Over the weekend, Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), each made comments about Israel that caused significant backlash — and rightly so. Jayapal claimed that “Israel is a racist state,” while Omar said that Palestinians have experienced occupation for 75 years.
The facts suggest their statements are simply wrong. But while one demonstrates a profound lack of knowledge, the other revealed a profound radicalism.
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Let’s start with Jayapal. Is it true that Israel is a “racist” state? Well, the short answer is no. In Israel, all citizens have full civil and political rights. Consequently, Arab-Israelis vote in elections and their parties currently hold 10 seats in Israel’s parliament. A few years ago, an Arab party was a part of the ruling coalition, and one of Israel’s supreme court justices is an Arab Muslim. Since 2011, thanks to government programs, Arab representation in Israeli universities has risen by more than 75%, bringing the proportion quite close to their proportion of the total population. In these universities, and in the workforce, Jews and Arabs learn and work side-by-side. It may feel pointless to even say any of this, but the idea Israel is literally an apartheid state practicing American-style Jim Crow is not uncommon.
Additionally, survey data show that when countries are ranked by the proportion of their citizens that either 1) do not want to be neighbors with somebody of a different race or 2) have witnessed racism, Israel does not make the list. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the list is filled with all of the countries that surround Israel, such as Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, and Palestine — which has the second-highest percentage of residents that prefer not to live next to somebody of a different race.
What about the much-ballyhooed “Nation-State Law,” which some critics contend enshrines “Jewish supremacy” and endangers the rights of the non-Jewish population in Israel? It does nothing of the sort. All the law says is what we already assume to be the case: Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, it aims to facilitate the ingathering of the exiles, its capital is Jerusalem, and Hebrew is its official language, though Arabic also has a special status such that it is on all public signage, for example.
Israel’s 1992 Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty enshrined Israel’s democratic character into law, while this one enshrined its Jewish character. Because Israel was designed to be both Jewish and democratic, it only makes sense for there to be two separate basic laws to maintain that duality.
Just like any other multiethnic democracy, there certainly is racism against minorities in Israel. Moreover, it is impossible to seriously consider the views of certain members of Israel’s ruling coalition as anything but grossly racist (see Itamar Ben-Gvir’s exaltation of mass murderer Baruch Goldstein and Bezalel Smotrich’s desire to destroy Arab villages). These views, while unconscionable, fundamentally un-Jewish, and worthy of condemnation, are not even close to representing most Israelis, though. Their influence in the current coalition is a reflection of desperate political maneuvering by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — not genuine widespread infatuation with their ideas.
So, no, Israel is not a “racist” state, as Rep. Jayapal mistakenly stated. Rather, it is a state that affords all its citizens equal rights but undoubtedly has issues it must continue to work through. These issues may even be more severe than those in most Western countries, but it remains a mere difference in degree rather than a difference in kind. She was right to issue a clarification statement that reoriented her critique from one of Israel as a state to the current government.
Next, Rep. Omar revealed herself to be far more radical on Israel than most previously thought (which is pretty difficult when considering this is the person who once wrote, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel”).
Omar claimed that the Palestinian people have been occupied for 75 years. Notice the number? 75 years ago, it was 1948 and Israel was founded. But it had no control over the West Bank, Jordan did, nor did it have control over Gaza or the Golan Heights, which were controlled by Egypt and Syria respectively. Israel did not gain control of any of those areas until 1967.
As such, Omar is signaling that her real issue with Israel has nothing to do with its “occupation” of the West Bank, its blockade of Gaza, or its annexation of the Golan Heights. Rather, she views any state of Israel between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as an “occupation” of Palestinian land that must be ended.
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That is a radical position shared by terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but few others. It is even too radical for the Palestinian Authority, which allocates more than $300 million annually to a “pay for slay” pension program for terrorists yet accepts Israel’s right to exist as a state.
The ascendant hatred of Israel within certain quarters of the Democratic Party is surely worrying. That Reps. Jayapal and Omar represent the wing of the party that is widely considered to be its “future” makes it even worse.
Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.