Civil rights group: Israel has reached new heights of racism

Yuval Yoaz and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents, 9.12.07. Racism against Israel’s Arab citizens has dramatically increased in the past year, including a 26 percent rise in anti-Arab incidents, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel’s annual report. Author Sami Michael, the association’s president, said upon the release of the report that racism was so rife it was damaging civil liberty in Israel. “Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of expression and privacy,” Michael said. The publication coincides with Human Rights Week, which begins Sunday. “We are a society under supervision under a democratic regime whose institutions are being undermined and which confers a different status to residents in the center of the country and in the periphery,” Michael said.

The number of Jews expressing feelings of hatred toward Arabs has doubled, the report stated.

According to the June 2007 Democracy Index of the Israel Democracy Institute, for example, only half the public believes that Jews and Arabs must have full equal rights.

Among Jewish respondents, 55 percent support the idea that the state should encourage Arab emigration from Israel and 78 percent oppose the inclusion of Arab political parties in the government. According to a Haifa University study, 74 percent of Jewish youths in Israel think that Arabs are “unclean.”

The ACRI says that bills introduced in the Knesset contribute to delegitimize the country’s Arab citizens, such as ones that would link the right to vote and receive state allowances to military or national service.

They also include bills that require ministers and MKs to swear allegiance to a Jewish state and those that set aside 13 percent of all state lands owned by the Jewish National Fund for Jews only.

“Arab citizens are frequently subject to ridicule at the airports,” the report states.

It says that Arab citizens “are subject to ‘racial profiling’ that classifies them as a security threat. The government also threatens the freedom of expression of Arab journalists by brandishing the whip of economic boycott and ending the publication of government announcements in newspapers that criticize its policy.”

Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh said that the report “did not take us by surprise and neither should anyone be surprised by it. Its results are the natural consequence of a racist campaign led by political and military leaders, as well as the result of the anti-Arab racist policies implemented by consecutive governments.”

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It's not racism, it's just patriotism

Arab Births Down - Jewish Births Up: No Demographic Threat

Nissan Ratzlav-Katz, IsraelNationalNews.com, 13.11.07 3 Kislev 5768. "Anyone contending that there is a demographic machete at the throat of the Jewish State is either drastically mistaken or outrageously misleading!" Recent statistics presented by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS) and the World Bank confirm the assessment of the American-Israel Demographic Research Group (AIDRG) that the demographic balance in the Land of Israel is not a threat to the Jewish majority at all; in fact, predictions of Arab population growth in the Palestinian Authority have been grossly overstated, with Jewish birthrates in pre-1967 Israel consistently increasing and Arab birthrates consistently dropping. "Israel's demographic establishment has been dramatically wrong: Demography constitutes a strategic asset, not a liability." "Since 1948, the ICBS has tended to under-project Jewish fertility, over-project Arab fertility, ignore the scope of Arab emigration and minimize the scope of potential Jewish Aliya (immigration). It has also overlooked the fact that Jewish demography has not been normative, and certainly not Western in nature. Moreover, the ICBS ignored the fact that Jews and Arabs have reacted differently to unusual economic and military developments."

Oxford Union Is Dead

Alan Dershowitz, FrontPageMagazine.com, 19.10.07. Every rational person knows that the so-called one-state solution is simply a way of achieving by demography what the Arab world has failed to achieve by military attacks: namely the destruction of Israel as a democratic, secular, Jewish state. A one-state solution would produce yet another Islamic fundamentalist state in place of the secular democracy that is now Israel. The resolution is simply another way of presenting an anti-Israel side (the one-state solution) and a pro-Israel side (the two-state solution). Not surprisingly the three debaters on the anti-Israel side are three well known anti Israel extremists. No problem there, because the one state side is the anti-Israel side. As Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of the new republic put it: “A bi-national state is not the alternative for Israel. It is an alternative to Israel.”

