israeli racism in theory and practice

7/31/2019 Israeli Racism in Theory and Practice

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ReportOctober 2009

MEMOMIDDLE EAST MONITOR

Israeli Racism in theoryand practice


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Middle East Monitor (MEMO)

A brieng paper published in October 2009 byMiddle East Monitor419-421 Crown HouseNorth Circular RoadLondon NW10 7PNUnited Kingdom

ISBN: 978-1-907433-03-0

Paper written by Zulaikha Abdullah

Tel: +44 208 838 0231Fax: +44 208 838 0705email: [email protected]: www.memonitor.org.uk

Front cover photo: A grafti covered wall in Jerusalem highlight-ing the depth of anti-Arab Racism among Jews in Israel. Source:the Palestine Chronicle.

Design: Golden Vision, Beirut, Lebanon


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Israeli Racism in Theory andPractice

Zulaikha Abdullah


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IntroductionRacism for a reason is nonetheless racismZionismJewish IdeologyReligiously inspired racismThe fallacy of a democracyThe Apartheid analogyRacism inside Israel

Racial Cleavage among Jewish IsraelisAnti-Black racismRacist Indoctrination through the Education SystemPersonally Mediated [Popular] RacismRacist Edicts and PropagandaEthnic Cleansing and the Silent Transfer of PopulationReligious PersecutionInstitutional RacismRacism and the LawRacism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

ColonialismConclusion

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19232628303133353740

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TABLE OF CONTENT


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Israeli Racism in Theory and Practice

6 Middle East Monitor | A Report | October 2009


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1Middle 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, anti-

Semitism has metamorphosed into something that

is more insidious. Today, Israel and its Westerndefenders 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 Racismheld in Durban in 2001, there was signicant focuson Israels discriminatory practices and treatment of

Palestinians coupled with renewed debate analogous toUN General Assembly Resolution 3379 which in 1975equated Zionism with racism. Such focus no doubtreects the growing world-wide consensus and repulsionat these practices.

Humanitarians and human rights defenders the worldover, from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Jimmy Carter and

Noam Chomsky, in accordance with international law andnumerous UN resolutions, condemn Israel as a militaryoccupation implementing racist policies against the non-Jewish populations both inside its territory and those itoccupies. Yet, meaningful public debate of this pressingissue remains taboo and its very existence is generallyignored - the US stormed out of the Durban conferencedecrying it as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic while theEU refused to pass judgment. During deliberation of the

1975 Zionism is racism resolution in the UN, Israel itselfconceded that it discriminated against Arabs, but argued


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for the need and overriding probity of establishing a

Jewish state for displaced Jews.


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RaCISm fOR a ReaSON IS NONeTHeLeSS

RaCISm

This paper explores the foundations, justications andmanifestations of Israeli racism within Israel and theOccupied Palestinian Territories. The endemic and near

universal phenomenon of racism directed against non-Jews in a celebrated democratic society such as Israelcannot be easily explained away. From religious zealots tostaunch secularists to the politicians who brazenly declaretheir unwavering support for Jewish Supremacism and theJudaization of Palestinian land, it is entrenched. Racism,xenophobia and discriminatory practices and policiesin Israel stem from a variety of underpinnings - mostsignicantly religious and ideological; they must both beexplored if the world view they create and express is to beunderstood.


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ZIONISm

Political Zionism as a European movement that soughta solution to the Jewish problem and a self- confessedanalogue to other European national liberationmovements, particularly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire,

postulated that Jews were a people or a nation andshould therefore gather together in a national homeland.

As a national movement however, it was unique in that themajority of the proposed national group did not live in theclaimed national territory and any nation state could onlybe achieved through return or immigration. Initially, therewas no clear notion of a specic territory and countriesincluding Uganda were considered options for settlement.

The rst public claim to a Jewish state did not have thecrucial support of Jewish Orthodoxy and many secularJews rejected the idea that Jews constituted a nation.Nevertheless, by the time of the Balfour Declaration(1917), political Zionism evolved into a burgeoningnationalist movement claiming to speak on behalf of theJewish people and laying exclusive claim to Palestineon the grounds that it was the historic Jewish national

homeland.

Religious Zionism retrospectively traces its beginningsback to the 19th century, yet as late as the 1930s Zionismwas regarded as blasphemous; a disbelief in Godssalvation and power and thus a rebellion against Him.Conversely, the rst chief rabbi of British mandatoryPalestine, Rabbi Abraham Kook re-interpreted thescripture to suit his political agenda, fusing the religious

and secular and thus creating a nationalism based ondivine imperative and sanctifying Zionism. Successes


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in the 1967 war cemented the alliance and silenced

dissent as the capture of land was hailed as a miracle andproof of Gods backing. The result was a messianic andmilitaristic upsurge; a conviction that the beginning of theredemption was being witnessed and thus it would nowbe a sin to return any of the land2. Radical, fundamentalistgroups such as Gush Emunim and followers of MeirKahane later emerged and went on to form the NationalReligious Party a potent political force in Israel.

