Guest post: Daily life in Israel is simply not like that

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May 14, 2026

Originally a comment by Stewart on The row over.

I’m afraid my conscience won’t permit me not to react to the suggestion that Israel has anything like South Africa’s apartheid (I am not a Zionist and my nearly thirty years lived experience of Israel between 1976 and 2005 were not something I ever wished upon myself).

Israel has Arabs and Muslims in high positions, including an Arab Christian judge (George Karra), who sentenced a former – Jewish, obviously – President of the State (Moshe Katsav) to prison. That kind of thing (of which there is plenty, though not all as dramatic as the example above) leaves comparisons to South Africa in tatters.

Yes, both sides have their racists and religious fanatics and yes, those on the (Jewish) Israeli side have been clawing away with alarming success at gaining more political and legal power, especially in the last decade or so, but for any comparison with South Africa to hold water there must be actual laws that say “Arabs/Muslims may not” do something or that only Jewish Israelis have certain rights or privileges. Daily life in Israel is simply not like that and anyone who has spent a reasonable amount of time there cannot take the apartheid accusation seriously.

The two societies may not mix much but it’s certainly not illegal, nor are marriages between Muslims and Jews, though the Interior Ministry will only recognise those that took place elsewhere (no such thing as a civil, non-religious, marriage can take place inside the country, so mixed-religion marriages are not possible there). I remember when the suburb of Neve Yaacov on the outskirts of Jerusalem was new (my father lived there for a while) that it was unpopular with some because there were also Arab families living there. My guess, in general, would be that Jewish Israelis have a far greater fear of entering Arab-only areas than the reverse.

Comments

5 responses to “Guest post: Daily life in Israel is simply not like that”

Deep Thinking

May 14, 2026 10:18 PM

Yes, both sides have their racists and religious fanatics and yes, those on the (Jewish) Israeli side have been clawing away with alarming success at gaining more political and legal power, especially in the last decade or so, but for any comparison with South Africa to hold water there must be actual laws that say “Arabs/Muslims may not” do something or that only Jewish Israelis have certain rights or privileges.

Israeli Basic Law, Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, states: “The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”
What a Maroon

May 15, 2026 7:15 AM

My understanding is that the apartheid accusation refers more to the treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank (and the expanding Israeli settlements there), rather than Israel proper.
Freemage

May 15, 2026 11:04 AM

What a Maroon is correct–my comparison was with Gaza and the West Bank, where it is clear that the residents have no rights whatsoever in the eyes of Israeli law. That said, Stewart, I greatly appreciate your insight into life inside Israel proper; it’s definitely worth keeping in mind–comparisons like this are pretty much never one-to-one, because it’s rare for history to truly repeat itself, no matter how much it might rhyme.
Lady Mondegreen

May 15, 2026 2:22 PM

@Deep Thinking

Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People…is an Israeli Basic Law that specifies the country’s significance to the Jewish people. It was passed by the Knesset—with 62 in favour, 55 against, and two abstentions—on 19 July 2018 (7 Av 5778)[2][3] and is largely symbolic and declarative in nature.[4][5][6][7][8][9] The law outlines a number of roles and responsibilities by which Israel is bound in order to fulfill the purpose of serving as the Jews’ nation-state….

In July 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was constitutional and did not negate Israel’s democratic character. Writing the opinion for the majority, Esther Hayut, the erstwhile President of the Supreme Court, stated that this “Basic Law is but one chapter in our constitution taking shape and it does not negate Israel’s character as a democratic state.” The court’s majority opinion concurred with arguments that the law merely declares the obvious—that Israel is a Jewish state—and that this does not detract from the individual rights of non-Jewish citizens, especially in light of other laws that ensure equal rights to all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Law:_Israel_as_the_Nation-State_of_the_Jewish_People
Stewart

May 16, 2026 2:27 AM

I appreciate all the comments, you all obviously do care about “getting it right” or not doing anyone an injustice. What is important, I think, is to avoid equating injustices that have more to do with (sometimes many) personal prejudices with an entire system devoted, through legal means, to enshrining a whole set of injustices.