HRW Claims It Isn't Comparing Israel to Apartheid South Africa Even Though It Mentions Apartheid 143 Times

To much fanfare, Human Rights Watch released a report titled "Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution". Yet HRW claimed it wasn't comparing Israel with Apartheid era South Africa:

The report does not set out to compare Israel with South Africa under apartheid or to determine whether Israel is an “apartheid state”—a concept that is not defined in international law. Rather, the report assesses whether specific acts and policies carried out by Israeli authorities today amount in particular areas to the crimes of apartheid and persecution as defined under international law.

Each of the report’s three main substantive chapters explores Israel’s rule over Palestinians: the dynamics of its rule and discrimination, looking in turn at Israel and the OPT, the particular rights abuses that it commits there, and some of the objectives that motivate these policies. It does so in terms of the primary elements of the crimes of apartheid and persecution, as outlined above. Human Rights Watch evaluates the dynamics of Israeli rule in each of these areas, keeping in mind the different legal frameworks that apply in the OPT and Israel, which are the two legally recognized territorial entities, each with a different status under international law. While noting significant factual differences among subregions in each of these two territories, the report does not make separate subregional determinations.

On the basis of its research, Human Rights Watch concludes that the Israeli government has demonstrated an intent to maintain the domination of Jewish Israelis over Palestinians across Israel and the OPT. In the OPT, including East Jerusalem, that intent has been coupled with systematic oppression of Palestinians and inhumane acts committed against them. When these three elements occur together, they amount to the crime of apartheid.

What chutzpah!!! HRW insists that this isn't about comparing Israel to Apartheid-era South Africa while using the word Apartheid 143 times. Apartheid carries with it a connotation of illegitimacy, ostracism and evil. When HRW deploys the word apartheid once to describe Israel much less 143 times is done so to inflame hatred towards it with the objective of dismantling it while whitewashing the actions of the Palestinians. 

If one reads this report one would never know the Palestinian Authority teaches its children to hate Jews and pays money to those who kill Jews while naming schools, streets and soccer fields after them. But that is not the point of the report. The point of the report is to promote a big lie and have people repeat that lie often enough until it is accepted as an unquestioned fact. This would explain why HRW uses the word Apartheid to describe Israel 143 times.

Human Rights Watch can call Israel an Apartheid state or claims it has committed crimes of Apartheid 143 times or 1,430 times. It doesn't make it a fact let alone the truth.