The one-state reality

Ben White, The Electronic Intifada, 13.11.07. To say that the "one-state solution" is impractical or equals the "destruction" of Israel is poorly concealed code for defending the indefensible and a recipe for continual conflict in a land it is impossible to partition. It is to maintain, against the odds, the Zionist fiction that Palestine was a land without a people for a people without a land. It is to entertain the fantasy that the occupied territories so comprehensively colonized by Israel can become a "Palestinian state" which isn’t apartheid in name only. Dershowitz [claims] that the "so-called one-state solution is simply a way of achieving by demography what the Arab world has failed to achieve by military attacks." "Demography" is the polite word for "people." With rhetoric that any self-respecting racial supremacist would be proud of, the Palestinians are individually and collectively categorised as a threat.

Ben White is a freelance journalist specializing in Palestine/Israel. His website is at www.benwhite.org.uk and he can be contacted directly at ben@benwhite.org.uk.

Ben White is a freelance journalist specializing in Palestine/Israel. His website is at www.benwhite.org.uk and he can be contacted directly at ben@benwhite.org.uk.

Talking in circles

Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly, 15-21.11.07. Provocations and misunderstandings abound, but Israel as a state for Jews only remains the heart of the problem. An additional but extremely important sticking point is Israel's insistence that the PA recognise Israel as a "state of the Jewish people" not just as a nation state like the rest of the community of nations. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted as saying that the starting point of all negotiations with the Palestinians would be the "recognition of Israel as a state of all the Jewish people. We won't hold negotiations on our existence as a Jewish state, this is a launching point for all negotiations," said Olmert. He added that he was sure the Palestinian leadership understood this "fact perfectly."

"We won't have an argument with anyone in the world over the fact that Israel is a state of the Jewish people. Whoever doesn't accept this can't hold any negotiations with me. This has been made clear to the Palestinians and the Americans. I have no doubt that Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad are committed to prior agreements and want to make peace with Israel as a Jewish state." Olmert said he would set a precondition for future negotiations that Palestinians recognise Israel as a Jewish state. "This will be a condition for our recognition of a Palestinian state."

But recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is viewed by most Palestinian officials as amounting to a real national suicide since it would imply granting Israel a certain right, which can be activated in the future, to expel its Palestinian citizens who constitute nearly one-fourth of Israel's population.

In addition, recognising Israel as a state for Jews implies that Palestinians would have to completely forget about the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees uprooted from their homes and villages by Jewish terrorists in 1948.

More to the point, it is very clear from statements made by Israeli leaders, including opposition leader Benyamin Netanyahu, that Israel would eventually contemplate preventing its non-Jewish population from exceeding a certain threshold in order to prevent Israel from losing its "Jewish identity".

Such manifestly racist policy might take the form of defranchising Israeli Arabs, expelling them, or imposing a limit on how many children an Arab couple can have.

"These are impossible and manifestly racist demands. We can't possibly agree that a million and a half Palestinians who are citizens of Israel won't have a permanent right to live on their ancestral land. This is like saying that the native Americans have no permanent right to live in America."

Arab leaders in Israel are also vehemently opposed to any suggestion that the PA recognise Israel as a Jewish state. Contrary to Olmert's assertions, Ahmed Teibi, an Israeli-Arab lawmaker, said he had received "clear assurances" from PA President Abu Mazen, Abu Alaa and other Palestinian negotiators that the PA "will never ever recognise Israel as a state for the Jews."

"There is complete harmony in our respective positions in this regard," Teibi told the Weekly, adding that Israel is using this issue for "political wrangling".

While on his way to Jerusalem for another round of talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei (Abu Alaa) and members of his negotiating team were held at an Israeli army checkpoint and kept waiting for nearly half an hour. The affront, which may have been deliberate, infuriated the former Palestinian Authority prime minister, who demanded that preparatory peace talks be moved to a third country.

"The Palestinian delegation is very angry. We don't go to negotiate with them in order to be humiliated. We represent the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause. This is a humiliation we can't accept. We propose never to conduct negotiations in Israel again," he later told the Israeli state-run radio.

In fact, the incident serves as an allegory caricaturing the protracted talks between the two sides, notwithstanding the numerous bilateral meetings and several "bridging" but effectively futile visits to the region by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice is due to return next week to check on progress, that is if there is any.

