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==European or German ancestry seen as superior==
==European or German ancestry seen as superior==
Israelis of European or German ([[Ashkenazi]]) ancestry are described as viewing themselves as superior to Israelis of other ancestries, and maintaining an elite position in Israel society.<ref>Torstrick, Rebecca L., ''The limits of coexistence: identity politics in Israel'', University of Michigan Press, 2000, p 32</ref><ref>Madmoni-Gerber, Shoshana, ''Israeli media and the framing of internal conflict: the Yemenite babies affair'', Macmillan, 2009, p 54-56</ref>
Israelis of European or German ([[Ashkenazi]]) ancestry are described as viewing themselves as superior to Israelis of other ancestries, and maintaining an elite position in Israel society.<ref>Torstrick, Rebecca L., ''The limits of coexistence: identity politics in Israel'', University of Michigan Press, 2000, p 32</ref><ref>Madmoni-Gerber, Shoshana, ''Israeli media and the framing of internal conflict: the Yemenite babies affair'', Macmillan, 2009, p 54-56</ref>
==Racism in Israeli Media==
{{sectstub}}
The Israeli media has been described as racist, due to its portrayals of Arabs and Palestinians.<ref>Espanioly, Nabilia, "Nightmare", in ''Women and the politics of military confrontation: Palestinian and Israeli gendered narratives of dislocation'', Nahla Abdo-Zubi, Ronit Lenṭin (Eds), Berghahn Books, 2002, pp 108-109</ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 22:44, 7 August 2010

Israel is a state with a Jewish majority that was the result of a series of Jewish migrations in the early 20th century and the exodus of between 600,000 to 800,000 Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Today, the Arab minority constitutes about 20% of its population within the state.

Discrimination against Arabs

Although the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence[1] guarantees equality of political and social rights for all its citizens, irrespective of their race, religion, or sex, the Declaration also contains multiple references to the Jewish nature of the state.[2]

According to the June 2007 Democracy Index of the Israel Democracy Institute, 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."[3]

Law of return

See also: Law of return § Controversy

Israel's Law of return is claimed to be racist because it discriminates against persons not of Jewish ethnicity.[4]

In particular, the jus sanguinis law of the right of return which, despite Israel's otherwise restrictive immigration policies, grant every Jew in the world the right to settle in Israel. This is especially agitating[original research?] for the many Palestinian refugees, who (or whose ancestors) used to live in the territory that is modern Israel, but are denied their wish to return, which they deem a right.[5] Supporters of the law maintain that allowing a hostile majority that were adversaries in a war for Israel's independence to return would be tantamount to the political, demographic destruction of the Jewish character of Israel, and would endanger the Jewish population living there.[6]

The Article 11 of the UNGA Resolution 194, upon which the Palestinian refugees usually base their claim of a "right of return," "[r]esolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property..." without naming Israel and specifying either Palestinian or Jewish refugees.

Marriage

Civil marriage is banned in Israel, meaning that in the small number of cases where Jews and Arabs want to wed, they can do so only by leaving the country for a ceremony abroad. The marriage is recognised on the couple’s return.[7] In 2009, it was reported that the Israeli government had launched a US$800,000 television and internet advertising campaign urging Israelis to inform on Jewish friends and relatives abroad who may be in danger of marrying non-Jews.[8]

Israel's Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law has been described as discriminatory against Arabs because it - in effect - prevents Arab citizens of Israel from marrying many other Arabs.[9][10]

Education system

Professor Daniel Bar-Tal analyzed school books employed in Israeli schools and found a pattern of anti-Arab prejudice.[11]

Discrimination against blacks

Israeli society, particularly the Ashkenazi majority, has been accused of racism against blacks of Ethiopian origin.[12] Racism was alleged regarding delays in admitting black Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) to Israel under the Law of return.[13]

Historian Taylor Branch in his 1992 essay "Blacks and Jews: The Uncivil War", asserts the Jews have been "perpetrators of racial hate", citing the example where three thousand members of a sect of Black Jews from Chicago were denied citizenship under the Israeli law of return because of anti-Black sentiment among Israeli Jews.[14][15]

Discrimination against persons of Indian descent

Authorities in Israel have been accused of racism in relation to Jews of Indian ancestry - the Bene Israel - particularly as a result of a 1962 ruling by the Chief Rabbi of Israel that allegedly discouraged marriage between Indian Jews and Jews of European descent.[16][17]

Discrimination against persons of North African and Middle Eastern descent

Israeli society has been described as harboring racist views towards persons of North African descent and Middle Eastern descent, knows as Mizrahi Jews (or "oriental Jews").[18][19][20][21]

