Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela (South African MP and the grandson of Nelson Mandela) addressing Palestine Expo in London (2019): “On the 19th July 2018 the Knesset passed into law what we have always known to be the true character and reality of Israel: Israel is an apartheid state, period. For us as South Africans our experience of apartheid was defined by the following key defining characteristics:
statutory discrimination
pass laws
group areas
labour reservation
separate and unequal development
land expropriation
movement restrictions: the wall
military state: road blocks and random searches
assault on dignity and human rights
All these characteristics were present in Apartheid Israel since its inception but have now been codified and given constitutional status and expression by the Nation-State Law. Apartheid Israel perpetuates statutory discrimination through the very definition by the Nation-State Law as a Jewish State. By doing so it renders non-Jews as secondary citizens alternatively as foreigners in the land of their birth by virtue of who they are and who they are not. Although Israeli Jews and Arab Israelis already had different national identity documents that defined them as such, the Nation-State Law further emphasises that differentiation… the Nation-State Law serves as a proactive statement against attempts to de-legitimise Israel, in particular by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is campaigning internationally for economic, political and cultural sanctions against Israel” ( Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela quoted in Middle East Monitor, “Nelson Mandela’s grandson: “Israel is an apartheid state, period””, 8 July 2019: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190708-nelson-mandelas-grandson-israel-is-an-apartheid-state-period/ ).