In the past week, South African activists, civil groups, and the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party held more than 100 events including rallies, lectures and cultural performances across the country to criticize the Israeli regime’s apartheid policies towards the oppressed Palestinian nation.

The events held during the Israeli Apartheid Week also tried to shed light on how closely the Tel Aviv regime’s propaganda campaign against the Palestinians resembles that of the former apartheid rule in South Africa.

Organizers say the overwhelming interest in the IAW events shows how the anti-Israel campaign has grown since it was launched a decade ago.

The IAW was observed in the United States and Britain between February 25 and March 2. The event has been also held in over 200 cities across the world.

The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.

The Israeli regime also maintains a defiant stand on the issue of illegal settlements on Palestinian land as it refuses to freeze settlement expansion. Tel Aviv has come under repeated and widespread international condemnation over the issue.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

RA/MB