We’re American Jewish Historians. This Is Why We’ve Left Zionism Behind

[Little Tich]

76. It's a good question and you deserve an answer.

The Law of Return in Israel and all the other similar laws in other countries aren't racist in themselves, but they do become racist if and when they discriminate against other persons of other ethnicities who can make the same claim to the right of return. If someone has an ethnic/historic tie to their homeland in Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland,Serbia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Israel, but are not of the "right" ethnicity, they should be awarded the right of return nevertheless, or the law would be discriminatory. Some of the countries you mentioned are EU countries, so they've got to follow the rules of the ECHR, which would force them to adopt the law to anyone with the same claim as someone with the "right" ethnicity. for example if there was no law awarding Sephardic Jews the right of return to Spain, such a law would have to be passed if any Sephardic Jews made a petition to the ECHR.

What I'm trying to say is that if Israel was a member of the EU, the Law of Return would have to be extended to Palestinians as well, or it would be considered legal discrimination. It's already morally discriminatory and not consistent with democratic values, and one of the reasons why Israel is a racist state.

Your argument about other countries doesn't give Israel an excuse to allow some and deny others their right to reside in their ancestral homeland based only on their ethnicity.