Israel moves to rein in rights group over ‘apartheid’ use

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s education minister says he’s banning groups that call Israel an “apartheid state” from lecturing at schools. The move targets the country’s leading human rights group after it began describing both Israel and its control of the Palestinian territories as a single apartheid system. The explosive term is vehemently rejected by Israel’s leaders and many ordinary Israelis. Yoav Galant announced the measure on Twitter late Sunday. Rights group B’Tselem said last week that while Palestinians live under different forms of Israeli control in the occupied West Bank, blockaded Gaza, annexed east Jerusalem and within Israel itself, they have fewer rights than Jews in the entire territory, including Israel proper.