Opinion | Enough racism, turn to Khan al-Ahmar | Israel today

As a state, we must not distinguish between secular and religious or between Arabs and Jews.

Before the law, there is no Jew and no Arab - there is a citizen.

Contrary to the Israeli myth that racism is a matter of the right, racism exists on the left and right.

Right-wing racism is, among other things, discrimination in budgets between Jews and Arabs.

Thus, for example, an Arab child in Israel receives a smaller education budget.

It has many excuses, such as the problem of corruption in the Arab authorities, but it has a clear name: discrimination and racism.

Jewish or Arab, religious or secular - all children are entitled to the same funding from the state.

Left-wing racism is the tendency to treat with puzzling forgiveness the rising rise in crime and violence in the Arab sector.

We witnessed this even more in reference to the 1947 riots. For parts of the left, it seems logical to burn synagogues and throw blocks at police officers. "They are angry," the media explained to us. But this is also racism: to treat violence by different groups differently.

Khan al-Ahmar is another story of racism in Israeli society.

This is not a matter of narratives.

The court clearly ruled that this was a pirate settlement on state land.

From that moment on, it does not matter whether it is the illegal construction of settlers or Bedouins, Jews or Arabs.

This is illegal construction, period.

But Khan al-Ahmar is also a story of lack of governance.

Could we imagine a situation in which the court in Spain ordered the evacuation of buildings and as a result the State of Israel was in a hurry to donate money for the development of the buildings?

of course not.

But that is exactly what happened in the illegal settlement.

EU-funded organizations have blatantly ignored the Supreme Court judges' decision and erected buildings on the site.

Every law-abiding, pro-governance and anti-racist person must support equal justice for Jews and Arabs, and therefore must support the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar.

It is a great pity that almost all the voices for the evacuation of the criminals from Khan al-Ahmar come from the right.

It is also a great pity that the same voices are suddenly silent when it comes to the illegal settlement of Jews.

Here are the two faces of Israeli racism.

So yes, the Foreign Ministry headed by Minister Lapid and others will warn against burning the territory and fearing severe damage to our relations with the European bloc.

But past experience shows that the world responds to cowardice and lack of governance with the most demands and more aggression.

A country that chooses to act - more precisely: not to act - contrary to its court order, for fear of "what they will say", has both lost its governance and teaches the world that it is possible and even desirable to intervene as much as possible in its affairs.

As an American activist recently told me: "I prefer to protest in front of you and not in front of Iran because it works in front of you."

It is time to do the right thing politically and morally: to act clearly against construction crimes in Israel in all sectors and stop giving prizes to criminals.

Unfortunately, the reality in the field of construction in Israel is that crime pays off.

It is time to act equitably, ignore racist considerations and now evacuate Khan al-Ahmar.