I was just told by a young woman at a coffee house in Connecticut that “Israel is Apartheid.” I responded that she just called me and my children racists, that’s defamation, she is listening to Iranian propaganda, and Israel has Arab Muslim judges.

Khaled Kabub is an Israeli-Arab judge. He was appointed in 2022 to the Supreme Court of Israel, becoming its first Muslim member to be permanently appointed (Abdel Rahman Zuabi was briefly a justice in 1999 on a temporary appointment).

Israel is a democratic state that offers equal rights to all its citizens, including Palestinian citizens of Israel – who make up about 20% of the population.

Religious leaders march to the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem in the interfaith march for human rights and peace on June 2, 2024. (credit: JACOB LAZARUS)
Religious leaders march to the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem in the interfaith march for human rights and peace on June 2, 2024. (credit: JACOB LAZARUS)
Within Israel, Jews and Muslims (and other religious and ethnic groups) share spaces like shopping centers, beaches, and restaurants, particularly in cities with mixed populations like Haifa, Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. This reflects a high level of coexistence within the State of Israel.

There is no Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is an Iranian-Israeli conflict fueled by jihad – holy war against Jews and Christians – as Iran pays a small minority of Arabs (Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad) to murder Jews and Christians.

Confronting antisemitism

I asked her if she had been to Israel as I moved to another table. She had no answer.

As I walked away, I asked her if she also hated Jews. She then replied that she was Jewish. I looked at her and said: “Right!”

When confronting antisemitism – try to be polite, respectful, and to engage and educate. But for those who advocate racist propaganda and display hostility (she threw my business card back at me): disengage.

If these Iranian “useful idiots” continue to harass or defame you – call the police. It’s a hate crime.

We are no longer victims!

The writer is president of Leyden Communications Israel, a crisis communications, public affairs, and digital PR organization with offices in New York and Ra’anana. He is the executive director of the Center Against Anti-Semitism and Jews Against Hate. He has served as an officer in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and as a senior media/cross-cultural communications and social media consultant to the Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, and the Israel Export Institute.