Racism in Israel: Difference between revisions

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Racism in Israel has been identified in a variety of contexts: Jewish discrimination against Arabs, Arab discrimination against Jews and Blacks, and discrimination between groups of Jews, such as Ashkenazi discrimination against Jews from Yemen, North Africa, Iberia, the Middle East, Ethiopia, and India. Organizations such as Amnesty International and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), and the United States Department of State^[1] have published reports identifying racism or discrimination in Israel.

Israel has one of the broadest anti-discrimination laws of any country. The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status, or sexual orientation. The law also prohibits discrimination by both government and nongovernment entities on the basis of race, religion, political beliefs, and age.^[2]

Many, including former Canadian MP I. Cotler and Author Raphael Israeli has observed a recent trend to brand Israel as a "racist" country as part of a campaign to defame and ostracize Israel as the 'Jew' among states.^[3] The singling out of Israel for racism has itself been criticized,^[4] and protested at the UN by Western nations^[5][6] as a form of racism in itself.^[7] Some describe the discrimination practiced by Ashkenazi towards other groups of Jews as class-based, not race-based.^{[citation needed]}

See also Israeli anti-arabism

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) published reports documenting racism in Israel, and the 2007 report suggested that anti-Arab racism in the country was increasing. Israeli minister charged the poll as biased and discredited.^[8] One analysis of the report summarized it thus: "Over two-thirds Israeli teens believe Arabs to be less intelligent, uncultured and violent. Over a third of Israeli teens fear Arabs all together....The report becomes even grimmer, citing the ACRI's racism poll, taken in March of 2007, in which 50% of Israelis taking part said they would not live in the same building as Arabs, will not befriend, or let their children befriend Arabs and would not let Arabs into their homes."^[9] The 2008 report from ACRI says the trend of increasing racism is continuing.^[10], However a Jerusalem Post article explained that Israeli Jews are suffering from violence by many Israeli Arabs^[11], and are genuinely worried, not racists.^[12]

Some authors, such as David Hirsi and Ayala Emmet, have criticized the Israeli media for anti-Arab prejudice.^[13][14] The Israeli media has also been described as racist in its portrayals of Arabs and Palestinians ^[15] by critics of Zionism.^[15]

Israel's education system has been sometimes been described as biased or prejudiced against Arabs.^[16][17]

In 2001, Human Rights Watch issued a report that stated: "Government-run Arab schools are a world apart from government-run Jewish schools. In virtually every respect, Palestinian Arab children get an education inferior to that of Jewish children, and their relatively poor performance in school reflects this."^[18][19][20]

Funding for schooling has been reported as discriminatory against Arab students: a 2009 study from the Hebrew University's School of Education demonstrated that the Israeli Education Ministry's budget for assistance to poor students "severely" discriminated against Arabs. It also showed that the average per-student allocation at Arab junior high schools was one-fifth the average at Jewish ones.^[21]

The Follow-Up Committee for Arab Education notes that the Israeli government spends an average of $192 per year on each Arab student compared to $1,100 per Jewish student. The drop-out rate for Arab citizens of Israel is twice as high as that of their Jewish counterparts (12 percent versus 6 percent). The same group also notes that there is a 5,000-classroom shortage in the Arab sector.^[22]

See also Zionism as racist

Some critics of Israel equate Zionism (the political movement to re-create the state of Israel) with racism, or describe Zionism itself as racist or discriminatory.^[23] However, supporters of Zionism assert that the movement is non-discrimanatory and contains no racist aspects.

Some critics of Israel have described the Law of return as racist because it discriminates against Arabs.^[24]

Israel's Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law has been described as discriminatory against Arabs because it effectively makes it difficult for Arab citizens of Israel from marrying with the same privileges as Jewish citizens.^[25][26] The law has been condemned by Amnesty International as "racial discrimination".^[27]

The Mossawa Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel reported a tenfold increase in racist incidents against Arabs in 2008. Jerusalem reported the highest number of incidents. The report blames Israeli leaders for the violence, saying "These attacks are not the hand of fate, but a direct result of incitement against the Arab citizens of this country by religious, public, and elected officials."^[28]

During the latter part of the Arab riots in October 2000 events, thousands of Jewish Israelis counter-rioted in Nazareth and Tel Aviv, throwing stones at Arabs, destroying Arab property, and chanting "death to Arabs".^[29] Haaretz editorialized that that year's "Yom Kippur will be infamous for the violent, racist outburst by Jews against Arabs within Israel".^[30]

