Arab party leader in Israel rejects ‘apartheid’ label

By JOSEPH KRAUSS
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — The head of an Arab party in Israel says he would not use the word “apartheid” to describe the situation inside the country. Mansour Abbas made history last year by joining Israel’s governing coalition. He says he prefers to describe the discrimination faced by Israel’s Arab minority in “objective ways.” He did not say whether he thought there was apartheid in the occupied West Bank. Amnesty International last week joined two other well-known human rights groups in saying that Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians within its borders and in the occupied territories amounts to apartheid. Israel rejects those allegations as antisemitic. It says they also ignore the rights and freedoms enjoyed by its Arab citizens.