The protean creed of the Zionist movement has continuedto constantly evolve, transform and reconstitute itselffrom a mish mash of inuences; prevailing Europeanand North American social cultural and political trendsof the 19th and early 20th centuries such as nationalism,colonialism, socialism and bolshevism, as well asJudaism and changing Jewish ideological inuences andconsiderations.


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JewISH IDeOLOgy

Israels grandstrategy and muchofits politics is largelyincomprehensible to foreignobservers. This is due in nosmallpart to its secularveneerbelyingtheideologicalmotivationsbehindpoliciessuch as its aggressive

expansionism, prolongedoccupation, settlingJews onPalestinian land, its apartheidcharacterand its attitudetowardaffordingthemostbasichumanrights to thoseunderits effectivecontrol. Not to mentionreligiouslybased chauvinistic, exclusivistconceptssuch as theredemptionofland, routinelytaught in schools, andapplicable to thewhole land ofIsraelwhereby land ispuried orreturned to Judaism byvirtueofits passingfrom non-Jewish to Jewishownership and control. This,ratherthansecurityconsiderations, is whatdictatestheexpropriationofland and ofcialJudaisationplans3.

That is not to say that Israeli politics is not guided byimperial strategic considerations based on presumedinterest. However, the more the Jewish character ofIsrael is being reinforced, the more its policies becomeguided by Jewish ideological considerations rmly

rooted in religious beliefs and less by rational ones. Theparochialism, racism and hatred of non-Jews as depictedin some Biblical texts undoubtedly inuences many Jewsconsciously or sub-consciously and nds expression andcontinuity in the way Israel treats non-Jews. In the case ofsecular Jews, historical rights take the place of ideologybut which are themselves derived from religion and retainits dogmatic character.

The pervasive inuence of religion may be illustrated bythe self-proclaimed atheist David Ben Gurion who, in a


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seemingly bizarre announcement to the Knesset in 1956,

stated that the real reason for the Suez War was therestoration of the Kingdom of David and Solomon to itsBiblical borders. A concept based on the notion that anyland ruled by a Jewish ruler in ancient times or promisedto the Jews by the Bible should belong to the Jewishstate by right. The most extreme interpretations of thoseborders 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 inuentialGush Emunim consider the conquest of these lands adivinely commanded act. The validity of the concept, inprinciple, is almost universally accepted and objections toconquest by war are only on pragmatic grounds. In 1993,

Ariel Sharon formally proposed that the Biblical bordersconcept be adopted as ofcial policy.4

The outcome of Israeli policies sanctied by religion,

secularised religious principles or religious ideologyare the same as with any other ideologically motivatedregime Israel is not unique in this regard. Theresultant chauvinism, racism and xenophobia should beapproached in the same way as any other. However,thesmokescreenwhichsurrounds it, createdbypropaganda,deception, theunwillingnessofso many to confrontthetruth and throughthethwartingofopendiscussion and

critique, theprevailing totalitarian mindsetamongmanyIsraelis and theirwesternsupportersalike is nurtured.


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ReLIgIOUSLy INSpIReD RaCISm

A non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic

spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness5

Currently, Israels denition of racism excludes whatappears to be the most virulent form of all religiouslyinspired racism. The strong political and social inuenceof religion and religious groups within Israeli societyand on Israeli politics, as evidenced by the space givento religious discourse by the Hebrew press, cannot beoverstated. As such, an understanding of the Halachicand Talmudic tradition governing the relationship anddifference between Jews and non-Jews is paramountto understanding the anti-Arab racism plaguing Israeli

society.

The late Lubovitcher Rebbi, Manachem MendelSchneerson of the popular Chabbad religious movement,taught that given that God has chosen the Jews, thebody of a Jewish person is of a totally different qualityfrom the body of [members] of all nations of the worldthough it may outwardly appear to be of the same

substance. The difference being that their bodies are invain. 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 createdas a means for some [other] purpose; he himself is thepurpose, since the substance of all [divine] emanationwas created only to serve the Jews. In the beginningGod created the Heavens and the earth [Genesis 1:1]

means that the heavens and the earth were created forthe sake of the Jews, who are called the beginning.


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This means everything, all developments, all discoveries,

the creation, including the heavens and the earth arevanity compared to the Jews. The important things are theJews, because they do not exist for any [other] aim; theythemselves are [the divine] aim.6

More recently, the Rabbi Manis Friedman, who reputedlyhelped Bob Dylan into a relationship with the Chabbad,when asked how he thought Jews should treat their Arabneighbours wrote: The only way to ght a moral war is

the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, womenand children (and cattle), He argued that if Israel followedthis wisdom, there would be no civilian casualties, nochildren in the line of re, no false sense of righteousness,in fact, no war. He goes on to say I dont believe inWestern morality, he wrote. Living by Torah valueswill make us a light unto the nations who suffer defeatbecause of a disastrous morality of human invention.7

Religious rulings pertaining to non-Jews in matters suchas murder, genocide, the saving of life, hostility andviolence, abuse and religious intolerance, the boycottingof Arab labour, ceding Jerusalem to Arabs, the socialstatus afforded non-Jews under Jewish control, attitudestoward non-Jews living in the Land of Israel and muchbesides are all profoundly racist.8


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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 dene any democracyare equality and freedom expressed by all citizens beingequal before the law, having equal access to power andbeing able to enjoy freedoms and liberties protected bya constitution. While respecting the will of the majority,one of its prime functions is the zealous protection of thefundamental rights of individuals and minority groups.

