An Appeal To Critical Thinking

Israel is regularly demonized with claims of being an "apartheid state" when it and Palestine hit the new cycle. It happens like clockwork and seems to circulate the most among Gen Z populations, journalists, and academia on X, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

Hitting closer to home, we see friends and family share posts and reels on personal feeds that amount to nothing more than virtue signaling.

Claims of Israel as an apartheid state happening in the digital world dangerously manifest in the physical world. They come in the form of violent campus protests, harassing executives and management at large companies--like Google--and sometimes even cause large swaths of protests in city centers, on court lawns, etc., that can and have gotten violent.

Apartheid claims against Israel are extremely frustrating for the pro-Israel crowd because the claims are so far-fetched from the truth. If you ask a supporter that sympathizes with Palestinians to describe their position, most of them can't give you a straight answer. They are unable to describe what slogans like "from the river to the sea" actually mean[1] because they just don't know.

They're following the latest trend among their peers.

The tribes of people mentioned earlier, whether friends or relatives, share what amounts to Iranian or Palestinian propaganda without knowing what they're actually pushing on social media platforms.

That's the real frustration in the claims of Israel being an apartheid state. It's not that people hold different opinions than myself or pro-Israel supporters. It is that they are pushing propaganda without actually holding a foundational opinion on the matter themselves.

If you don't think for yourself, someone will tell you how to think.

What is Apartheid?

The term "apartheid" actually originates from a dark period in South African history, where a minority white population moved Heaven and Hell in order to align policy that would keep the black population suppressed.

In just one example, the governing body of South Africa had forcibly removed black South Africans from their homes in geographic areas that were deemed "white." After removing them, the land was sold at cheap prices to white farmers.

The history is extremely dark and heartbreaking, but a good primer can be found here.

Is Israel committing apartheid against Palestine?

The claim of apartheid comes from Israel's perceived posture towards Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. A big point of contention is Israel's mandated restrictions on movement around the Gaza Strip. Racism or apartheid is typically the slander that comes out of that, but that is a poor understanding of the situation at the Gaza Strip.

It truly has nothing to do with race, but with extremely high security concerns. And these security concerns, especially after Oct. 7's events, are certainly not unfounded. Many western countries put restrictions on movement based on profiling after devastating terrorist attacks.

The United States implemented many restrictions on movement after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. On the other side of the world, the United Kingdom did the same during the coordinated suicide bombings on London's transit system in 2005.

In fact, both nations still have some extensive restrictions in place, but have eased them to a degree as security concerns abated.

That is difficult thing for Israel to do, easing restrictions, because the security concerns never dissipate. This population in the Middle East is subject to regular bombings and missile attacks from Gaza, Lebanon, and surrounding nations. Evacuating to bomb shelters are a regular occurrence of Israeli life, Jew or Arab alike.

It's important to look at Palestine in historical perspectives as well. Not that they should be punished for "the sins of their fathers" so to speak, but more that, the plight of the Palestinian cause under Israel was once the plight of the Palestinian cause under Jordan.

Yes, Palestinians found themselves in a different, but very similar situation in the 1950s when they created widespread conflict in Jordan. Despite given the same rights as any Jordan citizen, and equal voting power in their legislative system, Palestinians were a terror on life in Jordan. King Hussein of Jordan at the time called the Palestinians a national security concern.

I remind you of this not shift blame, but to strengthen my claim that not all is as it seems in an Instagram blip of the "poor, oppressed Palestinian people", when they, historically, have been conflict-makers themselves.

What does the data say?

Israel faces complex societal challenges that it has to navigate with grace. That is the plight of every nation.

To add to the challenge, Israel has internal and external forces that demand the country take up their own respective policy positions. In the politically charged era we live in, it's difficult to deliver the answers and solutions to these challenges so that every group is equally satisfied. As such, Israel will not handle every situation perfectly. The same goes for any nation.

That isn't a caveat to rush to the defense of Israel, but that a level of sympathy should be extended, given that we fight the same challenges in the United States and elsewhere.

That caveat aside, there is a lot of hard, publicly available data that supports Israel as a nation that welcomes other races and ethnicities with open arms. Here are just a few:

• Over 21% of Israel's population is Arab [2].
• No restrictions on jobs: Israeli Arab citizens hold positions as judges, legislators, work in academia, and many other esteemed roles of Israeli society, per the Anti-Defamation League [3].
• Israel Arabs are not required to enlist in the IDF; it's optional. That isn't something Jews are even allowed to avoid: a privilege over Jews, actually. That said, Arabs, just like Jews, are offered the same economic incentives to enlist.
• Arab citizens are entitled to vote for the Israeli Knesset.
• Arab citizens were granted the same rights as Jewish citizens under law, back in 1966 right before the Six-Day War.

Plenty more hard data is available, but based on this sample, it would be impossible to label Israel with a brazen claim like apartheid. The black population of South Africa would have never had privileges like this in their era of apartheid.

It is almost insanity to brand Israel with the term "apartheid" based on their current policy stance. It certainly does not equate to the same South African apartheid of a institutionalized system created out of racism and hatred.

I want to be clear: this essay is hardly to rush to Israel's defense, but more to identify facts and data in the midst of a cloud of propaganda that is mindlessly shared across social platforms, academia, and elsewhere. Israel’s policies can certainly be criticized. In fact, they should be, just as citizens should be free to criticize the policies in any free nation.

Conclusion

The first conclusion to this essay is that we should hold our breath for a short while before sharing opinions on the Internet. Unfortunately, social media has made us lazy, but at the same time, quick to take up the cause of the oppressed. But without proper research and forming of our own opinions, mindlessly sharing this propaganda to our respective social platforms make us nothing more than a chess piece in someone else's game.

The second is that we as a populace should do a better job at promoting intellectual rigor and curiosity.

It's entirely fine that, after reading this, you still hold the opinion that Israel is an apartheid state. This is the vacuum that friendly debate fills, after all. One would hope, however, that that opinion will now be formed through your own honest intellectual curiosity, research, and hard data, rather than the "I Stand With Palestine" post you saw on Instagram this morning.

Don't be another cog in a machine. Choose free thought.

References:

[1] https://www.thefp.com/p/why-my-generation-hates-jews
[2] https://en.idi.org.il/articles/38540
[3] https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/allegation-israel-apartheid-state