“Apartheid” is an Afrikaans word meaning “apartness” and was created specifically for and applied to the legal system of racial segregation in place in South Africa between 1948 and 1994. This was a clear, institutional, and legal separation between white, black and mix-raced peoples in South Africa.

Each race had different benches, parks, beaches, stores, bathrooms, water fountains, schools, etc. Intermarriage and having mixed children was punishable by imprisonment and even death. This is nothing like Israel.

Israel’s founding charter enshrines equal rights for all, regardless of religion, ethnicity, race, or gender. Israel also has robust legal protections against institutional racism written into its founding. And they are successfully used when necessary.

Yes, almost every country has a form of embedded-in-the-psyche racism, and it is one of the world’s biggest ills, and we are all grappling with it, in every country. Some more successfully than others. This is nowhere near the same thing, though, as Apartheid.

A reminder: Deligitimizing Jewish or Palestinian connections to the homeland is a bad look. Peace is the right look. Let’s focus on that.