Inscribed in the Basic Law of Israel, which functionsas its unwritten constitution, and at the very core of

the Zionist creed lies an immutable commitment to theJewish character of the state and to the safeguard andpropagation of the mechanisms by which it seeks toensure its enduring Jewish character. No political partythat opposes this principle or proposes to change it canbe elected to the Knesset. The ramications of this fornon-Jews are immense as it ensures they will never beequal before the law. The state establishes who a Jew is

for purposes of law and grants preferential legal status,rights and privileges including nancial benets to all Jewsall over the world over and above its non-Jewish citizens.Israel ofcially belongs exclusively to persons dened bylaw as being Jewish.

The 1952 Citizenship Law grants automatic citizenship toall those wishing to immigrate to Israel and the OccupiedTerritories in accordance with the Law of Return which

limits immigration strictly to those dened legally asJewish while at the same time creating impossible


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obstacles to the return of Palestinian refugees. Thisclearly reects Zionisms belief in an inherently superiorright of the Jew to the land which no other grouppossesses along with a right to exclude other groups fromit based on ethnicity. This attribution of a superior statusto a Jew and an inferior one to a non-Jew inexorablyleads to discrimination. While all citizens of the state

have the right to vote in elections, certain other rightstermed nationality rights are reserved exclusively for thosedened as Jews.

Israel rmly separates itself from other countriesthat practice racial discrimination in that its racism isconstitutional and an organic part of its legal framework.The plethora of discriminatory laws enacted by Israelsince its inception pervade every aspect of the lives of

non-Jews living under Jewish control. Citizens of thestate and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories alike

Computer Engineer Ahmed, 42, standing in front of his home in Gaza,demolished by Israeli bulldozers. Source: Save the Children


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given that the effects of Israeli law inevitably extend extra

territorially manifesting themselves in such ways as theprivilege shown to Jewish settlers.

Against the backdrop of a purportedly ethnic blinddemocracy,theJewishidentityofIsrael is legally andpoliticallyindefensible and ies in thefaceofthemostbasicprinciples it claims to represent and uphold.Bydenition, a democracycannot exist foronly onecommunitywithin a multi-national, multi-religious state.


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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 occupiedterritories 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 SouthAfrica and the Middle East published in1970 to Amneh

Badrans Zionist Israel and Apartheid South Africapublished in 2009, scholarly parallels have long beendrawn between Zionist Israeli practices in Palestine andSouth African apartheid.

If Israel, like the Dutch Afrikaners in South Africa, isviewed essentially as an occupation as a settler-invadersociety with a colonial mentality, it follows naturally that

it would be inherently discriminatory as the genesis ofany occupation is the abrogation of the rights of thoseit occupies. Apartheid is distinguished from other formsof discrimination by its systematic, institutionalised andoppressive character and the purpose of the dominationentailed. It is where policies and practices of racialsegregation and discrimination combine to form aninstitutionalized system of racial discrimination that hasnot only the effect but the purpose of maintaining racial

domination by one racial group over the other11 similarto those practiced in South Africa. Israels designation


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as a state for Jews which privileges them by law andregulates this racism through acts of parliament and other

The West Bank Wall. Source: Palestine Solidarity Society, the University of York.


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means, while relegating non-Jews to fourth class citizensclearly satises this within the state. Within the OccupiedTerritories, Israeli practices exceed by far the brutality ofthose seen in South Africa. Apartheids prohibition andcriminality is enshrined in customary international law.

The Apartheid Convention cites the following sixcategories of inhuman acts as comprising the crime of

Apartheid;

Denial of the right to life and liberty1.

The deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups2.of living conditions calculated to cause the physicaldestruction in whole or part

Measures calculated to prevent a racial group from3.

participation in the political, social, economic andcultural life of the country and to prevent the full

Palestinian children behind bars at an Israeli checkpoint. Source: tada-monpalestinianchildren.com


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development of a group through the denial of basic

human rights and freedomsDivision of the population along racial lines4.

Exploitation of labour5.

