‘Apartheid state’: Israel’s fears over image in US are coming to pass

Free Palestine advocates hold a banner that equates Israel with an apartheid state while marching on North High St, Columbus, Ohio, in June 2021. Photograph: Stephen Zenner/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

At the beginning of the year, Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid reflected on the diplomatic challenges for 2022.

“We think that in the coming year, there will be debate that is unprecedented in its venom and in its radioactivity around the words ‘Israel as an apartheid state’,” he told Israeli journalists. “In 2022, it will be a tangible threat.”