The Bedouin claim they face discrimination and have submitted a counter-report to the United Nations that disputes the Israeli Government's official state report. They claim they are not treated as equal citizens in Israel and that Bedouin towns are not provided the same level of services or land that Jewish towns of the same size are and they are not given fair access to water. The city of Be'er Sheva refused to recognize a Bedouin holy site, despite a High Court recommendation.^[31]

Israeli Arabs complain of racism and discrimination and community leaders have said they will draw up a list of grievances. The decision to draw up this list was taken after the terrorist attack of Eden Natan-Zada. "This was a planned terror attack and we find it extremely difficult to treat it as an individual action," Abed Inbitawi, an Israeli-Arab spokesman, told The Jerusalem Post. "It marks a certain trend that reflects a growing tendency of fascism and racism in Israeli society generally as well as the establishment towards the minority Arab community," he said.^[32]

Often Israeli-Arab soccer players face chants from the crowd when they play such as "no Arabs, no terrorism".^[33]

Abbas Zakour, an Arab Member of the Knesset, was stabbed by an immigrant gang speaking Russian-accented Hebrew who shouted anti-Arab chants. The attack was part of a "stabbing rampage" and was described as a "hate crime".^[34]

A 2009 PEW poll showed 90% of the Middle East view Jews unfavorably. Polls show overwhelmingly negative attitudes toward Jews in Arab and Islamic countries, with more than 90% of Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese and Palestinians expressing unfavorable views toward Jews. However, "only" 35 percent of Israeli Arabs said they disliked Jews. ^[35][36]

Data from a 2007 poll shows that 76% of Israeli Arabs call Zionism "racism", 48% support Hezbollah's attacks on Israel, and 28% deny that the Holocaust happened.^[37]

In 2009, a University of Haifa's poll showed that Holocaust denial was widespread among Israeli Arabs and showed it on the rise from 2007.^[38] 40% of Israel's Arab citizens deny theHolocaust. Only 41% of Arab citizens recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, down from 65.6 percent from a previous poll.^[39]

Among the brazen attacks (amid a worrisome involvement of Israeli Arabs in terrorist attacks directed against Israeli Jews^{[clarification needed] [11][40]}) are the 2008 bulldozer attacks ^[41], described by a writer:"He took the bulldozer, with which he fed his own wife and family, and used it to crush other families to death, simply for being Israeli Jews."^[42] On July 7, 2008 a writer in Israel's lefty paper Haaretz ^{[unreliable source?]} asks: "If justifying the murder of innocents because they belong to a certain hated group is not abject racism, I'd like to know what is."^[43]

One important Arab anti-Jewish riots was in Oct 2008, on Yom Kippur, when an Arab driver drove dangerously in Jewish neighbourhoods causing clashes, incited by calls from the mosque ^[44], Arabs ran riot through Jewish areas of the city. "Calling "Death to the Jews" and Allah hu akbar ("Allah is great"), the rioters vandalized hundreds of Jewish-owned shops and vehicles, and threw rocks at people on their way to or from Yom Kippur prayers."^[45][46]

During the course of monitoring elections in 2009, a Member of the Knesset (MK) replaced another Jewish election monitor at the Israeli-Arab town of Umm El-Fahm, who was prevented by police from entering the city because of threats by local Arabs on his life. as soon as the MK began to perform his duties, an Israeli-Arab mob rioted outside attacking the guards and shouts of “Death to the Jews!” could be heard.^[47]

Journalist Ben-Meir wrote: "What's racist is denying the Jewish people a state of their own. Certain Arab Knesset members talk incessantly about the Palestinian people's rights, including their own state. But in the same breath they refuse to acknowledge Israel as the state of the Jewish people and deny the very existence of a Jewish people as a nation with national rights." he goes on to say that those deserving racist epithet are such Arab Member of Knesset (MK), who attended the conference of hate in Geneva and called themselves "victims of Israel's racist apartheid" while serving as a member of the Israeli parliament.^[48] Such prominent Arab leaders as Arab member of Knesset A. Tibi was suggested, by some as being racist.^[49]

The head of the Islamic movement in Israel's Northern Branch, was charged with incitement to racism and to violence. During legal proceedings, the prosecution said that Sheikh Raed Salah made his inflammatory remarks "with the objective of inciting racism."^[50][51] he also accused Jews of using children's blood to bake bread.^[52] In Umm el-Fahm – the heartland of the Islamic Movement’s Northern Branch, Salah is a hero, “Salah is our leader, not just here, but for all the Arabs in Israel.” explained an Arab resident. His movement is a faction of the regional Muslim Brotherhood.^[53]

