By a Christian Arab who lives with clarity.
One of the most widespread and emotionally charged claims made against Israel is that it is an “apartheid state” — a nation built on systemic racial domination and exclusion. Others frame Israel as uniquely discriminatory or structurally unjust by Western democratic standards.
These claims are misleading. More importantly, they are misapplied.
I am a Christian Arab. I know how the Middle East operates. I know how minorities live across the region. If we’re going to have an honest discussion about Israel, then we must begin by asking: what is Israel actually, and where does it exist?
Israel is not a Western country located in a liberal secular neighbourhood. It is a democracy in the Middle East — a tribal, religiously governed region where ethnic dominance is the norm. In that context, Israel is not perfect — but it is the most pluralistic, open, and rights-based system in the region.
To hold it to Western standards without applying the same expectations to every other Middle Eastern regime is not justice — it is selective outrage.
Response: False — and analytically lazy.
Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation. In South Africa, Black citizens were denied the right to vote, access education, or live among whites.
Israel is not remotely structured that way. Arab Israelis vote, run for parliament, serve as judges, and hold senior positions in law, medicine, academia, and business.
If Israel were an apartheid state, this wouldn’t be possible.
The accusation ignores that Arab citizens, while not fully embraced in national identity, are fully integrated into the legal and civic framework of the state. Is there inequality? Yes. But it is not apartheid — and to call it that is to deliberately erase the realities of both history and geography.
Response: True in identity — but not in legal status, and certainly not uniquely so.
Arab citizens of Israel are not considered part of the Jewish national identity. That is real. But they are still legal citizens with full voting rights and access to services. They attend Israeli universities. They build businesses. They serve in hospitals and courts.
Now compare that to the rest of the Middle East:
- In Saudi Arabia, Christians can’t build churches or worship in public.
- In Iran, Sunnis are barred from positions of influence.
- In Egypt, Copts face attacks, restrictions, and constant surveillance.
If you’re going to call Israel discriminatory, fine. But do it honestly — and across the board. By Middle Eastern standards, Israel is by far the most tolerant and pluralistic country in the region.
Response: Yes — but that’s how every nation in the region works.
Israel is a Jewish state. That means its national narrative is based on Jewish identity, history, and culture. Arabs who are not Jewish will never fully belong to that identity — and many don’t want to. But again, this is not unique to Israel.
All states in the Middle East are structured around religious and tribal dominance:
- Sunni identity dominates most Arab states.
- Iran is ruled by Shi’a clerics.
- Syria has been governed by the Alawite minority at the expense of Sunnis.
Minorities in these states don’t just fail to belong — they are actively excluded.
So if Israel’s national identity being Jewish disqualifies it as a democracy, then so does every single Arab regime in the region.
Response: This is emotionally compelling, but intellectually inconsistent.
Yes, Arabs lived in the land before 1948. So did Jews. The Jews did not invade from across an ocean. They had been present in the land for millennia. They were returning after centuries of exile, persecution, and genocide.
They gained political control through resilience, warfare, and survival — just like every modern nation-state.
If the idea of conquest and displacement disqualifies a country from legitimacy, then we must invalidate the United States, Australia, Turkey, India, and almost every other country on earth.
History is not fair. But selective outrage is worse.
Response: That’s a Western view — not a Middle Eastern one.
In Western liberal democracies, citizenship is based on loyalty to law, not national identity. You can reject Christian heritage in Australia or monarchy in the UK and still be fully accepted as a citizen.
But that model does not exist in the Middle East.
Here, identity is tied to belonging. Loyalty is expected to the national-religious framework. Whether in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, or Syria — you do not get full political protection unless you affirm the dominant identity of the state.
Israel is no exception. But unlike most of its neighbours, it allows Arabs to retain their identity while still participating legally in the system.
That’s not Western liberalism. That’s a Middle Eastern compromise. And it is far ahead of the regional norm.
Response: It cannot — and no country in its position could.
Israel is not Canada. It does not have peaceful borders. It does not enjoy strategic insulation from conflict. It is surrounded by regimes and movements that deny its right to exist and actively work toward its destruction.
If Israel liberalised in full — dropped security checks, embraced identity-neutral governance, abandoned ethnic preference — it would not survive. That’s not speculation. That’s geopolitics.
It has found a way to approximate democracy, uphold basic civic freedoms, and protect its citizens within one of the most hostile environments on earth.
Response: Because it has held itself to Western standards — and the world took it at its word.
And here is where the real clarity must be brought in.
While many unfairly impose Western liberal expectations onto Israel, it is also true that Israel itself played a role in shaping those expectations.
From its early years, Israel presented itself as a Western-style democracy. It aligned with Western powers, adopted Western legal and institutional models, and positioned itself as the lone liberal democracy in a sea of authoritarian regimes. This image helped secure U.S. military and financial support, bolstered its international legitimacy, and differentiated it from surrounding Arab states.
From a strategic perspective, this was both wise and necessary. Israel was a small state surrounded by existential threats. It needed Western backing — and presenting itself as part of the Western bloc was the clearest path to survival.
However, those early decisions now carry a cost. By framing itself as Western, Israel invited the world to judge it by Western standards. And while it shares many democratic features, it cannot consistently meet those standards, given its geography, history, and regional environment.
It is now time for Israel to mature its international identity. The world needs to hear a more accurate, honest message:
“We are a democracy — but not a Western one. We are a Middle Eastern democracy, the only one of our kind. Tribal in identity, democratic in structure, and pluralistic in ways no other state in the region dares to be.”
China, despite being an authoritarian communist state, has made its position crystal clear: it welcomes global trade, diplomacy, and engagement — but will not bend its domestic identity or system of governance to Western liberal expectations.
Let me be clear: I oppose communism, and I am not defending China’s internal abuses. What I am acknowledging is this: China set the expectation from day one. The world may disagree with it, but no one is surprised when China acts like China.
Israel, on the other hand, created a brand that it now cannot sustain — and is criticised for failing to meet the very model it never could realistically fulfill.
It is time for Israel to say:
“We welcome trade. We share values. But we are not you. We are a democracy of a different kind — and we are the best version of democracy the Middle East has produced so far.”
That level of clarity would reset expectations and disarm much of the hypocrisy in global discourse.
Israel is not an apartheid state. It is not perfect. But it is not the caricature that activists and politicians claim it is. It is a tribal, identity-based state — like every other in the region — that has built functioning democratic systems and protected pluralism far better than any of its neighbours.
It should be held accountable. But it should also be respected for what it has achieved under impossible circumstances.
If we’re going to discuss justice and governance in the Middle East, then let’s have that discussion honestly — across all borders, not just one.
Israel is not a Western democracy. It is something else.
It is the first Middle Eastern democracy — and it is time the world learned how to see it that way.