Of course, tens of thousands of Palestinian travellers are routinely held and humiliated at the ubiquitous Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks on any given day. But the fact that a VIP like Abu Alaa had to experience, even minimally, what is a daily nightmare for the bulk of his people, may give him a clear idea of what the occupation means in real terms.

Qurei's bout of anger, however, didn't stop him from travelling again to West Jerusalem on 12 November for more talks with Livni. But the talks failed to reach even a semblance of concordance on any of the core issues that define the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ahead of the upcoming Annapolis conference, slated to be held on 26 November.

Nurit Peled-Elhanan: «Les Israéliens n'ont pas conscience d'être des racistes»

Caroline Stevan, Le Temps, 12/09/07. Entretien avec la militante pour la paix Nurit Peled-Elhanan. L'engagement, chez les Peled-Elhanan, est une tradition familiale. Le père, Matitiahu, fut une gloire militaire de Tsahal avant de devenir un ennemi acharné de la colonisation pratiquée par l'Etat hébreu. La fille, Nurit, milite depuis des années pour bâtir des ponts entre Israéliens et Palestiniens. Les petits-fils sont des «refuzniks», ces soldats s'opposant au service dans les territoires occupés. Nurit, qui a perdu une enfant dans un attentat-suicide, a reçu le Prix Sakharov en 2001. Samedi, à Genève, la Fondation Paul K. Feyerabend lui a remis la récompense «Un monde solidaire est possible.»

Le Temps: Professeur à l'Université de Jérusalem, vous vous intéressez au contenu des manuels scolaires israéliens. Que constatez-vous?

Nurit Peled-Elhanan:L'éducation, en Israël, est extrêmement raciste. Et pas seulement à l'école; l'ethnocentrisme passe aussi par la musique, le théâtre ou les médias. Il y a toujours une distinction entre ce qui est juif et ce qui ne l'est pas. Dans les livres, les cartes d'Israël n'ont pas de frontières. La ligne verte, le mur de sécurité et les villes palestiniennes n'existent tout simplement pas. Les illustrations ne comprennent aucun visage arabe: les Palestiniens sont représentés de loin, de dos, et toujours de manière caricaturale, paysans avec des vieilles charrues ou terroristes cagoulés. On ne parle d'ailleurs jamais de «Palestiniens», mais seulement d'«Arabes». Récemment, un manuel a évoqué le «conflit sioniste palestinien» au lieu de «judéo-arabe», il a été interdit. Le problème est que les Israéliens n'ont pas conscience d'être racistes, ils pensent même être tolérants. Pour preuve, le cimetière musulman le plus ancien du Moyen-Orient va être rasé pour bâtir la Maison de la tolérance! L'indulgence existe sûrement, mais elle s'arrête aux juifs.

- Toute votre famille appartient au «Forum des familles endeuillées», mais pas vous. Pour quelle raison?

- Parce que l'impact de ces organisations est limité. Chaque réunion commence par «Pensons à nos frères palestiniens qui n'ont pas pu venir à cause des check points»... Et après? Qui va effectivement gueuler devant les check points? La seule association dont je fasse encore partie est le Comité international sur l'éducation et l'occupation, un groupement d'enseignants israéliens et palestiniens que j'ai cofondé. L'industrie de la paix est un énorme business en Israël. Il y a des fondations qui reçoivent des millions, mais à quoi bon? On fait des «recherches», on organise un camp de 15 jours avec des petits Israéliens et des petits Palestiniens. On leur demande à la fin s'ils se détestent toujours, ils répondent oui et on exige encore quelques millions, parce que visiblement ça n'a pas suffi! Cela me dégoûte. Ces organisations restent en surface, n'abordent jamais les questions essentielles comme le droit au retour des réfugiés ou la construction du mur de sécurité.

- N'êtes-vous jamais découragée?

