Israeli Racism in Theory and Practice

MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
MEMO
Israeli Racism in theory and practice

Report October 2009
Middle East Monitor (MEMO) A briefing paper published in October 2009 by Middle East Monitor 419-421 Crown House North Circular Road London NW10 7PN United Kingdom ISBN: 978-1-907433-03-0 Paper written by Zulaikha Abdullah Tel: +44 208 838 0231 Fax: +44 208 838 0705 email: info@memonitor.org.uk website: www.memonitor.org.uk Front cover photo: A graffiti covered wall in Jerusalem highlighting the depth of anti-Arab Racism among Jews in Israel. Source:
the Palestine Chronicle.
Design: Golden Vision, Beirut, Lebanon
Israeli Racism in Theory and Practice Zulaikha Abdullah
TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction Racism for a reason is nonetheless racism Zionism Jewish Ideology Religiously inspired racism The fallacy of a democracy The Apartheid analogy Racism inside Israel Racial Cleavage among Jewish Israelis Anti-Black racism Racist Indoctrination through the Education System Personally Mediated [Popular] Racism Racist Edicts and Propaganda Ethnic Cleansing and the Silent Transfer of Population Religious Persecution Institutional Racism Racism and the Law Racism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories Colonialism Conclusion
1 3 4 6 8 10 13 18 19 23 26 28 30 31 33 35 37 40 41 43
Israeli Racism in Theory and Practice Middle East Monitor | A Report | October 2009
INTRODUCTION
Anti-Semitism is no longer the hatred of and discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group; in the age of Zionism, we are told, antiSemitism has metamorphosed into something that is more insidious. Today, Israel and its Western defenders insist genocidal anti-Semitism consists mainly of any attempt to take away and to refuse to uphold the absolute right of Israel to be a Jewish racist state.1 At the United Nations World Conference against Racism held in Durban in 2001, there was significant focus on Israels discriminatory practices and treatment of Palestinians coupled with renewed debate analogous to UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 which in 1975 equated Zionism with racism. Such focus no doubt reflects the growing world-wide consensus and repulsion at these practices. Humanitarians and human rights defenders the world over, from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Jimmy Carter and Noam Chomsky, in accordance with international law and numerous UN resolutions, condemn Israel as a military occupation implementing racist policies against the nonJewish populations both inside its territory and those it occupies. Yet, meaningful public debate of this pressing issue remains taboo and its very existence is generally ignored - the US stormed out of the Durban conference decrying it as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic while the EU refused to pass judgment. During deliberation of the 1975 Zionism is racism resolution in the UN, Israel itself conceded that it discriminated against Arabs, but argued
for the need and overriding probity of establishing a Jewish state for displaced Jews.
RaCISm fOR a ReaSON IS NONeTHeLeSS RaCISm
This paper explores the foundations, justifications and manifestations of Israeli racism within Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The endemic and near universal phenomenon of racism directed against nonJews in a celebrated democratic society such as Israel cannot be easily explained away. From religious zealots to staunch secularists to the politicians who brazenly declare their unwavering support for Jewish Supremacism and the Judaization of Palestinian land, it is entrenched. Racism, xenophobia and discriminatory practices and policies in Israel stem from a variety of underpinnings - most significantly religious and ideological; they must both be explored if the world view they create and express is to be understood.
ZIONISm
Political Zionism as a European movement that sought a solution to the Jewish problem and a self- confessed analogue to other European national liberation movements, particularly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, postulated that Jews were a people or a nation and should therefore gather together in a national homeland. As a national movement however, it was unique in that the majority of the proposed national group did not live in the claimed national territory and any nation state could only be achieved through return or immigration. Initially, there was no clear notion of a specific territory and countries including Uganda were considered options for settlement. The first public claim to a Jewish state did not have the crucial support of Jewish Orthodoxy and many secular Jews rejected the idea that Jews constituted a nation. Nevertheless, by the time of the Balfour Declaration (1917), political Zionism evolved into a burgeoning nationalist movement claiming to speak on behalf of the Jewish people and laying exclusive claim to Palestine on the grounds that it was the historic Jewish national homeland. Religious Zionism retrospectively traces its beginnings back to the 19th century, yet as late as the 1930s Zionism was regarded as blasphemous; a disbelief in Gods salvation and power and thus a rebellion against Him. Conversely, the first chief rabbi of British mandatory Palestine, Rabbi Abraham Kook re-interpreted the scripture to suit his political agenda, fusing the religious and secular and thus creating a nationalism based on divine imperative and sanctifying Zionism. Successes
in the 1967 war cemented the alliance and silenced dissent as the capture of land was hailed as a miracle and proof of Gods backing. The result was a messianic and militaristic upsurge; a conviction that the beginning of the redemption was being witnessed and thus it would now be a sin to return any of the land2. Radical, fundamentalist groups such as Gush Emunim and followers of Meir Kahane later emerged and went on to form the National Religious Party a potent political force in Israel. The protean creed of the Zionist movement has continued to constantly evolve, transform and reconstitute itself from a mish mash of influences; prevailing European and North American social cultural and political trends of the 19th and early 20th centuries such as nationalism, colonialism, socialism and bolshevism, as well as Judaism and changing Jewish ideological influences and considerations.
