Israel: My Apartheid State…Not!

Last night I had an interesting experience visiting a hospital ER with a friend. A true eye opener for anyone visiting Israel (pun intended as we visited the emergency ocular clinic in the hospital). I absolutely suggest that you check out any hospital in Israel to see true apartheid at work! And so, it began. We entered and were greeted by Jewish and Arab Israelis at the intake desk. As we arrived so did an ambulance with medics and paramedics, a mix of women and men – Jews and Arabs. Wait, how could that be? Why was the Arab woman allowed to be a medic and wear her hijab? You have got to be kidding me! I just had to explore this situation further, so I just made sure to take everything in as the night unfolded. And now I am sharing it with you.

My friend was seen by an Israeli Jewish nurse and then referred to the Israeli Arab doctor. Wait, what? Arabs are allowed to be doctors here?! In fact, despite America’s overturning of affirmative action in 2023 (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, 600 US 181) it lives and breathes here in Israel – if you’re an Arab. Yup, med school, check. Dental school, check. Nursing school, check. Engineering school, check. Law school, check. Over time here, I learned that across the board, in universities and colleges throughout Israel, apartheid is an epic failure. My own daughter, a combat medic who served over 200 days in the army since October 7, in addition to her two mandatory years in the army, will have an uphill battle getting into med school or dental school here. Why? Because she is a Jew. On the other hand, the Arab Israeli will have a better shot at entering, having never served, and with lower grades! (Most do not wish to serve but just check out Captain Ella.) And all I had to do was look at a hospital ER treating Jews and Arabs alike to know we are failing at apartheid. (Unlike Jews who had to open their own hospitals in NYC because we were not allowed to be treated in certain hospitals – “Juden Verboten” was real there. Just look up the history of Mount Sinai Hospital.) In fact, everywhere I looked I was shocked to find the one simple fact about Israel… we suck at apartheid!

Let me tell you how I know this to be true. I recently got into an argument with a bus driver. He just cut me off and almost struck me. I just assumed he had driven a tank in the army, as we all suspect here of those bus drivers. Nope, he was an Arab too and not a former tank driver. What? Arabs can get their drivers’ licenses and work for an Israeli bus company driving Arabs and Jews alike. Even hijab wearing women are bus drivers here! Go check out the status of women in Arab countries; how they need a male escort to leave the house, how they cannot obtain a driver’s license, or even get an education, in some of those countries. And you thought we needed a Rosa Parks here for G-d’s sake?! Well, as it turns out we even have a bar named after her in the heart of Tel Aviv (Rosa Parks Bar). Seriously check it out for yourselves! Yup, go walk around Jerusalem, where they even named a street after Martin Luther King, Jr.! Messes with your narrative, doesn’t it? Israel, racist you say? Come again?

Now I can assure you that I do not live in a fantasy world. People here are a mix of different backgrounds and many religions – because there is freedom of that too here. And Ashkenzi Jews make fun of the Sephardic ones, and vice versa. Non-observant make fun of the Haredim and vice versa. We also have in our history a time in which we did not easily accept the Ethiopian Jews. But when the Marxists in Ethiopia came to kill the Jews, Israel sent planes to rescue them and bring them home! (Operation Solomon) They are here now, for more than a generation, and are part of the very fabric of our country. They are in our Knesset, our doctors, lawyers, soldiers, businesspeople, even one of our Miss Israels – yes because “black is beautiful” – even in Israel! But the world keeps calling us racists, and I just had to locate this “truth” for myself. So, I looked around only to realize what an utter lie it was. How, do you ask? As if all I wrote above was not enough. Well then back to the ER.

We waited for hours. The Jewish and Arab nurses manned the floor together. We were going to be seen by an Israeli Jewish female doctor. FYI – women can be anything they want here too! There was an injured soldier in full uniform. We certainly thought that he would be seen before all of us. There he was with his M16 hanging around his shoulder, eye itchy and red, waiting to get back to base, and I literally watched, mouth agape as the doctor calls an older Arab gentleman, Mr. Ahmed (name changed for privacy reasons), into her examination room, all while seeing the soldier right in front of her. I truly think she did not get the apartheid memo!

We live in an inverted world. That is the new word of choice – but if the shoe fits… Lately, I feel like I am living in the twilight zone, where hatred of Israel and Jews, whether Zionist or not, is spreading faster than Corona. Critical thinking is dead, and everyone parrots the Tik Tok lies to fit in, to be part of something they think is greater than themselves. And we here in Israel feel like we are shouting into the wind. I know we are failing at winning the social media war and thus, at our ability to reach the earth’s billions with truth. Maybe we should all walk around with Go-Pros and broadcast what life is really like here – maybe people will watch these live streams with as much fervor as they did the slaughter and rape of our men, women, and children on October 7.

You want to see young people being part of something greater than themselves, watch our beloved IDF soldiers. You want to see apartheid and genocide in practice, watch those videos Hamas streamed that horrific day. “Apartheid!” you chant once again. Sure, there is apartheid here in the land of Israel. Just go check out the giant red signs outside of Palestinian towns: “This Road leads to Area “A” Under The Palestinian Authority The Entrance For Israeli Citizens Is Forbidden, Dangerous To Your Lives And Is Against The Israeli Law.” I finally found apartheid here in Israel! (Palestinian Apartheid Signs) So basically entering a Palestinian town could get you killed. Yup, found the genocide too while, I was looking for its best friend apartheid!

Reality is, the person reading this blog, is probably not the one who needs to read it. But I wrote it anyway. Maybe it is how we cope here. We create things. We live. We laugh. We love. We build. We rebuild. We stand at the ready to fight the genocide coming for us all, for the entire freedom loving western world. You had better believe it. We are not the only ones Islamists are coming for. And this past Simchat Torah, the third anniversary of October 7 on the Jewish calendar, as I watched my Rabbanit and my fellow women dancing around our Torah, I noticed a young woman I had watched growing up in our shul, holding the Torah itself, with an M16 strapped across her back. Because we are now better prepared. Even if we do not win the media war, I have faith and know that we will win each physical one that comes our way. We do not accept your lies. While you scream “genocide” and “apartheid” know this: the population of Gaza has grown by roughly 59% – since Jews were forcibly kicked out from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Read that line again! We not only suck at apartheid, we suck at genocide too!

So please, do some fact checking. Please value critical thinking. Please be the black sheep amongst the millions of blind ignorant followers. Please come check out Israel. In fact, if you are gay, just as a side note – so am I. And I live here, with my partner of 21 years as a recognized married couple. Please Google gay pride parades in the Middle East. Guess what? The only two cities you will find them in are Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – both Israeli cities! And when attempts were made to hold one in Lebanon, the LGBTQ community faced tremendous safety issues. To say the least, it did not go over well. So what have we learned from this? Israel not only sucks at apartheid and genocide, we also suck at legalized homophobia. Being queer in Arab countries will get you jailed or executed. Just research it. So please, locate your nearest Queer for Palestine, or woke feminist, and share this story or just ask them to fact check and locate which river and which sea before they begin their ignorant and hateful chants. Maybe together, one person at a time, we can change their minds and make the madness stop. Until then, know this truth – Am Yisrael Chai LaNetzach! The People of Israel live forever!