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===Arabs===
===Arabs===
{{seealso|Arab citizens of Israel #Discrimination|Anti-Arabism #Israel}}
Although the [[Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948|1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence]]<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/israel.htm The Avalon Project : Declaration of Israel's Independence 1948<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.adalah.org/eng/backgroundlegalsystem.php Adalah: Historical Background<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Although the [[Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948|1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence]]<ref>[http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/israel.htm The Avalon Project : Declaration of Israel's Independence 1948<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.adalah.org/eng/backgroundlegalsystem.php Adalah: Historical Background<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>


Revision as of 03:47, 8 August 2010

Racism has been documented in Israel, most often directed at Arabs, but also at Jewish minorities such as Jews from Yemen, India, North Africa, Ethiopia, or the Middle East. Racism in Israel has been reported by organizations such as Amnesty International, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel , and the United States Department of State. Instances of racism have been observed in Israel's laws, education system, and media. Some analysts describe Israel as a class-based society with Ashkenazi Jews occupying the elite class, and other ethnicities in the lower classes.

Racism in Israel at large

Organizations such as Amnesty International, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel , and the United States Department of State[1] have published reports documenting racial discrimination in Israel.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) published reports documenting racism in Israel, and the 2007 report suggested that racism in the country was increasing.[2] One analysis of the report summarized it: "Over two-thirds Israeli teen believe Arabs to be less intelligent, uncultured and violent. Over a third of Israeli teens fear Arabs all together....The report becomes even grimmer, citing the ACRI's racism poll, taken in March of 2007, in which 50% of Israelis taking part said they would not live in the same building as Arabs, will not befriend, or let their children befriend Arabs and would not let Arabs into their homes."[3] The 2008 report from ACRI says the trend of increasing racism is continuing.[4]

Racism in Israeli Media

The Israeli media has been described as racist, due to its portrayals of Arabs and Palestinians.[5][6][7][8]

Racism in education system

Israel's education system has been described as biased or prejudiced against Arabs[9] and against Jewish minorities from North Africa and the Middle East.[10] One researcher suggests that "ethnic prejudice in Israel is a relatively general phenomenon, not limited to the schooling process".[11]

In 2001, Human Rights Watch issued a report that stated: "Government-run Arab schools are a world apart from government-run Jewish schools. In virtually every respect, Palestinian Arab children get an education inferior to that of Jewish children, and their relatively poor performance in school reflects this."[12] The report found striking differences in virtually every aspect of the education system.[13][14]

School children of Ethiopian ancestry were denied admission into public schools in the town of Petah Tikva, for racist reasons.[15] An Israeli government official said "for years, racism has developed here [Petah Tikvah] undeterred".[16]

Funding for schooling has been reported as discriminatory against Arab students: a 2009 study from the Hebrew University's School of Education demonstrated that the Israeli Education Ministry's budget for assistance to poor students severely discriminated against Arabs. It also showed that the average per-student allocation at Arab junior high schools was one-fifth the average at Jewish ones.[17]

The Follow-Up Committee for Arab Education notes that the Israeli government spends an average of $192 per year on each Arab student compared to $1,100 per Jewish student. The drop-out rate for Arab citizens of Israel is twice as high as that of their Jewish counterparts (12 percent versus 6 percent). The same group also notes that there is a 5,000-classroom shortage in the Arab sector.[18]

Racism in laws and policy

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.[19]

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.[20] 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.[21]

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.[22] 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.[23]

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 with the same freedom as Jewish citizens.[24][25] The law has been condemned by Amnesty International as "racial discrimination".[26]

Racism against particular ethnic groups

Arabs

See also: Arab citizens of Israel § Discrimination, and Anti-Arabism § Israel

Although the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence[27] 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.[28]

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."[29]

Blacks

Israeli society, particularly the Ashkenazi majority, has been accused of racism against blacks of Ethiopian origin.[30] Racism was alleged regarding delays in admitting black Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) to Israel under the Law of return.[31]

In his 1992 essay "Blacks and Jews: The Uncivil War", historian Taylor Branch 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.[32][33]

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.[34][35]

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").[36][37][38][39]

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.[40][41]