JewISH IDeOLOgy
Israels grand strategy and much of its politics is largely incomprehensible to foreign observers. This is due in no small part to its secular veneer belying the ideological motivations behind policies such as its aggressive expansionism, prolonged occupation, settling Jews on Palestinian land, its apartheid character and its attitude toward affording the most basic human rights to those under its effective control. Not to mention religiously based chauvinistic, exclusivist concepts such as the redemption of land, routinely taught in schools, and applicable to the whole land of Israel whereby land is purified or returned to Judaism by virtue of its passing from non-Jewish to Jewish ownership and control. This, rather than security considerations, is what dictates the expropriation of land and official Judaisation plans3. That is not to say that Israeli politics is not guided by imperial strategic considerations based on presumed interest. However, the more the Jewish character of Israel is being reinforced, the more its policies become guided by Jewish ideological considerations firmly rooted in religious beliefs and less by rational ones. The parochialism, racism and hatred of non-Jews as depicted in some Biblical texts undoubtedly influences many Jews consciously or sub-consciously and finds expression and continuity in the way Israel treats non-Jews. In the case of secular Jews, historical rights take the place of ideology but which are themselves derived from religion and retain its dogmatic character. The pervasive influence of religion may be illustrated by the self-proclaimed atheist David Ben Gurion who, in a
seemingly bizarre announcement to the Knesset in 1956, stated that the real reason for the Suez War was the restoration of the Kingdom of David and Solomon to its Biblical borders. A concept based on the notion that any land ruled by a Jewish ruler in ancient times or promised to the Jews by the Bible should belong to the Jewish state by right. The most extreme interpretations of those borders include all of Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus and large parts of both Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Far right national-religious groups such as the influential Gush Emunim consider the conquest of these lands a divinely commanded act. The validity of the concept, in principle, is almost universally accepted and objections to conquest by war are only on pragmatic grounds. In 1993, Ariel Sharon formally proposed that the Biblical borders concept be adopted as official policy.4 The outcome of Israeli policies sanctified by religion, secularised religious principles or religious ideology are the same as with any other ideologically motivated regime Israel is not unique in this regard. The resultant chauvinism, racism and xenophobia should be approached in the same way as any other. However, the smokescreen which surrounds it, created by propaganda, deception, the unwillingness of so many to confront the truth and through the thwarting of open discussion and critique, the prevailing totalitarian mindset among many Israelis and their western supporters alike is nurtured.
ReLIgIOUSLy INSpIReD RaCISm
A non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness5 Currently, Israels definition of racism excludes what appears to be the most virulent form of all religiously inspired racism. The strong political and social influence of religion and religious groups within Israeli society and on Israeli politics, as evidenced by the space given to religious discourse by the Hebrew press, cannot be overstated. As such, an understanding of the Halachic and Talmudic tradition governing the relationship and difference between Jews and non-Jews is paramount to understanding the anti-Arab racism plaguing Israeli society. The late Lubovitcher Rebbi, Manachem Mendel Schneerson of the popular Chabbad religious movement, taught that given that God has chosen the Jews, the body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of [members] of all nations of the world though it may outwardly appear to be of the same substance. The difference being that their bodies are in vain. An even greater difference exists in regard to souls. A non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness. In summary, the difference appears to be A Jew was not created as a means for some [other] purpose; he himself is the purpose, since the substance of all [divine] emanation was created only to serve the Jews. In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth [Genesis 1:1] means that the heavens and the earth were created for the sake of the Jews, who are called the beginning.
This means everything, all developments, all discoveries, the creation, including the heavens and the earth are vanity compared to the Jews. The important things are the Jews, because they do not exist for any [other] aim; they themselves are [the divine] aim.6 More recently, the Rabbi Manis Friedman, who reputedly helped Bob Dylan into a relationship with the Chabbad, when asked how he thought Jews should treat their Arab neighbours wrote: The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women and children (and cattle), He argued that if Israel followed this wisdom, there would be no civilian casualties, no children in the line of fire, no false sense of righteousness, in fact, no war. He goes on to say I dont believe in Western morality, he wrote. Living by Torah values will make us a light unto the nations who suffer defeat because of a disastrous morality of human invention.7 Religious rulings pertaining to non-Jews in matters such as murder, genocide, the saving of life, hostility and violence, abuse and religious intolerance, the boycotting of Arab labour, ceding Jerusalem to Arabs, the social status afforded non-Jews under Jewish control, attitudes toward non-Jews living in the Land of Israel and much besides are all profoundly racist.8
THe faLLaCy Of a DemOCRaCy
There should be one law for the Jew and another for the Arab [Chaim Weizmann]9 The two overarching principles that define any democracy are equality and freedom expressed by all citizens being equal before the law, having equal access to power and being able to enjoy freedoms and liberties protected by a constitution. While respecting the will of the majority, one of its prime functions is the zealous protection of the fundamental rights of individuals and minority groups. Inscribed in the Basic Law of Israel, which functions as its unwritten constitution, and at the very core of the Zionist creed lies an immutable commitment to the Jewish character of the state and to the safeguard and propagation of the mechanisms by which it seeks to ensure its enduring Jewish character. No political party that opposes this principle or proposes to change it can be elected to the Knesset. The ramifications of this for non-Jews are immense as it ensures they will never be equal before the law. The state establishes who a Jew is for purposes of law and grants preferential legal status, rights and privileges including financial benefits to all Jews all over the world over and above its non-Jewish citizens. Israel officially belongs exclusively to persons defined by law as being Jewish. The 1952 Citizenship Law grants automatic citizenship to all those wishing to immigrate to Israel and the Occupied Territories in accordance with the Law of Return which limits immigration strictly to those defined legally as Jewish while at the same time creating impossible
Israeli Racism in Theory and Practice
10 Middle East Monitor | A Report | October 2009
Computer Engineer Ahmed, 42, standing in front of his home in Gaza, demolished by Israeli bulldozers. Source: Save the Children
obstacles to the return of Palestinian refugees. This clearly reflects Zionisms belief in an inherently superior right of the Jew to the land which no other group possesses along with a right to exclude other groups from it based on ethnicity. This attribution of a superior status to a Jew and an inferior one to a non-Jew inexorably leads to discrimination. While all citizens of the state have the right to vote in elections, certain other rights termed nationality rights are reserved exclusively for those defined as Jews. Israel firmly separates itself from other countries that practice racial discrimination in that its racism is constitutional and an organic part of its legal framework. The plethora of discriminatory laws enacted by Israel since its inception pervade every aspect of the lives of non-Jews living under Jewish control. Citizens of the state and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories alike
Israeli Racism in Theory and Practice Middle East Monitor | A Report | October 2009 11
given that the effects of Israeli law inevitably extend extra territorially manifesting themselves in such ways as the privilege shown to Jewish settlers. Against the backdrop of a purportedly ethnic blind democracy, the Jewish identity of Israel is legally and politically indefensible and flies in the face of the most basic principles it claims to represent and uphold. By definition, a democracy cannot exist for only one community within a multi-national, multi-religious state.