- Bien sûr, car les autorités seront toujours plus fortes que nous. Nous avons de l'espoir, mais pas la prétention de changer les choses. Nous sommes arrivés à créer un petit monde avec nos amis palestiniens qui surpasse le racisme et les frontières, c'est déjà quelque chose. La preuve que l'on peut vivre ensemble. Et puis c'est important d'apprendre à nos enfants qu'il y a des lois qu'il faut transgresser, que le pouvoir n'est pas divin.

- Vous avez dit: «Il est temps pour nous de redevenir des mères juives.» Qu'entendiez-vous par là?

- La mère, normalement, protège ses enfants par tous les moyens et en toutes circonstances. Ici, nous les élevons pour les sacrifier ensuite à l'armée et au gouvernement. Ce n'est pas juif du tout! Le sionisme nous laisse croire que notre utérus est un trésor national, que nous sommes des machines à fabriquer des soldats israéliens. J'ai été extrêmement choquée quand mon fils aîné a été appelé à l'armée; c'est comme si on me le prenait. C'est cette voix-là qui doit aujourd'hui s'élever, la voix des mères. Beaucoup, hélas, sont fières d'avoir éduqué un combattant, y compris parmi les électrices de gauche. Décider de ne pas vouloir être la mère d'un cadavre ou d'un assassin n'est pas si évident, surtout quand il y a aussi un père.

- On dit que les négociations pourraient reprendre. Les émissaires européens et américains se pressent au chevet du Proche-Orient. Avez-vous un quelconque espoir?

- Aucun, tous ces gens appartiennent à la même mafia. Je ne crois pas en une solution couchée sur un papier coûteux par des gens en costume, que l'on ne voit
jamais dans la rue.

© Le Temps, 2007 .

Anthology of bigotry

Jonathan Cook in Nazareth, Al-Ahram Weekly, 26-1/07/07. Israel's parliament last week approved by an overwhelming majority the first reading of a bill to ensure that much of the country's inhabited land remains accessible to Jewish citizens only -- a move described by one leading local newspaper as turning Israel into a "racist Jewish state". The private member's bill, called the Jewish National Fund Law, has received cross-party support. The first reading was approved by 64 legislators, with 16 -- most of them Arab MKs -- opposed. Supporters ranged from former premiere Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party, to Ami Ayalon, a recent challenger to head the Labour Party.

The legislation is designed to nullify the threat posed by a Supreme Court judgment, reached in 2000, that potentially opens the door to thousands of Arab families leaving the tightly controlled areas assigned to them and choosing where they live. Currently Arab citizens, who comprise a fifth of the population, are barred from buying homes in most of the country.

The move is the latest in a series of battles since Israel's establishment in 1948 to ensure exclusive Jewish control of land through an international Zionist organisation known as the Jewish National Fund (JNF). By the time of Israel's founding, the JNF had bought about six per cent of historic Palestine for Jewish settlement. Rather than demanding that these territories be handed over by the JNF, the new state authorities assigned the organisation a special, quasi- governmental status. The JNF was also given a significant share of the lands and property confiscated from hundreds of thousands of Palestinians expelled during the 1948 War.

Today, the state has nationalised 80 per cent of land inside Israel, and the JNF holds another 13 per cent. Neither sells land to private owners on the grounds that it is being held in trust for worldwide Jewry. Instead, they offer long-term leases on the land in their possession.

The JNF has far more power than the division of land suggests, however: its 13 per cent share is reported to include some 70 per cent of the country's inhabited land; it effectively controls a government body known as the Israel Lands Authority that manages the 93 per cent of land owned by the state and the JNF; and it dominates committees set up to vet applicants to hundreds of rural communities.

Because the JNF charter forbids it from selling or leasing land to non-Jews, this arrangement has allowed the JNF to discriminate against Arab citizens on behalf of the government. The JNF's control of the Israel Lands Authority and the vetting committees has ensured that Arab citizens are excluded from most of the 93 per cent of nationalised land.

Instead they have been restricted to the three per cent of Israel on which Arab communities already exist or which is privately owned by Arab citizens, though even much of this land falls under the jurisdiction of Jewish regional councils that refuse to allow Arab families to build on it. Dozens of other Arab communities are classified as illegal because the state refuses to recognise them, even though they predate Israel's establishment.