Arrest, imprisonment, travel bans and targeting of6.parliamentarians, national political leaders and humanrights defenders as well as closing down of related

organizations.Within Israel itself, the citizenship and entry intoIsrael laws; differences in political rights, voting andrepresentation of the Palestinian population; differentiatednational identication cards; differences regardingownership of land, property and business; inferior accessto education, work, accommodation, health, social,sporting and cultural amenities and pensions; differences

in infrastructure and transport, travel and movementbetween Israelis and Palestinians and a virtual monopolyon military and security forces12 all highlight a limitationin the citizenship rights of non-Jews and underscore theunabashed systematic and institutionalised nature ofthe discrimination that reduces non-Jews to fourth classcitizens.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), all buttwo of the categories are satised and it is clear Israelappears to be implementing and sustaining policiesintended to maintain its domination over Palestiniansin the OPT and to suppress opposition of any form tothose policies13 a system of control including separateroads, inequities in infrastructure, legal rights and accessto land and resources between Palestinians and Israelisconstitutes a system of apartheid.14 Other practices

include the creation ghettoised prisons, ethnic cleansing,bulldozing of homes, targeted assassinations, massacres,


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imprisonment and torture of opponents, use of excessive

force against civilians and collective punishment. JohnDugard, a South African professor of international law andSpecial Rapporteur to the United Nations on the humanrights situation in the Palestinian territories asserts, Canit be seriously denied that the purpose [] is to establishand maintain domination by one racial group (Jews) overanother racial group (Palestinians) and systematicallyoppress them? Israel denies that this is its intention orpurpose. But such an intention or purpose may be inferredfrom the actions described15

Other similarities between Zionism and Apartheidinclude the use of biblical narrative as its justication,the utilisation of the colonialist racist claims that the landbeing occupied was devoid of inhabitants and marriagelaws aimed at safeguarding racial purity.

The fundamental difference between Zionism andApartheid is that the Apartheid regime was willing toconcede portions of South Africa as belonging to Blackpeople. These cantons or Bantustans were ofciallyconsidered sovereign states embodied with all thesymbols of sovereignty. However, the sacred principleof Zionism which asserts that the land of Israel belongsonly to Jews means that to grant Palestinians autonomyor sovereignty in any part of the land would violate this

principle and would be forbidden. Additionally, the conceptof Redemption of the Land demands that the whole landof Israel be redeemed16 and is linked to the redemption ofthe people.

The manifestations of Israeli racism within its borders andin the Occupied Territories will now be examined in twoseparate sections below.


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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 andunfortunately there is no suitable punishment for

racism in Israel.[AviMaspin, a spokesmanforTheIsraelAssociationforEthiopianJews]


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RaCIaL CLeavage amONg JewISH

ISRaeLIS

We do not want Israelis to become Arabs. We

are in duty bound to ght against the spirit of the

Levant, which corrupts individuals and societies,

and preserve the authentic Jewish values as theycrystallized in the [European] Diaspora.[David BenGurion]17

From the inauguration of the Zionist enterprisein Palestine, and in common with other societiescharacterised by mass immigration, Jewish society hasbeen fragmented. It is composed of competing anddivergent groups divided by erce tensions and rivalry.

The rifts within this deeply sectarian society are basedon national, ethnic, religious, cultural, political and socio-economic factors contrary to unity and integration.18

In a bid to create a collective identity intended toconsolidate one Israel19, the Ashkenazi ethnocentricZionist elites ideas for social integration or Israelisationfocused on immigrant populations. The overriding

approach in creating this normative Jewish identitywas to force immigrants to melt or assimilate into aperceived model society and the dominant culture. Thegold standard of Israeliness and the hegemonic cultureof Israel became that of the white Eastern and CentralEuropean Ashkenazim.

The problem with assimilation was that ideas suchas nation, patriotism or historical memory leave the

newcomers outside of the normative boundaries.Immigrants did not experience the holocaust, pogroms


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or ghts in the wars of independence. Thus, the

national identity is established by means seemingly pureand homogenous customs and practices. Mizrahim,Ethiopians and Arabs are excluded from this.

A rigid hierarchy highly racialised both within andbetween religious or national groups orchestrates Israelisocial life. Much of it is legally enforced.20 Consequently,there are levels of citizenship dictated largely by racialconsiderations. At the very top of the citizenship pyramid

are the Ashkenazim followed by the Mizrahim orSephardic Jews who originate from the orient the MiddleEast, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Within this layer,there is discrimination depending on the specic countryof origin. At the very bottom of the Jewish pyramid are theEthiopians who are black. Below them yet are the Arabs,Christians and Druze.

Racism and social stratication between ethnic groupsis well established and sharply divides the population.The explicit discrimination initially faced by immigrantMizrahim was based on a disdain for their heritage; somecultures were considered Arab or Levantine and thuscorrupt, backward and primitive. They were spoken ofdisparagingly by politicians and it was perceived thatthey needed to modernise in order to assimilate intosociety21. Discrimination was also based strictly on skin

colour, and the darker skinned Mizrahim were subjectto verbal abuse being called Kushim or niggers22. Thisgave rise to ethnic neighbourhoods as housing as wellas employment is allotted along racial lines.As late as

August2009, Sephardicstudents in thesettlementofEmmanuelwerebeingphysicallysegregatedfromtheir

Ashkenazipeers. Differententranceswere set upforthetwogroups, plasterwallswereerected inside theschool

and fenceswereconstructed in thecourtyard to separatethepopulations. In addition, thegirlswereinstructed to


