Some ignorant individuals regularly call Israel an apartheid state. Few have lived in Israel. In today's diary, I'll quote extensively from one of Israel's Bedouin citizens. Bedouins are Arabs. They're Muslims. If born on the other side of a border, they might be Jordanian or Saudi Arabian or Palestinian. But Ishmael Khaldi isn't Jordanian or Saudi Arabian or Palestinian. He's an Israel Bedouin.
I'd encourage each of you to drop the rhetoric fed to you by your particular affiliation, and instead listen to Ishmael's beautiful words below the fold. But first, a note on Ishmael's bio:
I was born into a Bedouin tribe in Northern Israel, one of 11 children, and began life as shepherd living in our family tent. I went on to serve in the Israeli border police, and later earned a master's degree in political science from Tel Aviv University before joining the Israel Foreign Ministry.
But this ain't any old former shepherd who got a masters. He's now the Deputy Counsel General for the Pacific Northwest. And he's got some important things to say.
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