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.”
Jayapal’s statement is so far from reality that it makes one wonder if those who have similar thoughts live in a world totally detached from reality. Jayapal’s statement is, sadly, filled with falsehoods and smears. Israel does indeed have a sizable Arab community – roughly two million, or 20% of the population — 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.