THe apaRTHeID aNaLOgy
Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one progressive, liberal in Israel; the other cruel injurious- in the occupied territories. In effect we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day. This is the harsh reality that is causing us to lose the moral base of our existence as a free, just society and to jeopardize Israels long-term survival.10 From George Jabbours Settler Colonialism in South Africa and the Middle East published in1970 to Amneh Badrans Zionist Israel and Apartheid South Africa published in 2009, scholarly parallels have long been drawn between Zionist Israeli practices in Palestine and South African apartheid. If Israel, like the Dutch Afrikaners in South Africa, is viewed essentially as an occupation as a settler-invader society with a colonial mentality, it follows naturally that it would be inherently discriminatory as the genesis of any occupation is the abrogation of the rights of those it occupies. Apartheid is distinguished from other forms of discrimination by its systematic, institutionalised and oppressive character and the purpose of the domination entailed. It is where policies and practices of racial segregation and discrimination combine to form an institutionalized system of racial discrimination that has not only the effect but the purpose of maintaining racial domination by one racial group over the other11 similar to those practiced in South Africa. Israels designation
The West Bank Wall. Source: Palestine Solidarity Society, the University of York.
as a state for Jews which privileges them by law and regulates this racism through acts of parliament and other
Palestinian children behind bars at an Israeli checkpoint. Source: tadamonpalestinianchildren.com
means, while relegating non-Jews to fourth class citizens clearly satisfies this within the state. Within the Occupied Territories, Israeli practices exceed by far the brutality of those seen in South Africa. Apartheids prohibition and criminality is enshrined in customary international law. The Apartheid Convention cites the following six categories of inhuman acts as comprising the crime of Apartheid; 1. Denial of the right to life and liberty 2. The deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause the physical destruction in whole or part 3. Measures calculated to prevent a racial group from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country and to prevent the full
development of a group through the denial of basic human rights and freedoms 4. Division of the population along racial lines 5. Exploitation of labour 6. Arrest, imprisonment, travel bans and targeting of parliamentarians, national political leaders and human rights defenders as well as closing down of related organizations. Within Israel itself, the citizenship and entry into Israel laws; differences in political rights, voting and representation of the Palestinian population; differentiated national identification cards; differences regarding ownership of land, property and business; inferior access to education, work, accommodation, health, social, sporting and cultural amenities and pensions; differences in infrastructure and transport, travel and movement between Israelis and Palestinians and a virtual monopoly on military and security forces12 all highlight a limitation in the citizenship rights of non-Jews and underscore the unabashed systematic and institutionalised nature of the discrimination that reduces non-Jews to fourth class citizens. In the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), all but two of the categories are satisfied and it is clear Israel appears to be implementing and sustaining policies intended to maintain its domination over Palestinians in the OPT and to suppress opposition of any form to those policies13 a system of control including separate roads, inequities in infrastructure, legal rights and access to land and resources between Palestinians and Israelis constitutes a system of apartheid.14 Other practices include the creation ghettoised prisons, ethnic cleansing, bulldozing of homes, targeted assassinations, massacres,
imprisonment and torture of opponents, use of excessive force against civilians and collective punishment. John Dugard, a South African professor of international law and Special Rapporteur to the United Nations on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories asserts, Can it be seriously denied that the purpose [] is to establish and maintain domination by one racial group (Jews) over another racial group (Palestinians) and systematically oppress them? Israel denies that this is its intention or purpose. But such an intention or purpose may be inferred from the actions described15 Other similarities between Zionism and Apartheid include the use of biblical narrative as its justification, the utilisation of the colonialist racist claims that the land being occupied was devoid of inhabitants and marriage laws aimed at safeguarding racial purity. The fundamental difference between Zionism and Apartheid is that the Apartheid regime was willing to concede portions of South Africa as belonging to Black people. These cantons or Bantustans were officially considered sovereign states embodied with all the symbols of sovereignty. However, the sacred principle of Zionism which asserts that the land of Israel belongs only to Jews means that to grant Palestinians autonomy or sovereignty in any part of the land would violate this principle and would be forbidden. Additionally, the concept of Redemption of the Land demands that the whole land of Israel be redeemed16 and is linked to the redemption of the people. The manifestations of Israeli racism within its borders and in the Occupied Territories will now be examined in two separate sections below.
