The Real Experience of Palestinians in the Middle East

Ta-Nehisi Coates, in his 2023 book, The Message, based on a 10-day West Bank trip, makes broad claims about Israel’s treatment of its Arab citizens. He focused his rhetoric on demonstrating that Israeli practices amount to apartheid by showing parallels to past South African and Jim Crow experiences. This enabled him to view Israel as engaging in “white supremacy.” 

When it was pointed out that half of the Jewish population consists of nonwhite refugees from Arab countries and Ethiopia, Peter Beinart was quick to defend Coates: “In Israel, supremacy is based on Jewishness not (America’s) definition of whiteness. So Black and brown Jews — whatever discrimination they face — enjoy legal supremacy over Palestinians.”