Israel's Rampant Racism, a PAJU Report

ccun.org, April 6,2008

 

A new report on racism in Israel reveals that Israel's Jewish community increasingly supports discrimination against Arabs and their deportation.

The report, by the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens of Israel, warns that ethnic cleansing and racial segregation are gaining ground and that some Jewish politicians are gaining influence based on a platform of racial hatred.

The Advocacy Center is supported by the European Commission and the United Nations. Its report examines racism against Arabs in Israel, using criteria taken from the anti-Semitism reports in Europe.

The report covers Arabs killed by the security forces and by Jewish citizens, anti-Arab incitement by leading Jewish public figures, workforce discrimination by private Jewish organizations, the barring of Arabs from public places, and the destruction of Arab property.

The report lists numerous Arab citizens killed by police, soldiers, security guards and Jewish civilians over the past seven years. By comparison, it notes that only one Jewish citizen was killed under similar circumstances during this same period.

Shockingly, indictments were issued in only seven cases and few of these resulted in the accused receiving a serious sentence.  Indeed, most cases of Arab citizens injured by Jews were not fully investigated, and the attackers were not indicted in most cases, according to the report.

However, the report says Arab violence against Jews led to immediate police action, including collective punishment in villages of the accused.

The report also highlights employment discrimination against Arabs, and government foot-dragging in enforcing anti-discrimination laws.

The report states that Arabs are subject to racial profiling at Israel's airports, train stations and on trains.

The report also addressed discriminatory legislation, mentioning no less than 10 discriminatory bills that were passed by the government in the period covered.

The report also addresses Israeli treatment of other minorities such as African refugees, foreign workers, Jews of Ethiopian, Russian and Mizrachi (Mid-Eastern) origin, and of the ultra-Orthodox.

The report demonstrates that extreme racism is common in Israel.

Adapted from “Study: Israeli Jews becoming increasingly racist toward Arabs” by Israeli journalist Avirama Golan, published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on March 19, 2008. See full text at: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/966014.html

Distributed by PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity).WWW.PAJUMONTREAL.ORG    (Françaisà)

PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity) #374 APR. 11, 2008