ICAN Condemns Governor Newsom’s “Apartheid State” Remarks
The Israeli-American Civic Action Network (ICAN) condemns Governor Gavin Newsom’s characterization of Israel as an “apartheid state” and his suggestion that the United States reconsider military support for its closest ally in the Middle East. This is also the second time in a week that Governor Newsom has chosen to platform narratives that undermine Israel and embolden its enemies. Last Monday, he amplified unverified Iranian regime claims about a school bombing without waiting for the facts. Now he is calling Israel an apartheid state. These are not isolated missteps. They are a pattern.
These remarks are factually wrong and politically reckless. Israel is a democracy. Arab citizens serve in its parliament, on its Supreme Court, and in its military. The “apartheid state” label is not a policy critique — it is a slur that delegitimizes Israel’s existence and provides rhetorical cover to those who seek its destruction. It is also an antisemitic trope. Along with “genocide” and “settler colonialism,” the apartheid blood libel is a cornerstone of anti-Zionist ideology — language designed not to critique policy but to deny Israel’s legitimacy entirely. At a time of unprecedented levels of Jew-hatred across California and the country, deploying this rhetoric endangers Jewish and Israeli communities. That a sitting governor would amplify it for political gain is not just irresponsible. It is a failure of character.
Governor Newsom made these remarks as California faces the highest unemployment rate in the country at 5.6%, a budget deficit approaching $18 billion, and nearly 200,000 people still living on the street after $24 billion in state spending. In Los Angeles County alone, 2,508 homeless people died in 2023. He is not engaging in foreign policy analysis. He is the one running from his own record of failure.
“Governor Newsom has now twice in one week chosen to stand with narratives advanced by America’s enemies over the facts,” said John Mirisch, Chief Policy Officer of ICAN. “California was once a national leader in holding Iran accountable — the first state in the country to ban Iran-linked companies from government contracts, extending those sanctions across banking, insurance, and finance. Its governor is now lending credibility to the regime’s talking points and calling America’s closest ally an apartheid state. The Israeli-American community — a quarter million strong in Los Angeles alone — and California’s broader pro-Israel community will not forget this.”
Governor Newsom’s remarks are also a betrayal of California’s own history. California is home to approximately 250,000 Israelis in the Los Angeles area alone — the largest Israeli community outside of Israel.
In addition, previous California leaders understood the Iranian threat clearly and acted on it with a decade-long, methodical campaign of economic pressure. In 2007, California became one of the first states in the nation to divest CalPERS and CalSTRS from Iran-linked companies. In 2010, it went further, passing the Iran Contracting Act, becoming the first state in the country to ban companies doing business with Iran from state contracts. It then extended those prohibitions to banking and financial institutions, barring any bank or credit institution that extended credit to Iran’s energy sector from doing business with the state. Finally, in 2012, it required all 1,300 state-licensed insurers to divest Iran-linked holdings — resulting in a 97% reduction. The City of Los Angeles followed, voting 13-0 in 2014 to become the first city in California in full compliance with the contracting ban. These were not symbolic gestures. They were a recognition that Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its sponsorship of terrorism posed a direct threat to America, to Israel, and to the quarter-million Israelis who call Los Angeles home. It is a profound failure of leadership that the man who now governs this state no longer shares that understanding.
ICAN calls on Governor Newsom to retract these remarks immediately. California’s Jewish and Israeli-American community is watching — and will respond accordingly.