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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.
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
TRUMP THREAT
Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
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