Israeli apartheid cracking?

It’s good to see front-page coverage of the European Union’s decision to require labeling of Israel’s West Bank products (“EU plan deepens Israel’s isolation,” Nov. 12). The movement to impose boycott, divestment and sanctions against the apartheid state continues to gain strength.

Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian peoples extend over nearly 70 years. The occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Golan, has lasted nearly 50 years.

By pursuing the illegal colonization of the West Bank, Israel has placed itself in the awkward position of claiming that the West Bank is part of Israel where its Jewish-only settlements and their products are concerned, and that it is not part of Israel where the stateless Palestinians are concerned. And, of course, the colonization of the West Bank has continued steadily under both conservative and labor governments.

Israel’s centrists and leftists raise alarms that, absent a two-state solution, Israel will ultimately not be able to maintain its Jewish-supremacist character. Twenty percent of Israelis are Palestinians with second-class rights of citizenship.

For the occupied stateless Palestinians, one-half century is a long time to persist without any rights at all. How much longer can the international community tolerate Israeli apartheid?

Wayne Kraft

Spokane