Redefining Apartheid in American and Global Palestine Solidarity Debates

In the recent past, debates have popularized concerning the value and meaning of the term
apartheid. Is it a term that is adequate for discerning Israel’s subjugation of Palestine, or not? In
this paper, I provide a conceptual comparative framework for understanding the various
dimensions of apartheid as it relates to settler-colonialism and racial capitalism. Through
engaging in contemporary debates within Palestine Studies, I demonstrate that the term apartheid
has always been used to describe the legal, political, economic and gendered ways in which
apartheid was understood in South Africa and globally. With regards to the concepts of settler-
colonialism and racial capitalism, I place them within debates emanating from Decolonial
Theory which outline their varied dimensions as understood by the long-duree critique of
coloniality and capitalism. In conclusion, I argue that approaching the definition of apartheid
from within this comparative conceptual framework demonstrates that their meanings are co-
constitutive and co-determinative.