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.[42][43]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Israel and the occupied territories". State.gov. 2005-02-28. Retrieved 2010-07-22.
  2. ^ "Israeli anti-Arab racism 'rises'", BBC, 10 Dec 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7136068.stm
  3. ^ Synopsis of the report, from "Racism in Israel on the rise", Aviram Zino, Ynet News, 12 Aug 2007, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3480345,00.html
  4. ^ "Reflections on October 2000 - Eight years later, discrimination and racism against Israel's Arab citizens have only increased" - news release from ACRI, http://www.acri.org.il/eng/story.aspx?id=556
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Hirst, David, The gun and the olive branch: the roots of violence in the Middle East, Nation Books, 2003, p. 91
  7. ^ See also, regarding media and Yemeni Jews: Madmoni-Gerber, Shoshana, Israeli media and the framing of internal conflict: the Yemenite babies affair, Macmillan, 2009
  8. ^ Emmet, Ayala H., Our sisters' promised land: women, politics, and Israeli-Palestinian coexistence, University of Michigan Press, 2003, p 68
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ Yuchtman-Yaar, Ephraim, "Ethnic Inequality in Israeli Schools and Sports: An Expectation-States Approach", in The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 85, No. 3 (Nov., 1979), pp. 576-590, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2778584
  11. ^ Yuchtman-Yaar, Ephraim, "Ethnic Inequality in Israeli Schools and Sports: An Expectation-States Approach", in The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 85, No. 3 (Nov., 1979), pp. 576-590, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2778584
  12. ^ Israeli Schools Separate, Not Equal (Human Rights Watch, 5-12-2001)
  13. ^ Human Rights Watch: Second Class: Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools - Summary
  14. ^ Second Class - Discrimination Against Palestinian Arab Children in Israel's Schools, Human Rights Watch.
  15. ^ "Ethiopian students affair shows prevalent racism in Israel", 3 Sep 2009, Haaretz.com, http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/ethiopian-students-affair-shows-prevalent-racism-in-israel-1.8578
  16. ^ "Deal reached on Petah Tikva Ethiopian olim", Jerusalem Post, 31 Aug 2009. http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=153392
  17. ^ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1106955.html Haaretz. Israel aids its needy Jewish students more than Arab counterparts by Or Kashti. Last accessed: 12 August 2009.
  18. ^ "Arab Sector: NIF Grantees Fight Discrimination in Arab Education". New Israel Fund. 2005-09-13. Archived from the original on 2007-08-07.
  19. ^ Matas, David, Aftershock: anti-zionism and anti-semitism,Dundurn Press Ltd., 2005, p 56-59
  20. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3629923.stm
  21. ^ Our Jerusalem.com
  22. ^ http://www.jkcook.net/Articles3/0426.htm
  23. ^ http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090907/FOREIGN/709069840/1002
  24. ^ Amnesty International, The Amnesty International report, Amnesty International Publications, 2005, p. 142
  25. ^ Human Rights Watch World Report 2008, Seven Stories Press, 2008, p. 487
  26. ^ "Israel/Occupied Territories: High Court decision institutionalizes racial discrimination", Amnesty International news release, 16 May 2006, http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGMDE150422006
  27. ^ The Avalon Project : Declaration of Israel's Independence 1948
  28. ^ Adalah: Historical Background
  29. ^ http://www.haaretz.com/news/civil-rights-group-israel-has-reached-new-heights-of-racism-1.234831
  30. ^ Kemp, Adriana, Israelis in conflict: hegemonies, identities and challenges, Sussex Academic Press, 2004, p 155
  31. ^ Rebhun, Uzi, Jews in Israel: contemporary social and cultural patterns, UPNE, 2004, p. 140
  32. ^ Forman, Seth, Blacks in the Jewish Mind: A Crisis of Liberalism, p. 14-15
  33. ^ Branch, Taylor "Blacks and Jews: The Uncivil War", in Bridges and Boundaries: African Americans and American Jews (Salzman, Ed), 1992
  34. ^ Abramov, S. Zalman, Perpetual dilemma: Jewish religion in the Jewish State, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1976, p. 277
  35. ^ Smooha, Sammy, Israel: pluralism and conflict, University of California Press, 1978, p. 400-401
  36. ^ 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
  37. ^ Khazzoom, Loolwa, The flying camel: essays on identity by women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish heritage, Seal Press, 2003, p 69
  38. ^ 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
  39. ^ 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
  40. ^ SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF MISSING YEMENI BABIES, ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Forrest Sawyer and Linda Patillo Reporting, August 25, 1997]
  41. ^ Madmoni-Gerber, Shoshana, Israeli media and the framing of internal conflict: the Yemenite babies affair, Macmillan, 2009
  42. ^ Torstrick, Rebecca L., The limits of coexistence: identity politics in Israel, University of Michigan Press, 2000, p 32
  43. ^ Madmoni-Gerber, Shoshana, Israeli media and the framing of internal conflict: the Yemenite babies affair, Macmillan, 2009, p 54-56
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