Middle Eastern Studies scholars in the United States overwhelmingly view Israel’s control over the West Bank and Gaza as similar to apartheid,” according to a poll conducted this month.

The survey found that 65% of professors and researchers studying the region believe this, while 80% say it will reach that point in the next ten years barring progress on a two-state solution. Those percentages are up since the last time this group of academics was polled in February, when 59% said the situation was akin to apartheid and 77% said it would become so in the near future.

Marc Lynch and Shibley Talhami, professors at George Washington University and the University of Maryland, respectively, oversaw the poll and said that the increasingly negative view of Israel was likely influenced by events in Jerusalem and Gaza last spring.

“(T)he crisis in Israel following planned evictions of Palestinian families from their Jerusalem homes showed graphically the unequal treatment of Jews and Palestinians under Israeli control,” Lynch and Talhami wrote in the Washington Post last week. “The subsequent Gaza fighting between Israel and Hamas further focused global attention.

Several significant human rights organizations, including the Israeli groups B’Tselem and Yesh Din, as well as Human Rights Watch, have come out with reports accusing Israel of apartheid — political discrimination on a racial basis — in the last 18 months.

Those claims have been met with indignation by the Israeli government and the American Jewish establishment, which tend to see them as proof of bias and double standard being applied to Israel. But proponents of the apartheid label, which has long been used by pro-Palestinian activists, argue that it accurately describes a dynamic in the occupied West Bank where, for more than five decades, Jewish settlers have enjoyed full civil and political rights denied to Palestinians living in the same area.

There is some evidence that American Jews are increasingly sympathetic to the argument that Israel is guilty of apartheid. In a July poll, 25% of American Jewish voters said they believed Israel was “an apartheid state,” with another 22% saying they were unsure.

The Middle Eastern studies scholars polled in this more recent survey had a generally dim view of the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While 43% said a two-state solution was still possible, only 3% believed it was “probable” within the next ten years and 57% said it was no longer possible at all.

Seventy-two percent said the Abraham Accords between Israel and several Arab states had hurt prospects for peace with the Palestinians, although 26% said they had advanced regional stability and 41% believed they had helped U.S. interests.

A possible American return to the nuclear deal with Iran received favorable marks from the group of academics, with 69% saying restoring the agreement would reduce the likelihood of Iran developing nuclear weapons and 65% stating that an immediate return would be “most likely to produce results favorable to U.S. interests.”

The poll, known as the Middle East Scholar Barometer, is a joint project of the University of Maryland and George Washington University. It surveyed 557 members of several major academic associations whose members study the Middle East.

In addition to questions about Israel and Iran, the survey also asked about political turmoil in Tunisia, the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved an extra $1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, following a pushback effort from Israel-critical progressives that had limited reach.

The vote Thursday was 420-9, with two voting present. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it is likely to be approved.

Israel asked the Biden administration for $1 billion to replenish the batteries depleted during its conflict with Hamas in May. The Biden administration agreed, and the Democratic leadership inserted the request into a broader spending bill this week.

A number of progressives objected, saying that they were caught off-guard by the request at the last minute. The leadership pulled the item out of the broader funding bill and set up a standalone vote for Thursday.

Pro-Israel groups anxiously tracked the vote to see how extensive the influence was of the “Squad,” the grouping of leftists in the Democratic Party who in May directed their fury at Israel during the Gaza conflict.

But most progressives in the Democratic caucus, including those who vocally opposed the insertion in the broader funding bill, ultimately backed the Iron Dome funding, which was limited to Israel’s defense system and not to any offensive artillery. The nay votes, in the end, numbered only nine and included just four members of the six-member Squad — including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who had enjoyed positive relations with many in the mainstream Boston Jewish community prior to her outspoken criticism of Israel in May.

Among other members of the Squad, Jamaal Bowman of New York voted for the funding and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York voted “present.” The “no” votes included one Republican, Thomas Massie of West Virginia.

The debate beforehand engendered a bitter exchange between one Squad member, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich, who is Palestinian American and who voted “no,” and Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., who is Jewish and chairman of the Middle East subcommittee. Tlaib called Israel an “apartheid” state and Deutch said that was “antisemitism.”

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(JTA) — Ukraine’s parliament has passed a law stating that “antisemitism and its manifestations are banned” in that country.

The law , which passed on Wednesday thanks to a majority of 283 lawmakers out of 450, is unusual in that it also proscribes antisemitic sentiment as illegal. Most countries with laws against antisemitism, such as Germany, France and the Netherlands, criminalize various expressions of antisemitic hatred but not the condition of harboring it.

The Law on Prevention and Counteraction to Anti-Semitism in Ukraine defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, expressed as hatred of Jews.” It lists examples of this, including Holocaust denial and “calling for, concealing or justifying the killing or harm of persons of Jewish origin.”

The law does not mention Israel rhetoric, but Ukraine is a cosignatory to the IHRA definition of antisemitism , which defines some anti-Israel speech as antisemitic. The bill also does not address the growing phenomenon in Ukraine of glorifying Nazi collaborators as national heroes . And it does not stipulate punishments for those found guilty of violating the law.

Six lawmakers voted against, 40 abstained and 33 were not present during voting, according to the website of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine parliament. President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish and was elected in 2019, needs to sign the law for it to become effective.

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