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weardifferentschooluniforms based on theirethnicity.23

Especially disturbing was the treatment of immigrantsfrom Yemen. In the infamous Yemenite Babies scandal,the Zionist leadership was implicated in the kidnappingof Yemeni children who were given up for adoption in

Ashkenazi families while their real families were given

death certicates and no corpses. Similar, was thescandal that came to be known as The RingwormChildren which involved immigrant children from North

Africa secretly being given high doses of radiation therapyto treat fungal ringworm. Many continue to suffer severelydebilitating and often terminal illnesses as a result of thestates actions which reect a criminal sense of racialsuperiority inherent in Zionism.24

The apparent second class status of Mizrahim caused

Young activist as US conrms boycott of UN Conference on racism.Source: www.ccun.org


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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 partlyachieved on the back of their efforts and accomplishmentwithin the army. Jewish National interest and goals appearto transcend all other differences and act as a galvanizingforce and a point of universal consensus.


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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 noton 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 notrecognised as Jews until then. Much like the Mizrahim,they faced overt racism and discrimination and intensepressure to assimilate into the hegemonic structure.Moreover, since the nineteenth century they have beensubjected to cultural colonialism and have since thenslowly adopted European normative Judaism including theTalmudic-rabbinic traditions and the oral law.

On arrival in Israel, the Jewishness of the Ethiopianswas brought into questioned with the Chief Rabbinatedemanding they undergo humiliating ritual immersion orsymbolic conversion ceremonies. The authority of theKes, the respected religious leadership of the community,was totally rejected and the children are made to attendreligious schools in order to complete their conversion.90% of Ethiopian immigrant children and adolescents

were raised in closed boarding schools, literally cut offfrom their pasts and communities and where the values


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of the integrating society were forcefully instilled in themin an effort to transform them into western style Jews andthen Israelis. They were even given new Israeli names.This incredibly traumatic onslaught which practicallystripped them of their uniqueness and guaranteed them amarginal and inferior status within society left the youngergeneration affronted, rebellious and confused and led to

the formulation and emergence of a new self-identicationin opposition to the hegemony.27

On a day to day basis, the discrimination faced bythe Ethiopian minority is a collective phenomenon.Organisations concerned with equality and justicefor Ethiopians receive hundreds of complaints yearly.Discrimination ranges from veteran Israelis not wantingto sit next to them on the bus, bus drivers not wanting to

carry them, verbal abuse and being called Kushim orniggers to unequal work and housing opportunities and

Falasha Jews in Israel demonstrating against the racism and discrimi-nation they face. Source: tseday.wordpress.com


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Ethiopian veterans being treated differently from other

veterans. Schools regularly discriminate against Ethiopianchildren by refusing to admit them to classes or removingthem from classes at the behest of other parents. In 2007,four students studying at an elementary school in PetahTikvah were completely segregated from their peers beingplaced in a classroom by themselves and assigned ateacher to teach them all their subjects. They were evenassigned different recess hours and given cab fares homeso as not to overly socialise with the other students.28

In 1996, a newspaper report stated that an Israeli bloodbank had thrown away Ethiopian blood donations forthe 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 anddiscrimination felt by the Ethiopians for a long time.The Chief of Jerusalem District Police labelled the

demonstrators young savages and the Ministry ofDefense announced it would continue with its policyas Ethiopians constituted a risk group along withhomosexuals and drug users.29

For many Ethiopians, the Blood Affair highlighted thedifference between race and ethnicity or ethnicity andreligion and signalled a critical turning point for theyounger generation and the beginning of a struggle for

recognition in the form of everyday resistance.

According to the 2009 Mossawa Report, there has beena 150% increase this year in racism directed towardEthiopians during football matches.


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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 theirname, rot in re. Make holes in them with your M16

and shell them with bombs.30

Text books used as part of the ofcial curricula in Israelare designed to systematically indoctrinate school childrenand to instill hatred in them toward Arabs by effectivelydehumanising them; by nurturing notions of othernessand difference and through the creation of negative

stereotypes. Photographs, literature and history are alltoo often manipulated to serve dubious political goals andto etch a form of racism into the psyche of successivegenerations that leads to the worst extremism.

Caricatures in school books depict Arabs, among otherthings, as being uncivilised, untrustworthy, pusillanimous,grovelling, evil, violent and treacherous; as lowlifes who

have contributed nothing to humanity. In a story entitledDust of the Edge, one Jew advises another; Arabs arelike dogs. If they see you confused, dont react to theirprovocation so as to avoid being attacked by them. But ifyou decide to beat them, they will run away like dogs!31

The subsequent stereotyping of Arabs and racist mouldingof many Jewish children happens at an early stage intheir development and is an issue of unanimity among

Israeli researchers in this area. In a survey cited in AdirCohens An Ugly Face in the Mirror, 75% of the 4 th


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-6th graders polled described Arabs as murderers whokidnapped children and as criminals and terrorists while80% said they saw them as being dirty with terrifyingfaces. By the time pupils become teenagers many racistideas and attitudes have crystallised as evidenced by a

poll carried out of 600 fteen to eighteen year olds. 60%of those asked supported the idea of expelling all Arabsfrom Palestine, 40% expressed support for undergroundmovements seeking revenge on Palestinians, 50%considered it a necessity to limit the nancial rights of

Arabs to an absolute minimum and 56% rejected that theywere completely equal to Arabs.