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An introduction to Hebrew University, Jerusalem

Seán O'Neill. 18/07/07. Christian Peacemaker Teams. When I went to the orientation for international students at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, I expected the ethos to be pro-Israeli. However, I was taken aback by the level of anti-Palestinian propaganda and fear-mongering. If this type of misinformation and outright racism is being disseminated by Israeli universities, then they are indeed complicit in the growing apartheid regime taking hold here, making it harder and harder for Palestinian society, thousands of years in the making, to survive. The human ability not to see what one doesn't want to see is phenomenal, especially when you've been told not to look.

The first part of the orientation was about the history of Hebrew University, including how despite being "liberated" in 1967, the campus is still surrounded by 3 hostile Arab villages. Then the director of the program turned to security. He implored us all to be vigilant looking for abandoned bags both on and off campus. He said that in the evenings students should stay in big groups, reminding them of the three nearby Arab villages.

Next was transportation. "How many of you promised your parents before you came not to use public buses (for fear of a suicide bomber)?" he asked. Twenty to thirty hands, out of the two hundred people, went up. "Keep that promise," he said. He continued, "Never get on the Arab bus. It doesn't go anywhere you want to go." He warned against going anywhere in the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, recounting vague horror stories about Israeli children being kidnapped and taken into the West Bank. He qualified this however by saying that it should be all right to visit Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Curious students cautiously raised their hands "What kind of bags should we be looking for that might be bombs?" one asked. "Any bag could be a bomb," he replied. "Even if you can see through the bag and see that it is just a loaf of bread. There could be a bomb inside the bread. Arab terrorists have been known to do that." Another queried, "What if we want to go to Eilat (a Red Sea resort)? Doesn't the Israeli highway to Eilat go through the West Bank?" He reassured her, "Yes, but you'll be ok as long as you stick to good Jewish transportation.

" A third student wanted to know about Jerusalem itself. "Where is it safe to go in East Jerusalem?" (East Jerusalem is the older, Palestinian part of the city, as opposed to the newer Jewish city to the west.) "As for the Old City, you'll be all right in the Jewish quarter," he explained. "The Christian and Muslim quarters however are iffy, and at night they're not safe. As for the rest of East Jerusalem, stay away. There's just nothing for you to see there."

At this point I'd heard enough. I took my bag and left. If students follow his advice, they'll never see most of the fascinating historic parts of Jerusalem or get a sense of its unique character, shaped by thousands of years of history and culture. They'll never see the Holy Sepulcher, where Jesus is said to have been crucified, or walk the grounds of the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. They'll never hear the live Middle-Eastern music at the Jerusalem Hotel on a Friday night. They'll never see the sun set behind the golden Dome of the Rock from the Mount of Olives. They may as well not have come to Jerusalem at all.

If this type of misinformation and outright racism is being disseminated by Israeli universities, then they are indeed complicit in the growing apartheid regime taking hold here, making it harder and harder for Palestinian society, thousands of years in the making, to survive.

The human ability not to see what one doesn't want to see is phenomenal, especially when you've been told not to look.

Christian Peacemaker Teams is an ecumenical initiative to support violence reduction efforts around the world. To learn more about CPT's peacemaking work, visit our website www.cpt.org Photos of our projects are at www.cpt.org/gallery A map of the center of Hebron is at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullMaps_Sa.nsf/0/5618737E38C0B3DE8525708C004BA584/$File/ocha_OTS_hebron_oPt010805.pdf?OpenElement The same map is the last page of this report on closures in Hebron: www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/docs/UN/OCHA/ochaHU0705_En.pdf

