Letters to the Editor: Israeli Arabs serve in government and sit on the Supreme Court. How is that apartheid?

[Beastly Boy]

To the editor: The authors of the op-ed article, "Does Israel’s treatment of Palestinians rise to the level of apartheid?" neglect to mention that more than 20% of Israel's citizens are Arab, including Muslims, Druze and Christians. These Israelis have voting rights and are represented in every branch of government, including in the Knesset and on Israel's Supreme Court.

In contrast, neighboring countries have expelled or otherwise forced out their Jewish populations. The authors do not accuse these countries of apartheid or ethnic cleansing.

Mansour Abbas, a Muslim member of the Israeli Knesset and leader of the United Arab List, has rejected the term:

"I prefer to describe the reality in objective ways. If there is discrimination in a certain field, then we will say that there is discrimination in that specific field."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/letters-editor-israeli-arabs-serve-110041527.html

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Both sides are right and both sides are wrong.

I, personally, cannot assign right/wrong to either side.

[Beastly Boy]

5. There are no two sides to this.

There is one side accusing Israel of apartheid, and then there is reality.

[ExciteBike66]

2. Early America had both slaves and free blacks...

Yet somehow we were still a slave society...

[ShazzieB]

3. But NO blacks were allowed to vote or serve in any brabch of government until after the Civil War.

So that analogy appears flawed to me.

[brush]

6. FYI: Black soldiers served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Chrispus Attucks...

was on of the first to die in the Boston Massacre at the start of the Revolutionary War.

[ShazzieB]

7. That is correct but not the same thing.

Last edited Wed Dec 13, 2023, 05:07 PM - Edit history (1)

Black men in the U.S. did not have the right to vote or serve in public office until the passage of the 15th amendment in 1870 (no women had such rights until 1920).

(Of course, blacks only had those rights on paper in many parts of this country for a long time after that, which is what the Civil rights movement was about. But that's another whole different conversation.)

Being shot at and even killed in this country's wars does not mean blacks had even partial equality inder the law prior to the 15th amendment.

[brush]

8. You mean the 15th Amendment, right? You can take the 5th if you don't want to answer though.

[ShazzieB]

9. OOPS!

Good catch - I just fixed it.

At least I got it right in the last paragraph!

[Beastly Boy]

4. In these days, were there free blacks with equal voting rights and representation in Congress?

Are there any Palestinians who are slaves? Who owns them?

Comparing apples to pork bellies.