Section 1:
RaCISm INSIDe ISRaeL
Racism is a word that I have feared using until now, because I did not believe that it could exist in Israel in 2007, but the time has come to call a spade a spade. Israeli society is profoundly infected by racism and unfortunately there is no suitable punishment for racism in Israel. [Avi Maspin, a spokesman for The Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews]
RaCIaL CLeavage amONg JewISH ISRaeLIS
We do not want Israelis to become Arabs. We are in duty bound to fight against the spirit of the Levant, which corrupts individuals and societies, and preserve the authentic Jewish values as they crystallized in the [European] Diaspora. [David Ben Gurion]17 From the inauguration of the Zionist enterprise in Palestine, and in common with other societies characterised by mass immigration, Jewish society has been fragmented. It is composed of competing and divergent groups divided by fierce tensions and rivalry. The rifts within this deeply sectarian society are based on national, ethnic, religious, cultural, political and socioeconomic factors contrary to unity and integration.18 In a bid to create a collective identity intended to consolidate one Israel19, the Ashkenazi ethnocentric Zionist elites ideas for social integration or Israelisation focused on immigrant populations. The overriding approach in creating this normative Jewish identity was to force immigrants to melt or assimilate into a perceived model society and the dominant culture. The gold standard of Israeliness and the hegemonic culture of Israel became that of the white Eastern and Central European Ashkenazim. The problem with assimilation was that ideas such as nation, patriotism or historical memory leave the newcomers outside of the normative boundaries. Immigrants did not experience the holocaust, pogroms
or fights in the wars of independence. Thus, the national identity is established by means seemingly pure and homogenous customs and practices. Mizrahim, Ethiopians and Arabs are excluded from this. A rigid hierarchy highly racialised both within and between religious or national groups orchestrates Israeli social life. Much of it is legally enforced.20 Consequently, there are levels of citizenship dictated largely by racial considerations. At the very top of the citizenship pyramid are the Ashkenazim followed by the Mizrahim or Sephardic Jews who originate from the orient the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Within this layer, there is discrimination depending on the specific country of origin. At the very bottom of the Jewish pyramid are the Ethiopians who are black. Below them yet are the Arabs, Christians and Druze. Racism and social stratification between ethnic groups is well established and sharply divides the population. The explicit discrimination initially faced by immigrant Mizrahim was based on a disdain for their heritage; some cultures were considered Arab or Levantine and thus corrupt, backward and primitive. They were spoken of disparagingly by politicians and it was perceived that they needed to modernise in order to assimilate into society21. Discrimination was also based strictly on skin colour, and the darker skinned Mizrahim were subject to verbal abuse being called Kushim or niggers22. This gave rise to ethnic neighbourhoods as housing as well as employment is allotted along racial lines. As late as August 2009, Sephardic students in the settlement of Emmanuel were being physically segregated from their Ashkenazi peers. Different entrances were set up for the two groups, plaster walls were erected inside the school and fences were constructed in the courtyard to separate the populations. In addition, the girls were instructed to
Young activist as US confirms boycott of UN Conference on racism.

Source: www.ccun.org
wear different school uniforms based on their ethnicity.23 Especially disturbing was the treatment of immigrants from Yemen. In the infamous Yemenite Babies scandal, the Zionist leadership was implicated in the kidnapping of Yemeni children who were given up for adoption in Ashkenazi families while their real families were given death certificates and no corpses. Similar, was the scandal that came to be known as The Ringworm Children which involved immigrant children from North Africa secretly being given high doses of radiation therapy to treat fungal ringworm. Many continue to suffer severely debilitating and often terminal illnesses as a result of the states actions which reflect a criminal sense of racial superiority inherent in Zionism.24 The apparent second class status of Mizrahim caused
younger generations to rebel and in the 70s the Black Panther Movement of deprived Mizrahim was formed25. A gradual change in their social standing was partly achieved on the back of their efforts and accomplishment within the army. Jewish National interest and goals appear to transcend all other differences and act as a galvanizing force and a point of universal consensus.
aNTI-BLaCk RaCISm
Some of the Turks [i.e. The Mongol race] and nomads in the North, and the Blacks and the nomads in the South, and those who resemble them in our climes. And their nature is like the nature of mute animals, and according to my opinion they are not on the level of human beings, and their level among existing things is below that of a man and above that of a monkey because they have the image and the resemblance of a man more than a monkey does.26 Having followed Jewish customs since the twelfth century, Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel, from 1984 onwards, on the basis of the Israeli Law of Return although they were refused aliyah until 1973 as they were not recognised as Jews until then. Much like the Mizrahim, they faced overt racism and discrimination and intense pressure to assimilate into the hegemonic structure. Moreover, since the nineteenth century they have been subjected to cultural colonialism and have since then slowly adopted European normative Judaism including the Talmudic-rabbinic traditions and the oral law. On arrival in Israel, the Jewishness of the Ethiopians was brought into questioned with the Chief Rabbinate demanding they undergo humiliating ritual immersion or symbolic conversion ceremonies. The authority of the Kes, the respected religious leadership of the community, was totally rejected and the children are made to attend religious schools in order to complete their conversion. 90% of Ethiopian immigrant children and adolescents were raised in closed boarding schools, literally cut off from their pasts and communities and where the values
Falasha Jews in Israel demonstrating against the racism and discrimination they face. Source: tseday.wordpress.com
of the integrating society were forcefully instilled in them in an effort to transform them into western style Jews and then Israelis. They were even given new Israeli names. This incredibly traumatic onslaught which practically stripped them of their uniqueness and guaranteed them a marginal and inferior status within society left the younger generation affronted, rebellious and confused and led to the formulation and emergence of a new self-identification in opposition to the hegemony.27 On a day to day basis, the discrimination faced by the Ethiopian minority is a collective phenomenon. Organisations concerned with equality and justice for Ethiopians receive hundreds of complaints yearly. Discrimination ranges from veteran Israelis not wanting to sit next to them on the bus, bus drivers not wanting to carry them, verbal abuse and being called Kushim or niggers to unequal work and housing opportunities and
Ethiopian veterans being treated differently from other veterans. Schools regularly discriminate against Ethiopian children by refusing to admit them to classes or removing them from classes at the behest of other parents. In 2007, four students studying at an elementary school in Petah Tikvah were completely segregated from their peers being placed in a classroom by themselves and assigned a teacher to teach them all their subjects. They were even assigned different recess hours and given cab fares home so as not to overly socialise with the other students.28 In 1996, a newspaper report stated that an Israeli blood bank had thrown away Ethiopian blood donations for the past 12 years out fear that it was infected with HIV. This led to large scale protests and violent clashes an eruption of the pent up feelings of frustration and discrimination felt by the Ethiopians for a long time. The Chief of Jerusalem District Police labelled the demonstrators young savages and the Ministry of Defense announced it would continue with its policy as Ethiopians constituted a risk group along with homosexuals and drug users.29 For many Ethiopians, the Blood Affair highlighted the difference between race and ethnicity or ethnicity and religion and signalled a critical turning point for the younger generation and the beginning of a struggle for recognition in the form of everyday resistance. According to the 2009 Mossawa Report, there has been a 150% increase this year in racism directed toward Ethiopians during football matches.
