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Ta-Nehisi Coates Compares Israeli Policies Toward Palestinians to American Jim Crow Laws at Campus Event
Ta-Nehisi Coates. Photo: Wiki Commons.
In his latest salvo against the Jewish state, acclaimed American writer Ta-Nehisi Coates dismissed concerns of terrorism as an Israeli excuse to enact a so-called “apartheid” regime and compared the plight of Palestinians to black Americans living in the segregated South during the Jim Crow era.
Coates sat with anti-Israel scholar Noura Erakat at Rutgers University on Monday night to discuss his frustrations about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the ongoing war in Gaza, and the “false notion” that Israel is a moral state. While describing his 10-day trip to Israel and the West Bank last year, Coates expressed disillusionment over the Jewish state’s policies in the Palestinian territories.
Coates urged journalists to stop relying on “a list of facts” when discussing Israel and instead indulge their “sense of morality.” He argued that members of the media need to display “wisdom” by embracing the Palestinian cause instead of acknowledging the historical complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The writer also attempted to draw a parallel between the modern Jewish state and the legacy of racism in the United States, asserting that Israeli concerns about Palestinian terrorism “are no different” than anti-black arguments during the height of slavery. He argued that Israeli concerns about the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which launched the Gaza war with its invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, are “just the language of apartheid” and accused the Jewish state of creating a fictional “narrative” to justify “holding half a population at a level below yourself.”
“You know that during segregation [white people] were like ‘yes, but what about the crime rates?’” Coates said.
“I used to think, ‘wow, who could be the person who could actually argue for segregation?’ I’m talking to them. I’m talking to them now,” Coates added in reference to supporters of Israel.
Coates then claimed that the dynamic between Israelis and Palestinians represents “that same story of white supremacy globalized.” He claimed that American institutions “have to lie about” Israeli policies on marriage, land use, and freedom of movement, arguing that otherwise US policy toward the Jewish state, the lone democracy in the Middle East, would have to change.
“You don’t really have the intellectual politics yet to accept that [Israeli apartheid] as fact. The denial almost has to happen,” Coates said.
The writer also called Zionism “disturbing,” claiming that when Jews established the modern state of Israel they did not “seek to eliminate” the same forms of oppression they suffered from. He asserted that Jews in Israel largely cared to “empower themselves” at the expense of the Palestinians.
In recent months, Coates has embarked on a media tour to promote his new book , The Message. The book, which details Coates’s singular 10-day trip to Israel in 2023, has come under heavy fire over its biased depiction of the country as an “apartheid” regime and its refusal to acknowledge the various terrorist threats looming over the Jewish state. The book did not mention Hamas, the violence committed against Jews during the First or Second Intifada, or any of the previous peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
In October, Coates engaged in a heated on-air debate with Jewish CBS news anchor Tony Dokoupil regarding the content of The Message, in which Dokoupil grilled the writer over his omission of the various terrorist groups threatening Israel and refusal to engage with the pro-Israel perspective. Dokoupil’s pointed questioning of Coates drew outrage from CBS News staffers and much of the broader media landscape.
The post Ta-Nehisi Coates Compares Israeli Policies Toward Palestinians to American Jim Crow Laws at Campus Event first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.