A Placard from a demonstration in Sydney showing Israeli children tag-

ging bombs meant for Lebanese children during the 2006 war. Source:Possum News Network.


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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 nd them everywhere like

worms, underground as well as above.33

We have Arabs like garbage.34

One of the most conspicuous and incontrovertibleexpressions of how pervasive the individual racistattitudes and sentiments of Jewish Israelis toward Arabshave become, is evidenced by statistics gathered inopinion polls. They highlight a sharply escalating trendtoward extreme bigotry and show that on an individuallevel most Jews are distrusting of Arabs considering thema danger. An astonishing 50% of Jewish Israelis nowsupport the idea of forced transfer of population or ethniccleansing while 40% advocate apartheid and the physicalseparation of Jewish and Arab quarters by separationwalls in cities with mixed populations. Approximately 50%experience fear when they hear Arabic being spoken

despite it being an ofcial language of the state, while31% feel hatred and disgust. 75% are no longer preparedto live in buildings inhabited by Arabs and 50% areunwillingly to work in jobs where their direct supervisoris an Arab. 56% are in favour of segregation in places ofentertainment, 40% are in favour of disenfranchisementfrom elections, 51% believe intermarriage is tantamountto treason to the state and the Jewish people and 56%

believe Arabs constitute a demographic and security riskto the Jewish character of the state.35


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Over the last year, there has been a 1,000% increase indocumented violent attacks against Arab citizens oftenperpetrated by organised gangs of youths. In manyinstances, victims have had to be evacuated from theirhomes for fear of repeat attacks. The lack of an adequatepolice response has lead to large scale confrontations

between communities. Six murders have occurred thisyear alone.36

A grafti covered wall in Jerusalem highlighting the depth of anti-ArabRacism among Jews in Israel. Source: the Palestine Chronicle.


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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 transitcountries 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 bypoliticians are sometimes masked behind seeminglyharmless expressions such as Exchange of land and

population transfer. These are in fact among the gravestof all, as in reality they propose the ethnic cleansing of

Arabs and assert the necessity of eliminating them fromthe Jewish state. Such suggestions are often justied onsecurity grounds given that the Israeli Arab populationis almost invariably seen as a time bomb, an existentialthreat as a cancer and a fth 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 suchexamples are Ehud Barak, Benyamin Netanyahu and

Avigdor Liberman to name but a few.

In 1948, approx 800,000 Palestinians were expelledfrom their homes resulting in the Palestinian Diaspora.

Additionally, there are approximately 30 documentedmassacres and evidence of the depopulation anddestruction of 530 villages. Nevertheless, the Zionist

entity failed in its preconceived and carefully orchestratedgoal of creating a demographically homogenous state.


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The result was the Arab problem approximately one

million Palestinians within the state. Various solutions tothe problem have been sought including voluntary transferpackages in the form of nancial incentives. Massacresand forced expulsion continued until as late as 1956and such ideas are actually gaining currency among thegeneral population39.

Religious notions of the land belonging exclusively toJews along with the racist colonialist stance that Palestine

was an uninhabited desert allows for the indigenouspopulation to be cast as unwelcome strangers and for thestate to disguise its abhorrent goal as a simple form ofresettlement.


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ReLIgIOUS peRSeCUTION

The only way to ght a moral war is the Jewish way:

Destroy their holy sites40

Since 1948, more than 1,000 mosques have beendestroyed in an organised and systematic assault on thereligious freedoms and cultural rights of Palestinians inIsrael. Muslim and Christian sanctuaries are not legallyrecognised and are therefore afforded no security.Jewish citizens are free to simply lay claim to Muslimand Christian holy sites and the law allows for their de-sanctication and conversion for various uses. AcrossIsrael numerous mosques are constantly violated beingused variously as animal pens, restaurants, pubs or

Jewish only places of worship. Alternatively, many othersare simply made inaccessible to worshippers by beingdesignated closed zones. Muslim worshippers areharassed on their way to prayers, they are prevented frompraying in certain holy places, mosques are demolishedwhen renovations are attempted, they are defaced byJewish citizens, and the call to prayer is prohibited innumerous 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 builtleading to justiable claims of religious persecution41.

The property of the Waqf or the Islamic system ofendowments which constituted 6.2% of Israel, as wellas the property of the Christian church is routinelyconscated and transferred to the state. Similarly, Muslimburial sites are claimed by the state which exhumes the

bodies before bulldozing the sites and using them forother purposes. Muslims are prevented from burying their


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dead in certain cemeteries. This all boils down to state

sanctioned denial of fundamental civil rights and liberties.


