Rep. Jayapal Was Right: Israel Is a Racist State | Opinion

A controversy is sweeping the American public square over comments made by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal at a conference last weekend. Jayapal was at a conference in Chicago when pro-Palestinian activists interrupted a panel she was on to protest her colleague, Jan Schakowsky, who had refused to support a bill protecting Palestinian children. To diffuse the situation, Jayapal assured the activists that she agreed with them that Israel is a "racist state." Outside of that room, a public relations storm immediately ensued.

In response to her comments, Jayapal's own colleagues in the Democratic Party joined Republicans in condemning her, circulating a letter that called her words unacceptable and antisemitic. Even allies who defended Jayapal conceded that her language was somehow mistaken—and Jayapal herself eventually backtracked in a statement. "I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist," she wrote, but rather, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policies have been "outright racist."

It's unfortunate that Rep. Jayapal walked back what was an essentially true statement. In the entire spectrum of responses to her words, including by Jayapal herself, what has been lacking is a defense of the truth that Jayapal uttered, the very truth she was pressured into retracting despite overwhelming evidence for its accuracy.

That truth is simple: Israel is indeed a racist state.

From the day of its founding, Israel was established to privilege one group of people over another. In creating the Jewish state, Israel drove over 700,000 Palestinians off of their land and destroyed hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages to ensure they would not return.

Today, an international human rights consensus has been reached that Israel is practicing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians. This includes Amnesty International, whose investigation "shows that Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control." Human Rights Watch concluded that "discriminatory intent by Israeli authorities to maintain systematic domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians" has been established by the policies, practices, and statements of Israeli leaders. And the U.N. and even Israeli human rights organizations agree.

The evidence is clear: Israel's Nation State law declares that the right to exercise national self-determination in Israel is "unique to the Jewish people." Indeed, when Palestinian members of Israel's Parliament proposed a bill to define Israel as a state for all of its citizens, their proposal for equality was disqualified from even being discussed in the Knesset. These are ironically the same members whose presence in Israel's parliament is touted as evidence of Israel's inclusive nature. In response to further calls for equality, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated that Israel is a state "not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people."

And it's not just the Nation State law. Unlike in the U.S., where housing discrimination is illegal, Israel's Supreme Court has actually defended housing admission committees that assess the "social suitability" of certain people and their impact on the "cultural fabric" of a town—thinly-veiled language that prevents many Palestinian citizens of Israel from moving to Jewish neighborhoods.

As for the occupied Palestinian territories that Israel rules in violation of international law, the regime of segregation and oppression is much worse. Palestinians live under Israeli military dictatorship in their own land, while illegal Israeli settlers live on the same land enjoying full Israeli democracy and civil rights. There are even instances captured on video where Israeli occupation soldiers in Palestinian towns tell Palestinians they can't walk down certain streets because they're not Jewish.

In the face of this reality, the fact that Jayapal's comment was even controversial is an indictment of American political discourse. We cannot live in a functioning democracy and make informed policy decisions if certain subjects are taboo, and if acknowledging reality in them is derided.

U.S. policy on Palestine and Israel is not only flawed, it's actually harmful to both Palestinians and Israelis. Current U.S. policy of providing unlimited diplomatic protection and unconditional military funding to a racist apartheid government that is oppressing another people and taking their land is undermining the chances of a lasting peace that is based on justice, which is the only way to guarantee a better future for both Palestinians and Israelis.

To begin to correct U.S. policy, we need honest discussion and debate, and that starts by acknowledging the truth Jayapal spoke, not bullying her into retracting it.

Omar Baddar is a political analyst and the former director of the Arab American Institute.

The views in this article are the writer's own.