Arabs have been accused of racism towards blacks. An Arab Bus driver was charged with racism as he said to an Ethiopian: "Drink milk and you'll be white."^[54] In August 2010, an Israeli-Arab, Elias Abuelazam has been accused of racist attacks against blacks - African-Americans.^[55]

Jewish Israelis of European or German ancestry (Ashkenazi) are described as viewing themselves as superior to Jewish Israelis of other ancestries, and of maintaining an elite position in Israel society,^[56][57] and some describe the attitudes of Ashkenazi as racist or racism.^[58]

However, Some academic sources identify discrimination aimed at Jewish groups as class-based, not race-based. For example, the differences between (Mizrahi) Sephardic Jews (N. Africans, Middle Easterners, Yemenites, etc.) are referred to as Adatiyut ^{[59][60][61][62]} community-differences (resulting also in some traditional customary gaps).^[63]

Some sources claim that reports of inter-Jewish discrimination in Israel arise from propaganda published by Arab sources which ignores the normality and harmony between the communities.^[64][65]

Ashkenazi Jews in Israel, particularly of the Orthodox movement, have been alleged to discrimate against Sephardi Jews (Jews of Spanish or Portuguese ancestry) and view them inferior.^[66] However, some claim that this discrimination is class-based, not race-based.^{[citation needed]}

Examples of such attitudes have been reported in the school system, where Sephardi students are sometimes excluded, or are segregated within the school building.^[67][68]

Israeli society has been described as harboring racist views towards Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent, knows as Mizrahi Jews or Oriental Jews.^[69]

Some claim that the education system discriminates against Jewish minorities from North Africa and the Middle East, and one source suggests that "ethnic prejudice against Mizrahi Jews is a relatively general phenomenon, not limited to the schooling process".^[70]

Secular Israeli Jews of European descent were accused of collaborating in the disappearance of babies of Yemeni Jews and anti religious motives and Anti-religious coercion were alleged ^{[71][72][73][74]}, some have added that some racist motives were alleged. In 1950s, the Israeli government as well as other organizations in Israel were accused of kidnapping of between 2,400 and 10,000 children from their recently arrived Yemeni families. In most instances, the parents claim that they were told their children were ill and required hospitalization. Upon later visiting the hospital, it is claimed that the parents were told that their children had died though no bodies were presented or graves which have later proven to be empty in many cases were shown to the parents.^[75][76][77]

Dov Levitan, a scholar on Yemenite immigration at Bar-Ilan University, said he found "no evidence of an organized conspiracy" to kidnap "Yemenite children for adoption" and he attributes the disappearances to negligence, the daily skirmishes on Israel's border, severe economic difficulties, and "mass immigration" that strained the country's resources creating dysfunction and "disorganization" in the new Israeli government. however he did admit to Israel's secular regime secularizing the Yemenite children.^[78]

Authorities in Israel have been accused of racism in relation to Jews of Indian ancestry (called Bene Israel).^[79][80] One instance of alleged racism was the 1962 ruling by the Chief Rabbi of Israel that reportedly discouraged marriage between Indian Jews and Jews of European descent.^[79][80]

However, instance of alleged discrimination may actually be related to the fact that some religious authorities believe that the Bene Israel are not fully Jewish because of inter-marriage during their long separation.^[81]

Israeli society, particularly the Ashkenazi majority, has been accused of racism against blacks of Ethiopian origin (Beta Israel).^[82] Racism was alleged regarding delays in admitting black Ethiopian Jews to Israel under the Law of return.^[83]

However, alleged discrimination may have had religious motivations, since there was debate whether or not Falasha Jews' (Beta Israel) were genuinely Jewish,^[84] as they might have have intermarried with local non-Jewish Ethiopians during the long years of separation.

Racism was alleged in a situation where school children of Ethiopian ancestry were denied admission into schools in the town of Petah Tikva. An Israeli government official said "for years, racism has developed here [Petah Tikvah] undeterred".^[85] Anti-Zionist Gideon Levy^[86] has elaborated on the case in great length.^[87]

Israel has a law that prohibits incitment to racism.^[88]

According to the State Department, "Israel has one of the broadest anti-discrimination laws of any country. "The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status, or sexual orientation. The law also prohibits discrimination by both government and nongovernment entities on the basis of race, religion, political beliefs, and age."^[2]

The Anti Defamation League states: "There is no Israeli ideology, policy or plan to segregate, persecute or mistreat its Israeli Arab citizens, nor Palestinian Arabs," it goes on in saying that Israel is a democracy which encourages vibrant debate, which has a flourishing free press and which shares with other liberal democracies a core value: the equality of all its citizens before the law.^[89]

• Human rights in Israel
• Israel and the apartheid analogy