Israeli answer to 'demographic threat' like ethnic cleansing

The racist discourse has become the norm in Israel and the Jewish world at large. It began with the "danger of assimilation" and "mixed marriages" - a supremely racist term - continued with the "danger of Haredization" and ended with the "peril of the Arab majority." Demographers and geographers constantly publish forecasts and projections, competing among themselves for the title of chief doomsayer. A putrid stench emanates from the talk about "fertility tendencies," and the government's establishment a few years ago of a "Public Council for Demography," whose members included three senior gynecologists, shows the depths of pathology to which we have sunk. Haredim (Jews of Middle Eastern descent) or Arabs - they are sons and daughters of this land. There are no democratic means to prevent them from becoming a larger portion of society in the future. Campaigns to reduce the birthrate are no less outrageous than the concepts of population transfer and ethnic cleansing. Those who want a country to their own liking here must fight for the emergence of an Israeli ethos that is shared by all elements of society, whatever their size, and discard the racist bookkeeping.

Let us share in the happiness of A., a resident of the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) neighborhood of Mea She'arim in Jerusalem who has around 450 descendants. Who cares if they are Haredi? Nor is there any need to mourn the fact that 23 percent of first-graders are Haredi and 22 percent Arabs. This is a natural development in society, and it's doubtful that any legitimate means exists to prevent it. Anyone who views this as a danger is endangering the character of society far more than the tectonic demographic shifts. If we have indeed reached "the end of Zionism," the title of a piece by Nehemia Shtrasler on these pages last Thursday, it is not because of demography but because of geography (and morality).

There is no "demographic threat." There is a threat to society's values, which will be determined not by statistics but by the amount of social justice. Talk of a "demographic threat" is not legitimate. Imagine what would happen if a discussion were held in the United States or Europe on "the worrisome natural growth of the Jews." And who here would dare consider publicly the "fertility tendencies" of the Mizrahim - Jews of Middle Eastern descent. The truly dangerous threat is the discussion itself. It attests to the development in our society of very deep racist norms, cloaked in various ways, against the minority groups among us.

Haredim or Arabs - they are sons and daughters of this land. There are no democratic means to prevent them from becoming a larger portion of society in the future. Campaigns to reduce the birthrate are no less outrageous than the concepts of population transfer and ethnic cleansing

Both the left and right are afflicted with this lethal racism, which stems from arrogance and fear of the other. The right wing is trying to scare us with dire predictions about the natural increase of the country's Arabs, while at the same time it is trying to annex 3 million Palestinians. The left, equally racist, is trying to scare us with dire predictions about the increase of the ultra-Orthodox population. From certain points of view, the racism against the Haredim is actually more serious: It uses anti-Semitic terminology and lacks the excuse of the national hostility against the Arabs.

The racist discourse has become the norm in Israel and the Jewish world at large. It began with the "danger of assimilation" and "mixed marriages" - a supremely racist term - continued with the "danger of Haredization" and ended with the "peril of the Arab majority." Demographers and geographers constantly publish forecasts and projections, competing among themselves for the title of chief doomsayer. A putrid stench emanates from the talk about "fertility tendencies," and the government's establishment a few years ago of a "Public Council for Demography," whose members included three senior gynecologists, shows the depths of pathology to which we have sunk.

Is it really important whether 3.5 million Palestinians reside in the territories, as the Palestinian Authority claims, or 2.4 million, as an American-Israeli team claims? One way or another, Israel is not granting them civil rights. Occasionally, another million Jews who "disappeared" from the statistics and preferred to obscure their Jewishness are found in the United States. What difference does it make? The future of the Jewish community will be determined far more by its members' degree of involvement than by their number, just as the future of Israeli society will be determined far more by the relations among its communities than the numerical ratio between them.

Israel is an immigrant society mixed with the native-born, a multicultural mosaic with the potential to become a just society. If the Haredim do not do army service or are not productive enough, the responsibility rests with the secular majority, which allows these phenomena. If the Arabs do not contribute enough, or are even hostile to the state, the state bears much responsibility for this. One can criticize the ultra- Orthodox and Arabs, but not enter their wombs. Children - Haredi, secular or Arab - are a joy if they are cared for properly. Their increase stems not from budgeting but from faith and values. Those who want a country to their own liking here must fight for the emergence of an Israeli ethos that is shared by all elements of society, whatever their size, and discard the racist bookkeeping.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/884512.html