I've seen a lot of references in Mudcat to Israel as an Apartheid country. So I did some research into Arabs in Israel and found out that:

-11 Israeli Arabs serve in the Knesset, the parliament of Israel. Two of them are members of Likud, the governing party of Ariel Sharon;

-one of the nine justices on the Israeli Supreme Court is Salim Joubran, an Arab;

-The Israeli government is currently implementing a 4-year, 4 billion shekel plan to develop infrastructures in the Arab sector;

-Israeli Arabs attend and lecture in every Israeli university. In fact, prominent Arab Israeli academics such as Sari Nusseibeh were outspoken against the recent boycott of Israeli universities by the UK's Association of University Teachers;

-While Israeli Arabs are not drafted into the army, many volunteer and serve with distinction;

-Arabs occupy posts of distinctionin Israel's diplomatic corps. For example, an Arab Israeli was consul general in Atlanta and another was ambassador to Finland;

- Israeli Arabs consistently state that they'd prefer to remain in Israel rather than join a future Palestinian state. A May 2001 survey found that just 30 percent of Israel's Arab population would agree to the Galilee Triangle being annexed to a future Palestinian state. By February 2004, according to the Haifa-based Arab Center for Applied Social Research, that figure had reached 90 percent preferring to remain in Israel.

I think that anyone who calls Israel an Apartheid country is either totally ignorant or a liar.

C