RaCIST INDOCTRINaTION THROUgH THe eDUCaTION SySTem
I pray for you to come back home safe and to kill at least ten for me; Disobey orders and annihilate them. And remember that the good Arab is the dead Arab.; Let Palestinians, may God blacken their name, rot in fire. Make holes in them with your M16 and shell them with bombs.30 Text books used as part of the official curricula in Israel are designed to systematically indoctrinate school children and to instill hatred in them toward Arabs by effectively dehumanising them; by nurturing notions of otherness and difference and through the creation of negative stereotypes. Photographs, literature and history are all too often manipulated to serve dubious political goals and to etch a form of racism into the psyche of successive generations that leads to the worst extremism. Caricatures in school books depict Arabs, among other things, as being uncivilised, untrustworthy, pusillanimous, grovelling, evil, violent and treacherous; as lowlifes who have contributed nothing to humanity. In a story entitled Dust of the Edge, one Jew advises another; Arabs are like dogs. If they see you confused, dont react to their provocation so as to avoid being attacked by them. But if you decide to beat them, they will run away like dogs!31 The subsequent stereotyping of Arabs and racist moulding of many Jewish children happens at an early stage in their development and is an issue of unanimity among Israeli researchers in this area. In a survey cited in Adir Cohens An Ugly Face in the Mirror, 75% of the 4th
A Placard from a demonstration in Sydney showing Israeli children tagging bombs meant for Lebanese children during the 2006 war. Source:
Possum News Network.
-6th graders polled described Arabs as murderers who kidnapped children and as criminals and terrorists while 80% said they saw them as being dirty with terrifying faces. By the time pupils become teenagers many racist ideas and attitudes have crystallised as evidenced by a poll carried out of 600 fifteen to eighteen year olds. 60% of those asked supported the idea of expelling all Arabs from Palestine, 40% expressed support for underground movements seeking revenge on Palestinians, 50% considered it a necessity to limit the financial rights of Arabs to an absolute minimum and 56% rejected that they were completely equal to Arabs.
peRSONaLLy meDIaTeD [pOpULaR] RaCISm
Dont believe an Arab, even one who has been in his grave for forty years.32 The Arabs are worms. You find them everywhere like worms, underground as well as above.33 We have Arabs like garbage.34 One of the most conspicuous and incontrovertible expressions of how pervasive the individual racist attitudes and sentiments of Jewish Israelis toward Arabs have become, is evidenced by statistics gathered in opinion polls. They highlight a sharply escalating trend toward extreme bigotry and show that on an individual level most Jews are distrusting of Arabs considering them a danger. An astonishing 50% of Jewish Israelis now support the idea of forced transfer of population or ethnic cleansing while 40% advocate apartheid and the physical separation of Jewish and Arab quarters by separation walls in cities with mixed populations. Approximately 50% experience fear when they hear Arabic being spoken despite it being an official language of the state, while 31% feel hatred and disgust. 75% are no longer prepared to live in buildings inhabited by Arabs and 50% are unwillingly to work in jobs where their direct supervisor is an Arab. 56% are in favour of segregation in places of entertainment, 40% are in favour of disenfranchisement from elections, 51% believe intermarriage is tantamount to treason to the state and the Jewish people and 56% believe Arabs constitute a demographic and security risk to the Jewish character of the state.35
A graffiti covered wall in Jerusalem highlighting the depth of anti-Arab Racism among Jews in Israel. Source: the Palestine Chronicle.
