I’d finished going through this weeks’ “What’s new with Alexa” email and started asking my own questions. Too many times the machine offers an apology and says it can’t answer that but this time, it had the answer clear and concise:
“Alexa, is Israel an apartheid state?”
“Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state”
Alexa does state her source, an entry on Wikipedia “Israel and the apartheid comparison“, but that article discusses opinions and does not give a conclusion. The hard and fast answer is one given by Amazon, not Wikipedia.
So, is Israel an apartheid state? Well, if you want to consider that question you firstly have to ignore the fact that apartheid is specific to South Africa, white Europeans and native Africans.
Apartheid is racial segregation – in Israel there is no racial segregation. Over 20% of the population of Israel are Arabs and have full citizen rights. There are 18 Arab members of the Israeli parliament.
In Israel, your religion doesn’t preclude you from being a doctor, a lawyer, a soldier, a high court judge or any other position.
There is no separation on buses, trains, planes, toilets or any other public facilities. And despite reports to the contrary, there is no segregation of roads.
All this lack of separation applies equally to everyone regardless of gender and sexuality – something that can’t be said for most of Israels’ neighbors.
Amazon have promised to have their technical department look into this matter, or maybe that was what another of their algorithms said.