Accusations of kidnapping Yemenite babies

Israelis of European descent were accused of collaborating in the disappearance of babies of Yemeni Jews, and racist motives were alleged. In 1950s, the Israeli government as well as other organizations in Israel were accused of kidnapping of between 2,400 and 10,000 children from their recently arrived Yemeni families. In most instances, the parents claim that they were told their children were ill and required hospitalization. Upon later visiting the hospital, it is claimed that the parents were told that their children had died though no bodies were presented or graves which have later proven to be empty in many cases were shown to the parents.[22][23]

European or German ancestry seen as superior

Israelis of European or German (Ashkenazi) ancestry are described as viewing themselves as superior to Israelis of other ancestries, and maintaining an elite position in Israel society.[24][25]

Racism in Israeli Media

The Israeli media has been described as racist, due to its portrayals of Arabs and Palestinians.[26]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The Avalon Project : Declaration of Israel's Independence 1948
  2. ^ Adalah: Historical Background
  3. ^ http://www.haaretz.com/news/civil-rights-group-israel-has-reached-new-heights-of-racism-1.234831
  4. ^ Matas, David, Aftershock: anti-zionism and anti-semitism,Dundurn Press Ltd., 2005, p 56-59
  5. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3629923.stm
  6. ^ Our Jerusalem.com
  7. ^ http://www.jkcook.net/Articles3/0426.htm
  8. ^ http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090907/FOREIGN/709069840/1002
  9. ^ Amnesty International, The Amnesty International report, Amnesty International Publications, 2005, p. 142
  10. ^ Human Rights Watch World Report 2008, Seven Stories Press, 2008, p. 487
  11. ^ Bar-Tal, Daniel, "The Arab Image in Hebrew School Textbooks", in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, Hillel Schenker, Abu Zayyad Ziad, Ziad Abu Zayyad (Eds), Markus Wiener Publishers, 2006, pp 135-152
  12. ^ Kemp, Adriana, Israelis in conflict: hegemonies, identities and challenges, Sussex Academic Press, 2004, p 155
  13. ^ Rebhun, Uzi, Jews in Israel: contemporary social and cultural patterns, UPNE, 2004, p. 140
  14. ^ Forman, Seth, Blacks in the Jewish Mind: A Crisis of Liberalism, p. 14-15
  15. ^ Branch, Taylor "Blacks and Jews: The Uncivil War", in Bridges and Boundaries: African Americans and American Jews (Salzman, Ed), 1992
  16. ^ Abramov, S. Zalman, Perpetual dilemma: Jewish religion in the Jewish State, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1976, p. 277
  17. ^ Smooha, Sammy, Israel: pluralism and conflict, University of California Press, 1978, p. 400-401
  18. ^ Smooha, Sammy, "Jewish Ethnicity in Israel: Symbolic or Real?", in Jews in Israel: contemporary social and cultural patterns, Uzi Rebhun (Ed.), UPNE, 2004, p 60-74
  19. ^ Khazzoom, Loolwa, The flying camel: essays on identity by women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish heritage, Seal Press, 2003, p 69
  20. ^ Sharoni, Simona, "Feminist Reflections on the Interplay of Sexism and Racism in Israel", in Challenging racism and sexism: alternatives to genetic explanations, Ethel Tobach, Betty Rosoff (Eds), Feminist Press, 1994, p 309-331
  21. ^ Hanieh, Adam, "The Reality Behind Israeli Socialism", in The Palestinian Struggle, Zionism and Anti-Semitism, Sean Malloy, Doug Lorimer, Doug Lorimer (Eds), Resistance Books, 2002, p 21-22
  22. ^ SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF MISSING YEMENI BABIES, ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Forrest Sawyer and Linda Patillo Reporting, August 25, 1997]
  23. ^ Madmoni-Gerber, Shoshana, Israeli media and the framing of internal conflict: the Yemenite babies affair, Macmillan, 2009
  24. ^ Torstrick, Rebecca L., The limits of coexistence: identity politics in Israel, University of Michigan Press, 2000, p 32
  25. ^ Madmoni-Gerber, Shoshana, Israeli media and the framing of internal conflict: the Yemenite babies affair, Macmillan, 2009, p 54-56
  26. ^ Espanioly, Nabilia, "Nightmare", in Women and the politics of military confrontation: Palestinian and Israeli gendered narratives of dislocation, Nahla Abdo-Zubi, Ronit Lenṭin (Eds), Berghahn Books, 2002, pp 108-109
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