Over the last year, there has been a 1,000% increase in documented violent attacks against Arab citizens often perpetrated by organised gangs of youths. In many instances, victims have had to be evacuated from their homes for fear of repeat attacks. The lack of an adequate police response has lead to large scale confrontations between communities. Six murders have occurred this year alone.36
RaCIST eDICTS aND pROpagaNDa
What was once the reserve of nutcases on the right, the talk backers and the loony-listeners to the call-in radio programs, is now politically correct, in the heart of the consensus, the dernier cry in the violent and overheated Israeli discourse.37 Public statements evincing the ugliest facets of undisguised racism are rife within Israeli society. Ominously, these sentiments and notions are no longer restricted to the far right; rather, those who do not hold such views are becoming increasingly marginal. The body of evidence in support of this is overwhelming and comes from every cross section of public life; journalists, university lecturers and professors, researchers and policy makers, government legal advisors, ministers of parliament, prime ministers and rabbis. During the War against Gaza and in the build up to this years elections, there was a notable increase in racial incitement by politicians.38 Given that not one of these public figures has been castigated or shunned for publicly expressing such ideas and the impunity and regularity with which they are heard, it may be fair to say that the state operates a policy of condoning anti-Arab racism in the public domain and that a large majority of Jewish citizens hold congruent views. Statements reflect notions of Jewish genetic, cultural and religious superiority to Arabs who are spoken of as being sub-human and are often likened to animals in what may be described as a concerted effort to de-humanise them and thus justify in the general consciousness, the stripping away of their basic human rights and liberties.
eTHNIC CLeaNSINg & THe SILeNT TRaNSfeR Of pOpULaTION
We must expropriate gently, the private property on the estates assigned to usWe shall try to spirit the penniless [indigenous] population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries whilst denying it any employment in our own countryBoth the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.[Theodor Herzl] Racist statements, notions and proposals made by politicians are sometimes masked behind seemingly harmless expressions such as Exchange of land and population transfer. These are in fact among the gravest of all, as in reality they propose the ethnic cleansing of Arabs and assert the necessity of eliminating them from the Jewish state. Such suggestions are often justified on security grounds given that the Israeli Arab population is almost invariably seen as a time bomb, an existential threat as a cancer and a fifth column within the state. They are espoused by politicians of every ilk; from right to left in all political parties and on all levels. A few such examples are Ehud Barak, Benyamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Liberman to name but a few. In 1948, approx 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes resulting in the Palestinian Diaspora. Additionally, there are approximately 30 documented massacres and evidence of the depopulation and destruction of 530 villages. Nevertheless, the Zionist entity failed in its preconceived and carefully orchestrated goal of creating a demographically homogenous state.
The result was the Arab problem approximately one million Palestinians within the state. Various solutions to the problem have been sought including voluntary transfer packages in the form of financial incentives. Massacres and forced expulsion continued until as late as 1956 and such ideas are actually gaining currency among the general population39. Religious notions of the land belonging exclusively to Jews along with the racist colonialist stance that Palestine was an uninhabited desert allows for the indigenous population to be cast as unwelcome strangers and for the state to disguise its abhorrent goal as a simple form of resettlement.
ReLIgIOUS peRSeCUTION
The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites40 Since 1948, more than 1,000 mosques have been destroyed in an organised and systematic assault on the religious freedoms and cultural rights of Palestinians in Israel. Muslim and Christian sanctuaries are not legally recognised and are therefore afforded no security. Jewish citizens are free to simply lay claim to Muslim and Christian holy sites and the law allows for their desanctification and conversion for various uses. Across Israel numerous mosques are constantly violated being used variously as animal pens, restaurants, pubs or Jewish only places of worship. Alternatively, many others are simply made inaccessible to worshippers by being designated closed zones. Muslim worshippers are harassed on their way to prayers, they are prevented from praying in certain holy places, mosques are demolished when renovations are attempted, they are defaced by Jewish citizens, and the call to prayer is prohibited in numerous mosques. Both Christians and Muslims holy books have been burnt and they have been insulted. Needless to say, new mosques are not allowed to be built leading to justifiable claims of religious persecution41. The property of the Waqf or the Islamic system of endowments which constituted 6.2% of Israel, as well as the property of the Christian church is routinely confiscated and transferred to the state. Similarly, Muslim burial sites are claimed by the state which exhumes the bodies before bulldozing the sites and using them for other purposes. Muslims are prevented from burying their
dead in certain cemeteries. This all boils down to state sanctioned denial of fundamental civil rights and liberties.
INSTITUTIONaL RaCISm
Systematic racist policies and practices within Israeli institutions dominate public bodies, corporations and universities setting up barriers within the economic and social sphere; in employment and professional advancement, access to decent housing as well as underrepresentation and racial profiling by security and law enforcement agencies are all manifestations of this phenomenon. A disproportionately low number of Palestinians are employed by the state and there is a virtual Jewish monopoly over the police and security forces. Since 2008, there has been a 300% increase in the number of reported assaults by police and security forces on Palestinian citizens along with a worrying number of unprosecuted murders.42 The GDP of the average Palestinian is $6,756 compared with $19,150 for Jews. In 2005 Arabs received about 5% of the public development budget, less than 4% of the education budget, 1% of the housing budget, 1% of the agriculture and rural development budget, 2% of the tourism budget and 8% of the welfare budget. Per capita, the amount of welfare spent on Palestinians was less than 30% of that spent on Jews. As a result, there are three times as many Palestinian families living below the poverty line than Jewish families and 50% of poor children in the state are Arab.43 The differentiated government spending on Arab and Jewish students is critical and there is a huge shortfall in both preparatory and secondary classrooms. Within higher education, discrimination takes the form of seemingly harmless university bylaws which specifically
Palestinian woman picking her way through a rubbish strewn and sewage filled street in Gaza. Source: climateprediction.net
target and disadvantage Arab students and thus significantly reduce their numbers. 80% of all student drop outs are Arab.44
RaCISm aND THe Law
