(Jewish News-UK) Maajid Nawaz - The lazy analogy that BDS rests on is with South African apartheid. But unlike apartheid-era South Africa, Arabs make up 20% of Israel's citizenry and most are Muslim. Alongside Hebrew, Arabic is an official language of Israel. An Arab-Israeli judge even convicted former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. Though many problems with integration persist - as they do with minority communities across the West - when surveyed, 77% of these Arabs expressed an overwhelming preference to remain Israeli, rather than become citizens of a future Palestinian state. The reason is obvious, Israeli-Muslims have more freedom of religion than other minorities - and even other Muslims - have in all other Middle-Eastern countries. The truth is, there is nothing unique about the Israel conflict deserving such disproportionate attention. Baluchistan, Kurdistan, Cyprus, Kashmir, and Taiwan are but a few other disputed territories not fetishized in the same manner. The writer, a British Muslim, is the founding chairman of Quilliam, a London-based think tank that works to counter Islamist extremism.
2017-03-10 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive