Israel Shahak (1933–2001), née Himmelstaub, was a Polish Jewish Holocaust survivor, Israeli Professor of Chemistry, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, former president of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, historian, author and an outstanding anti-racist critic of Israeli policies (for biographical details see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Shahak ).
Israel Shahak on the racism of Zionism and the State of Israel (1975): “It is my considered opinion that the State of Israel is a racist state in the full meaning of this term: In this state people are discriminated against, in the most permanent and legal way and in the most important areas of life, only because of their origin. This racist discrimination began in Zionism and is carried out today mainly in cooperation with the institutions of the Zionist movement. I will prove this view by quoting facts, laws and regulations which have force in Israel (and which are known really to anybody) and are enforced by the government. I will therefore ignore the racism of the individuals in this article and also the declared or undeclared explanations by which this racism is sometimes "justified"). In the State of Israel, one who is not a Jew is discriminated against, only because he is not a Jew, in these areas of life: … In almost every area of life in the State of Israel there exists a similar racist separation between "Jews" and "non-Jews," a separation that necessarily causes discrimination. I am quite prepared to bring further examples if other opportunities will be given me. Here I want to finish with two chief conclusions:
A) I do not wish to debate any justifications for that racist policy. The most important fact is that it exists. Therefore the first step consists in admitting the truth: The State of Israel is a racist state, and its racism is a necessary consequence of the racism of the Zionist movement. Facts are facts. After this we can debate, if we wish to do so, why such a racism is "forbidden" against the Jews and becomes a good deed when it is carried out by the Jews.
B) I do know the fact that the State of Israel is not the only racist state, and similarly the Zionist organization is not the only racist organization. I know for example that the paragraph six of the 1968 Palestinian Covenant can be considered also as a racist declaration and I have said so many times to Palestinian-Arab audiences in neutral countries. Usually I encounter a great deal of sympathetic understanding. But justice begins at home. The primary duty of all citizens of Israel, and also of all those Jews in the Diaspora who define themselves as the "supporters of Israel" is to struggle against the racism and the discrimination which Zionism has established in the State of Israel, and which is directed against all the non-Jews who live in it." [1].
[1]. Israel Shahak, “ The racist nature of Zionism and of the Zionist State of Israel”, first published in Hebrew in Pi-Ha'aton, (weekly paper of the students in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem), 1975: http://www.geocities.com/alabasters_archive/racist_israel.html .