Which Are the Real Racist States?
by Uzay Bulut • August 2, 2023 at 5:00 am
In some political circles in the West, there is a popular tendency to consider Israel a "racist " or "apartheid" country.
Israel does indeed have a sizable Arab community... who enjoy rights and liberties that for most other minorities in other countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia are still only a dream.
Unlike many other countries, especially in the area, Israel recognizes and respects the rights of all of these minorities. You are welcome to go to Israel and see for yourself. Most critics of Israel, however, would probably prefer not to be "confused by the facts."
[Congresswoman Pramila] Jayapal, unfortunately, is also totally wrong about Palestinian Arabs' not having a right to self-determination.... Some territory, according to the Oslo Accords, is still waiting to be negotiated, but for several years, the Palestinian leadership has seemed uninclined to come to the table. Israel has offered the Palestinians statehood—not just once, but on at least six separate occasions.... Each time, the Palestinian leadership has rejected all offers -- perhaps because they were only for 97% and not 100% of everything demanded; perhaps out of fear of seeming a traitor; perhaps because there might be a greater preference for a "cause" than for a solution, unless the solution entails the elimination of Israel. Perhaps, also, there is the hope that the international community will simply hand the Palestinians a state, without the need for them to give anything on their end, or perhaps there is just a strong aversion to signing an "end of conflict" resolution. In any event, each time there was an offer, the Palestinians not only rejected it, but did not even propose a counteroffer.
Muslim Arabs in Israel hold senior positions in all walks of life: senior posts in the Israeli parliament (the Knesset); the medical profession; private industry, various government posts, and on the supreme court. There is also no legal obstacle for Israeli Arabs who wish to join the military or the police.
What about the rights of minorities of other nations in the region?
In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees , according to UNRWA, "are socially marginalized, have very limited civil, social, political, and economic rights, including restricted access to the Government of Lebanon's public health, educational and social services and face significant restrictions on their right to work and right to own property." UNRWA also reports that the Palestinians are still prevented from employment in 39 professions such as medicine, law, and engineering.
In Turkey, the Civil Servants Law of 1926 has made it virtually impossible for Christians and Jews to work as civil servants at state institutions. Consequently, thousands of non-Muslims lost their jobs. The law required that civil servants had to be "Turkish" – meaning that the government saw its non-Muslim citizens as "non-Turkish".... As human-rights lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz noted, "Not even one single non-Muslim army officer, policeman or judge exists in Turkey. Non-Muslims are absent not only from the security and judiciary establishment but from the public sector altogether.
Turkey, a NATO member... appears perfectly comfortable -- as does the rest of the international community –with its hostile 1974 invasion of Cyprus , where the Turks still occupy the north of the island and might be eyeing the south.
Perhaps, if Jayapal genuinely wants to help suffering people, she might focus on the more than 360 million Christians around the world who are being murdered and persecuted on a daily basis.
In Nigeria, "'Schools, clinics, churches, markets etc, have all been destroyed in some areas. Since 2014, when I became bishop, I have lost territory to the Islamic militants masquerading as herdsmen." — Winfred Anagbe of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Makurdi in Benue State, Nigeria, testimony to a U.S. congressional subcommittee, The Christian Post, July 19, 2023
The Palestinian Authority's persecution of Christians also merits urgent attention. "The ongoing international neglect of the plight of the Christians under PA rule," notes Dr. Edy Cohen, "could lead to the disappearance of Christianity in the place where it emerged." — BESA Center, May 17, 2019.
"While ordinary Christians are saying they no longer feel safe living under the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, their leaders continue to lie to the world about the predicament of their community. Instead of raising their voices against the persecution of Christians by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, these Christian leaders are busy trying to blame Israel.
"These Christian leaders, possibly to avoid being targeted themselves, seem to want the world to believe that Christians are fleeing Bethlehem and the Gaza Strip because of Israeli security measures against terrorists, and not because of the brutalities perpetrated by the Palestinian authorities and Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. If that were true, why aren't Muslims also fleeing as a result of the purported Israeli measures?" — Ramzy Baroud, Counterpunch, October 31, 2019.
"As an Arab pastor, I would prefer to live in Israel. The freedom we have in Israel we don't have in the best Arab countries. We can practice our belief without persecution. And if there is persecution, we can call the police and they will protect us." — Pastor Saleem Shalash from the Home of the Jesus King Church in Nazareth, Fox News, January 18, 2023.
In Iraq, the indigenous Yazidi community are still struggling to return to their native Sinjar region following the 2014 genocide by ISIS (Islamic State).
The flight of Jews from Arab countries and Iran is another case of ethnic cleansing that is meticulously ignored.... "Once upon a time, the Middle East was full of Jews.... Algeria had 140,000 Jews. Algeria, where are your Jews? Algeria had 140,000 Jews. Algeria, where are your Jews??... Iraq, you had over 135,000 Jews. Where are your Jews?" — Hillel Neuer, Director of UN Watch, United Nations, March 21, 2017.
Pakistan is yet another country where the indigenous minorities of Hindus and Christians suffer from exorbitant racism and discrimination.... "Approximately 1000 Hindu and Christian girls in Pakistan are abducted and converted to Islam annually. These girls, stolen from their family, are often forced to marry men twice their age, raped, sold into human trafficking rings, or forced into prostitution. Some Islamic seminaries teach that forcibly converting Hindu girls is equivalent to Haj-e-Akbari, or the greatest religious duty for a Muslim." – Human Rights Watch, Pakistan, Events of 2018
There are many other countries - such as Qatar, Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Sudan, Indonesia and Ireland -- that could be named, but no discussion of racism can be complete without mentioning:
The Chinese Communist Party. It is not exactly a secret that China has effectively wiped out Tibet and is currently torturing and enslaving Turkic Muslim Uighurs based in Xinjiang, in "modern day slavery," according to a British tribunal, to the point of genocide....
The CCP is reportedly also in the process of gene-splicing to develop a lethal virus for biowarfare to kill people whose DNA is not Chinese while sparing people whose DNA is Chinese (here and here). It would be hard to think of an activity more racist than that.
Israel, of course, like any country, has imperfections, but on the whole, it is a remarkably open and tolerant state that actually tries its best, while under unremitting diplomatic, military and terrorist attacks, to assure the human rights of all its citizens, regardless of religion or race. Parroting false propaganda about Israel being "racist" or "apartheid" does not create better lives for the Palestinians. Why not instead try to encourage freedom of speech, equal justice under the law, or modernizing the economy?
What sort of racism is it to be obsessed only with Israel, where the populations of minorities are vigilantly rising and protected, when, in so many other nations, minorities are systematically murdered, tortured and discriminated against, with no State protection whatsoever?
In some political circles in the West, there is a popular tendency to consider Israel a "racist " or "apartheid" country.
"I want you to know," Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, recently said during an appearance at the Netroots Nation Conference in Chicago, "that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy, that the dream of a two-state solution is slipping away from us, that it does not even feel possible."