After 1966, military rule was lifted from Palestinians living in Israel; however it was replaced by a barrage of Jim Crow-like laws aimed at maintaining the demographic and material hegemony of the Jewish population. Each year, the Knesset proposes and introduces new discriminatory bills that violate the rights of its Arab citizens based on nationality such as those that would link the right to vote to and receive state allowances to national service. 12 such laws have been passed since 2008 alone. Among the most devastating have been the 1950 Law of Return and Absentee Property Law. The Law of Return prohibits all Palestinians expelled from the land that became Israel in 1948 from ever returning to their native homes, whether to live or visit, while unconditionally granting citizenship to all Jews immigrating to the state. Numerous laws relating to land have allowed for the expropriation of 80% of the land under current Israeli control from Palestinians and its transfer to Jewish ownership. Racist marriage laws prohibit Palestinians from the Occupied Territories from living with their spouses in Israel while a temporary law bans marriage between Jews and Palestinians from the Occupied Territories. En vogue of late are laws pertaining to the blatantly racist character of Israel as a Jewish state. Instead of new Knesset members having to declare loyalty to the state of Israel and its laws soon they will be required to declare loyalty to the Jewish, Zionist and Democratic State of Israel, its symbols and its values. Those applying for citizenship to the state will have to make
Palestinians during the Nakba. Source: Palestinehouse.com
similar declarations. Needless to say, such stipulations contribute to the delegitimisation of Arab political leaders and the communities they represent. There are new laws threatening imprisonment to any one who dares deny that Israel is Jewish and democratic. Similar laws are being discussed that will prohibit anyone from advocating a bi-national state and yet another to imprison for 3 years anyone mourning the Nakba. These have been described as a factory of racist laws with a distinct fascist odor.45 Arabs also face discrimination before the law with regard to judicial sentences and judgments. Reports show that Palestinians are given 20-30times harsher punishments than Jews when committing the same crimes. In some instances Palestinians were given sentences of up to five
years for crimes which were unpunished when committed by a Jew and a Palestinian accused of attacking a Jew was found to be 63% more likely to be convicted than a Jew accused of attacking an Arab46. Almost all cases that deal with equal rights for Arabs brought before the Israeli Supreme Court have been dismissed.
Section 2:
RaCISm IN THe OCCUpIeD paLeSTINIaN TeRRITORIeS gaZa aND THe weST BaNk
If not the roof beams, destroy the foundations Attack Lebanon and also Gaza with plows and with salt, destroy them so no inhabitant remains. Transform them into barren desert, piles of rubble kill them, spill their blood, frighten the living.47 Since the Six Day War of 1967, Israel has been the belligerent Occupying Power in the West Bank [including East Jerusalem] and the Gaza Strip. Its assertions to the contrary have been categorically rejected by the international community and the occupied status of the Palestinian territories is confirmed by the International Court of Justice (2004) as Israel continues to exercise effective control over these territories. Extensive recent studies clearly demonstrate that the illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories has become a colonial activity which implements a system of apartheid. Both are considered particularly serious breaches of the law as they contravene fundamental values of the international legal order.
COLONIaLISm
There can be no discussion of a voluntary reconciliation between us and the ArabsAny native peopleview their country as their national homeland They will not voluntarily allow, not only a new master, but even a new partnerColonization can have only one goal. For the Palestinian Arabs this goal is inadmissible. This is in the nature of things. To change that nature is impossiblecolonization can, therefore, continue and develop only under the protection of a force independent of the local population an iron wall which the native population cannot break through. This is in toto, our policy towards the Arabs. To formulate it any other way would only be hypocrisy. [Vladimir Jabotinsky,]
By definition, colonialism prevents, and aims to prevent, a people from exercising freely its right to determine its own future through its own political institutions and in pursuit of its own policy.48 Acts of a colonial power have the cumulative outcome that it annexes or otherwise unlawfully retains control over a territory. It is condemned by The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples [1960] in all its forms and manifestations. Within the Occupied Territories, all the principal modes for the expression of the Palestinian peoples right to self determination have been denied by Israel49. The five key issues that prove Israeli occupation has become a colonial endeavor are: 1. Violating territorial integrity of Occupied Territory 2. Depriving the population of capacity for selfgovernance
3. Integrating economy of Occupied Territory into that of Occupier 4. Breaching the principle of permanent sovereignty over natural resources in relation to Occupied Territory 5. Denying occupants right to freely express, develop and practice their culture The territorial integrity of Palestine is violated through a number of means; the forceful annexation of East Jerusalem; the construction of Jewish only settlements and a bypass road system prohibited from use by Palestinians and which connect settlements in the Occupied Territories to Israel; the construction of the apartheid wall which divides Palestine into cantons and separates between Palestinian communities as well as between Jews and Arabs. The wall which follows a path delineating areas of the West Bank from which Israel can withdraw without relinquishing control over key water resources also deprives Palestinians of 40% of the West Bank and thereby violates both the territorial integrity of Palestine as well as the economic dimensions of selfdetermination. Through the creation of a customs union and by other means, the economy is further subordinated to that of Israel. Additionally, it implements an illegal, unjust and inequitable water management and allocation system which favours Israel and the settlers and denies Palestinians the right to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources. The political will and authority of the Palestinian people is frustrated by Israel which retains ultimate physical and administrative control and thereby violates the populations right to self determination. Hebrew and Jewish cultural references are given preference while the cultural development and expression of the Palestinians is hindered.50
CONCLUSION
The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination states that the term racial discrimination shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.51 Accordingly, there can be no doubt that Israel is a profoundly racist state. Racism is a corner stone of Zionism in Israel rooted in its religious and ideological foundations, guaranteed by its Basic Law and systematically institutionalised through acts of parliament and the practices and policies of the state. It reaches beyond sectarian differences, is pervasive and comprehensive manifesting itself in popular attitudes, words and actions and adversely affecting the civil liberties of all non-Jews living in Israel. Zionisms racist supremacist notions have provided the intellectual and moral justifications for its occupation, colonisation and apartheid like regime in Palestine. At the heart of this institutionalised inequality is the desperate desire to maintain the demographic, political and material hegemony of Jews over non-Jews in a theocratic state that favours them in all ways.
