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Viewpoint - January 6, 2011
Israel further institutionalizes racism toward Palestinian
citizens
by: Mel Frykberg
The Electronic Intifada
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - A number of recent
incidents discriminating against Israel's Palestinian
minority has prompted Israeli Knesset (parliament) members
to debate whether Israel is becoming increasingly racist.
Ronit Sela from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel
(ACRI) has no doubts. "Israel's democracy is under threat
as an increasingly large racist element raises its collect-
ive head. A number of racist occurrences have taken place
in a climate conducive to racism. This wouldn't have
happened prior to the current right-wing Israeli govern-
ment," Sela told IPS.
Recently an organization called Jews for a Jewish Bat Yam
(a suburb near Tel Aviv) held a protest against "assimil-
ation of young Jewish women with Arabs living in the city
or in nearby Jaffa."
"It's a local organization of Bat Yam residents, because
the public is tired of so many Arabs going out with Jewish
girls," explained one of the organizers, Bentzi Gufstein.
"In addition to the protest, we will hand out pamphlets
explaining the situation."
For all the fear of "being swamped by the Arabs," the
amount of social, political and public interaction between
Israel's Jewish majority and its Palestinian minority
remains restricted.
Professor Shlomo Hasson from the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem argues that relations between the two communities
are largely influenced by social and economic interaction.
"There is very limited integration between Israel's Arab
and Jewish citizens. Unemployment amongst Israeli-Arabs
is much higher than amongst Jewish citizens," says Orna
Cohen from Adalah, The Legal Centre for Arab Minority
Rights in Israel.
"In the public sector Arab employment is basically limited
to the health and educational sector where they work with
fellow Arabs. There is some integration in the private
sector where Arabs are employed and they are also hired
for private services," Cohen told IPS.
"There is also some mixing in mixed residential cities
such as Haifa. But there are many Jewish communities where
Arabs are refused the right to live and not allowed to buy
land," added Cohen.
"I don't know the extent to which Arabs and Israelis are
inter-dating, but that really is irrelevant."
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Several weeks ago Knesset members hotly debated an earlier
development when a number of leading Israeli rabbis signed
a religious ruling forbidding renting homes to non-Jews,
specifically aimed at Palestinians living in the Israel
town Safed, while studying at a local college.
"We don't need to help Arabs set down roots in Israel,"
said Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of the Beit El settlement. He
stated that Jews looking for apartments should be given
preference over gentiles and that the growing number of
Palestinians with Israeli citizenship were becoming a
nuisance.
Israelis who have continued to rent to Palestinians have
received threats and been publicly shamed by right-wing
organizations who have drawn up lists.
According to the Israeli news website YNet, a recent
survey shows 41 percent of secular Israelis support
municipal religious leaders' call not to rent apartments
to non-Jews, as do 64 percent and 88 percent of Israel's
traditional and Haredi Jews, respectively.
Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of the Knesset who
participated in the ill-fated Mavi Marmara attempt to
break the siege of Gaza in May, expressed outrage that
some Israeli parliamentarians were feigning shock at
recent developments.
"Three months ago the Knesset approved a law that villages
with populations smaller than 500 residents could remain
Jewish to 'maintain their cultural identity.' Furthermore,
there have been approximately ten laws passed during the
last year aimed against the Arab minority," Zoabi told
IPS.
"Israel has double standards. Some Knesset members accused
the rabbis of being racist despite the loyalty oath they
supported and passed several months earlier. This calls
for the Israeli citizenship of the Palestinian minority
to be dependent on swearing allegiance to Zionism and
Israel's Jewish character despite this conflicting with
their rights as an ethnic minority," she said.
"These rabbis authored the letter despite the fact they
are Israeli public servants and on the government payroll.
We wrote to the justice minister and got a legal injunction
asking the minister to look into the matter. We have
received no reply and nothing has been done about it,"
added Sela.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not rebuked the
rabbis. The fact that public servants are able to incite
to this degree, despite there being no major changes in
Israel's judiciary in the country's 62-year history,
speaks volumes about the current political climate in
Israel," Sela told IPS.
Adalah has meticulously documented the discrimination
against Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.
This includes more than 30 laws ranging from the law
of return applying only to Jews; the ease with which
Palestinians can be stripped of their citizenship;
under-representation in the judiciary and politics;
under-funding of Arab education and social services;
higher rates of unemployment; and inadequate access to
land and planning rights.
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