ruling class wanted to harness Black South Africans for their labour.21 Because the Israeli regime wanted Palestinians expelled from the region, they do not give Israeli citizenship to Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza strip. The White South African ruling class, by comparison, allowed Black South Africans to have South African citizenship, mainly because they needed to use their labour.22 The way people viewed territorial separation also differed quite substantially. In South Africa, the idea of creating two separate states never reached 17 18 19 20 21 22
Farsakh, 241. Urbina, 61. Abu-Laban and Bakan, “Apartheid Analysis,” 345. Farsakh, 232. Ibid., 234. Ibid., 236.
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