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INSTITUTIONaL RaCISm

Systematic racist policies and practices within Israeliinstitutions dominate public bodies, corporations anduniversities setting up barriers within the economicand social sphere; in employment and professional

advancement, access to decent housing as well asunderrepresentation and racial proling by securityand law enforcement agencies are all manifestationsof this phenomenon. A disproportionately low numberof Palestinians are employed by the state and there isa virtual Jewish monopoly over the police and securityforces. Since 2008, there has been a 300% increase inthe number of reported assaults by police and securityforces on Palestinian citizens along with a worryingnumber of unprosecuted murders.42

The GDP of the average Palestinian is $6,756 comparedwith $19,150 for Jews. In 2005 Arabs received about5% of the public development budget, less than 4% ofthe education budget, 1% of the housing budget, 1% ofthe agriculture and rural development budget, 2% of thetourism budget and 8% of the welfare budget. Per capita,

the amount of welfare spent on Palestinians was lessthan 30% of that spent on Jews. As a result, there arethree times as many Palestinian families living below thepoverty line than Jewish families and 50% of poor childrenin the state are Arab.43

The differentiated government spending on Arab andJewish students is critical and there is a huge shortfallin both preparatory and secondary classrooms. Within

higher education, discrimination takes the form ofseemingly harmless university bylaws which specically


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target and disadvantage Arab students and thussignicantly reduce their numbers. 80% of all student dropouts are Arab.44

Palestinian woman picking her way through a rubbish strewn and sew-age lled street in Gaza. Source: climateprediction.net


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RaCISm aND THe Law

After 1966, military rule was lifted from Palestinians livingin Israel; however it was replaced by a barrage of JimCrow-like laws aimed at maintaining the demographic andmaterial hegemony of the Jewish population. Each year,

the Knesset proposes and introduces new discriminatorybills that violate the rights of its Arab citizens based onnationality such as those that would link the right to voteto and receive state allowances to national service. 12such laws have been passed since 2008 alone.

Among the most devastating have been the 1950 Law ofReturn and Absentee Property Law. The Law of Returnprohibits all Palestinians expelled from the land that

became Israel in 1948 from ever returning to their nativehomes, whether to live or visit, while unconditionallygranting citizenship to all Jews immigrating to the state.Numerous laws relating to land have allowed for theexpropriation of 80% of the land under current Israelicontrol from Palestinians and its transfer to Jewishownership. Racist marriage laws prohibit Palestiniansfrom the Occupied Territories from living with their

spouses in Israel while a temporary law bans marriagebetween Jews and Palestinians from the OccupiedTerritories.

En vogue of late are laws pertaining to the blatantlyracist character of Israel as a Jewish state. Instead ofnew Knesset members having to declare loyalty to thestate of Israel and its laws soon they will be required todeclare loyalty to the Jewish, Zionist and Democratic

State of Israel, its symbols and its values. Thoseapplying for citizenship to the state will have to make


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similar declarations. Needless to say, such stipulationscontribute to the delegitimisation of Arab political leadersand the communities they represent. There are new lawsthreatening imprisonment to any one who dares denythat Israel is Jewish and democratic. Similar laws arebeing discussed that will prohibit anyone from advocating

a bi-national state and yet another to imprison for 3years anyone mourning the Nakba. These have beendescribed as a factory of racist laws with a distinct fascistodor.45

Arabs also face discrimination before the law with regardto judicial sentences and judgments. Reports show thatPalestinians are given 20-30times harsher punishments

than Jews when committing the same crimes. In someinstances Palestinians were given sentences of up to ve

Palestinians during the Nakba. Source: Palestinehouse.com


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years for crimes which were unpunished when committed

by a Jew and a Palestinian accused of attacking a Jewwas found to be 63% more likely to be convicted than aJew accused of attacking an Arab46. Almost all cases thatdeal with equal rights for Arabs brought before the IsraeliSupreme Court have been dismissed.


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Section 2:

RaCISm IN THe OCCUpIeD paLeSTINIaNTeRRITORIeS gaZa aND THe weSTBaNk

If not the roof beams, destroy the foundations

Attack Lebanon and also Gaza with plows andwith 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 thebelligerent Occupying Power in the West Bank [includingEast Jerusalem] and the Gaza Strip. Its assertions to

the contrary have been categorically rejected by theinternational community and the occupied status of thePalestinian territories is conrmed by the InternationalCourt of Justice (2004) as Israel continues to exerciseeffective control over these territories.

Extensive recent studies clearly demonstrate that theillegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories hasbecome a colonial activity which implements a system

of apartheid. Both are considered particularly seriousbreaches of the law as they contravene fundamentalvalues of the international legal order.


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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 onegoal. 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 denition, colonialism prevents, and aims to prevent,a people from exercising freely its right to determine itsown future through its own political institutions and inpursuit of its own policy.48 Acts of a colonial power havethe cumulative outcome that it annexes or otherwiseunlawfully retains control over a territory. It is condemnedby The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to

Colonial Countries and Peoples [1960] in all its formsand manifestations. Within the Occupied Territories, allthe principal modes for the expression of the Palestinianpeoples right to self determination have been denied byIsrael49. The ve key issues that prove Israeli occupationhas become a colonial endeavor are:

Violating territorial integrity of Occupied Territory1.