eNDNOTeS
1 Recognising Israel, Israels right to be racist, Joseph Massad, Al-Ahram weekly, 15-21 march 2007 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Zionism 3. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, The Weight of Three Thousand Years, Israel Shahak, Pluto Press, 2002, pg 7-13 4. Ibid. 5. The National Religious Party and the Religious Settlers, Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, 1999, Chapter Four http://www. geocities.com/alabasters_archive/nrp_and_settlers.html 6. Ibid 7. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091469.html 8. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, The Weight of Three Thousand Years, Israel Shahak, Pluto Press, 2002, pg.75-99 9. Massa Vamaas http://books.google.co.uk/books?id= I2PYTmFwQxcC&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&dq=cleavag e+among+jews+in+israeli+society&source=bl&ots=PCpT1HZKB&sig=HX9zdn8w44s-oV9LR-qIIKWWHkE&hl=en&ei=WzWBSvrQBpHMjAe4_YiCCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=re sult&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=true 10. Michael Ben Yair, Former Attorney General of the State of Israel, Haaretz, 3/3/02, cited in Obstacles to Peace, Jeff Halper, 2004 p.50 11. Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of Israels practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under International law, HSRC, Cape Town, May 2009, pg 10 12. Ibid. pg 10-13 13. Ibid. 14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_ analogy 15. Ibid.
16. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, The Weight of Three Thousand Years, Israel Shahak, Pluto Press, 2002 pg. 100-101 17. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6679.shtml 18. The Cleavage between Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens, Ephraim Yuchtman-Yaar and Zeev Shavit in Jews in Israel, Contemporary Social and Cultural Patterns, Brandeis University Press, 2007, Uzi Rebhaum and Chaim I. Waxman, Editors. 19. Ibid 20. http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=215 21. Edot HaMizrah Israels Oriental Jewish Communities, Norman Berdichevsky, 2009 http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/42775/ sec_id/42775 22. The Life of an American Jew in Racist-Marxist Israel, Jack Bernstein, 1984 23. http://www.vosizneias.com/36288/2009/08/06/israel-highcourt-ashkenazi-charedi-school-must-end-discriminationsephardim/ 24. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=25d_1229924128 25. Edot HaMizrah Israels Oriental Jewish Communities, Norman Berdichevsky, 2009 http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/42775/ sec_id/42775 26. Guide to the Perplexed, written by eminent Jewish theologian and philosopher Moses Maimonides, cited in Jewish History, Jewish Religion; The weight of Three Thousand Years, Israel Shahak, Pluto Press 2002, pg. 25 27. Being a Black Jew in Israel: Identity Politics in the Posthegemonic Era, Uri Ben-Eliezer, University of Haifa, 2007 http://www.american.edu/israelstudies/whatsnew/papers/Uri. htm 28. Haaretz.com, Segregation at Patah Tikvah School, 8/12/2007
29. Being a Black Jew in Israel: Identity Politics in the Posthegemonic Era, Uri Ben-Eliezer, University of Haifa, 2007 http://www.american.edu/israelstudies/whatsnew/papers/Uri. htm 30. Excerpts, published by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper [7/5/2002], from letters sent by Israeli school children to IDF reservists in Ramallah. 31. Curricula of Education in Israel and Negation of the Other, Iyad al-Qurra, Islam online, 11/1/2004 32. A Statement by the Likud member of Knesset Yehiel Hazan; Amnon Barzilia, Haaretz, 25/02/2004 33. Ibid. 34. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas Party; Maariv newspaper, 13/11/2003 35. The Israeli Racism, Palestinians in Israel; A Case Study, Abbas Ismail, al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and consultations, 2009, pg. 38-43 36. Mossawa Centre, the Advocacy Centre for Arab Citizens of Israel, Racism Report 2009. 37. Gideon Levi, Haaretz newspaper, 10/06/2007 38. Mossawa Centre, the Advocacy Centre for Arab Citizens of Israel, Racism Report 2009. 39. The Israeli Racism, Palestinians in Israel; A Case Study, Abbas Ismail, al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and consultations, 2009, pg. 63-83 40. Rabbi Manis Friedman, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/ spages/1091469.html 41. The Israeli Racism, Palestinians in Israel; A Case Study, Abbas Ismail, al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and consultations, 2009, pg. 83-91 42. Mossawa Centre, the Advocacy Centre for Arab Citizens of Israel, Racism Report 2009. 43. The Israeli Racism, Palestinians in Israel; A Case Study,
Abbas Ismail, al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and consultations, 2009, pg. 31-38 44. For Jews Only: Racism Inside Israel, Max Elbaum, 2000 http://www.colorlines.com 45. Uri Avineri , The other Apartheid State 46. The Israeli Racism, Palestinians in Israel; A Case Study, Abbas Ismail, al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and consultations, 2009, pg. 53-56 47. Extract from a poem written by Ilan Scheinfeld, from Gideon Levi, Haaretz newspaper, 10/06/2007 48. Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of Israels practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under International law, HSRC, Cape Town, May 2009. pg. 8 49. Ibid. 50. Ibid. pg 8-9 51. United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination NEW YORK 7 March 1966

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