Depriving the population of capacity for self-2.governance


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Integrating economy of Occupied Territory into that of3.

OccupierBreaching the principle of permanent sovereignty over4.natural resources in relation to Occupied Territory

Denying occupants right to freely express, develop and5.practice their culture

The territorial integrity of Palestine is violated through

a number of means; the forceful annexation of EastJerusalem; the construction of Jewish only settlementsand a bypass road system prohibited from use byPalestinians and which connect settlements in theOccupied Territories to Israel; the construction of theapartheid wall which divides Palestine into cantons andseparates between Palestinian communities as well asbetween Jews and Arabs. The wall which follows a pathdelineating areas of the West Bank from which Israel can

withdraw without relinquishing control over key waterresources also deprives Palestinians of 40% of the WestBank and thereby violates both the territorial integrity ofPalestine as well as the economic dimensions of self-determination. Through the creation of a customs unionand by other means, the economy is further subordinatedto that of Israel. Additionally, it implements an illegal,unjust and inequitable water management and allocation

system which favours Israel and the settlers and deniesPalestinians the right to permanent sovereignty over theirnatural resources. The political will and authority of thePalestinian people is frustrated by Israel which retainsultimate physical and administrative control and therebyviolates the populations right to self determination.Hebrew and Jewish cultural references are givenpreference while the cultural development and expression

of the Palestinians is hindered.50


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CONCLUSION

The UN Convention on theEliminationofAll FormsofRacialDiscrimination states that theterm racialdiscrimination shallmeananydistinction, exclusion,restriction orpreference based on race, colour, descent,

or national or ethnicoriginwhichhasthepurpose oreffectofnullifying orimpairingtherecognition, enjoymentorexercise, on an equalfooting, ofhumanrights andfundamentalfreedoms in thepolitical, economic, social,cultural oranyothereldofpubliclife.51Accordingly,therecan be no doubtthatIsrael is a profoundlyraciststate. Racism is a cornerstone ofZionism in Israel rootedin its religious and ideologicalfoundations, guaranteedby its BasicLaw and systematicallyinstitutionalisedthroughactsofparliament and thepractices and policiesofthe state. Itreachesbeyondsectariandifferences, ispervasive and comprehensivemanifestingitselfin popularattitudes, words and actions and adverselyaffectingthecivil liberties ofall non-Jewsliving in Israel.

Zionisms racist supremacist notions have provided theintellectual and moral justications for its occupation,

colonisation and apartheid like regime in Palestine. At theheart of this institutionalised inequality is the desperatedesire to maintain the demographic, political and materialhegemony of Jews over non-Jews in a theocratic statethat favours them in all ways.


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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 ThreeThousand Years, Israel Shahak, Pluto Press, 2002, pg 7-13

4. Ibid.

5. The National Religious Party and the Religious Settlers, IsraelShahak 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=cleavage+among+jews+in+israeli+society&source=bl&ots=PC-pT1HZKB&sig=HX9zdn8w44s-oV9LR-qIIKWWHkE&hl=en-&ei=WzWBSvrQBpHMjAe4_YiCCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=true

10. Michael Ben Yair, Former Attorney General of the State ofIsrael, Haaretz, 3/3/02, cited in Obstacles to Peace, Jeff Halper,2004 p.50

11. Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment ofIsraels practices in the occupied Palestinian territories underInternational 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_

analogy15. Ibid.


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16. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, The Weight of ThreeThousand 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, BrandeisUniversity 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, JackBernstein, 1984

23. http://www.vosizneias.com/36288/2009/08/06/israel-high-court-ashkenazi-charedi-school-must-end-discrimination-sephardim/

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 Jewishtheologian and philosopher Moses Maimonides, cited in JewishHistory, 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 Post-hegemonic 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


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29. Being a Black Jew in Israel: Identity Politics in the Post-hegemonic 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 IDFreservists 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 ofIsrael, Racism Report 2009.

37. Gideon Levi, Haaretz newspaper, 10/06/2007



40. Rabbi Manis Friedman, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091469.html



43. The Israeli Racism, Palestinians in Israel; A Case Study,


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Abbas Ismail, al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and consultations,2009, pg. 31-38

44. For Jews Only: Racism Inside Israel, Max Elbaum, 2000http://www.colorlines.com

45. Uri Avineri , The other Apartheid State


47. Extract from a poem written by Ilan Scheinfeld, from Gideon

Levi, Haaretz newspaper, 10/06/200748. Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment ofIsraels practices in the occupied Palestinian territories underInternational law, HSRC, Cape Town, May 2009. pg. 8

49. Ibid.

50. Ibid. pg 8-9

51. United Nations Convention on theEliminationofAll FormsofRacialDiscrimination NEW YORK 7 March 1966


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israeli racism in theory and practice

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