Israel's Arab citizens face isolation, exclusion

[kerewin21 2]

Can you say apartheid??? I'm all for Israel's right to exist, but sheesh...

Fatina and Ahmad Zubeidat, young Arab citizens of Israel, met on the first day of class at the prestigious Bezalel arts and architecture academy in Jerusalem. Married last year, the couple rents an airy house here in the Galilee filled with stylish furniture and other modern grace notes.

But this is not where they wanted to live. They had hoped to be in Rakefet, a nearby town where 150 Jewish families live on state land close to the mall project Ahmad is building. After months of interviews and testing, the town's admission committee rejected the Arab couple on the grounds of "social incompatibility."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22335973/

[doodlebugg 10]

"It's just background noise, part of the scenery," said Mordechai Behar, a 22-year-old yeshiva student, referring to his Arab neighbors. "We try not to interact with them."

He told them, Fatina recalled, that although they were "very nice people," he would have to begin marketing Rakefet as a "mixed community" to possible buyers in Tel Aviv if they moved in. The designation would hurt sales.

This is the model that Bush wants to strive for in Iraq?

[~Jess~ 0]

not suprised...sad really.

[sereia 0]

forget it

Edited December 21, 2007 by sereia

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

Of course, all this is nothing compared to what Israel does to Palestinians in the West Bank, and in Gaza.

Some say it has been Israel's pattern from the beginning. And more and more are saying that in the end, this will be Israel's undoing.

The end of Israel?

Hannah Mermelstein

I am feeling optimistic about Palestine.

I know it sounds crazy. How can I use "optimistic" and "Palestine" in the same sentence when conditions on the ground only seem to get worse? Israeli settlements continue to expand on a daily basis, the checkpoints and segregated road system are becoming more and more institutionalized, more than 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners are being held in Israeli jails, Gaza is under heavy attack and the borders are entirely controlled by Israel, preventing people from getting their most basic human needs met.

We can never forget these things and the daily suffering of the people, and yet I dare to say that I am optimistic. Why? Ehud Olmert. Let me clarify. Better yet, let's let him clarify:

"The day will come when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights. As soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished."

That's right, the Prime Minister of Israel is currently trying to negotiate a "two-state solution" specifically because he realizes that if he doesn't, Palestinians might begin to demand, en masse, equal rights to Israelis. Furthermore, he worries, the world might begin to see Israel as an apartheid state. In actuality, most of the world already sees Israel this way, but Olmert is worried that even Israel's most ardent supporters will begin to catch up with the rest of the world.

"The Jewish organizations, which were our power base in America, will be the first to come out against us," he told Haaretz, "because they will say they cannot support a state that does not support democracy and equal voting rights for all its residents."

Perhaps Olmert is giving American Jews too much credit here, but he does expose a basic contradiction in the minds of most American people, Jewish and not: most of us -- at least in theory -- support equal rights for all residents of a country. Most of us do not support rights given on the basis of ethnicity and religion, especially when the ethnicity/religion being prioritized is one that excludes the vast majority of the country's indigenous population. We cannot, of course, forget the history of ethnic cleansing of indigenous people on the American continent. But we must not use the existence of past atrocities to justify present ones.

I am optimistic not because I think the process of ethnic cleansing and apartheid in Israel/Palestine is going to end tomorrow, but because I can feel the ideology behind these policies beginning to collapse. For years the true meaning of political Zionism has been as ignored as its effects on Palestinian daily life. And suddenly it is beginning to break open. Olmert's comments last week are reminiscent of those of early Zionist leaders who talked openly of transfer and ethnic cleansing in order to create an artificial Jewish majority in historic Palestine.

We must expel the Arabs and take their places and if we have to use force to guarantee our own right to settle in those places -- then we have force at our disposal. - David Ben-Gurion, Israel's "founding father" and first prime minister, 1937

So this idea of a "two-state solution" a la Olmert -- which I would argue provides neither a "state" nor a "solution" for the Palestinian people -- is the new transfer. It is no longer popular in the world to openly discuss expulsion (though there are political parties in Israel that advocate this), but Olmert hopes that by creating a Palestinian "state" on a tiny portion of historic Palestine, he can accomplish the same goal: maintaining an ethno-religious state exclusively for the Jewish people in most of historic Palestine. His plan, as all other plans Israeli leaders have tried to "negotiate," ignores the basic rights of the two-thirds of the Palestinian population who are refugees. They, like all other refugees in the world, have the internationally recognized right to return to their lands and receive compensation for loss and damages. This should not be up for negotiation.

So why am I optimistic? Why do I think Olmert will fail, if not in the short term, at least in the long term? There are many signs.

The first and most important is that Palestinian people are holding on. Sometimes by a thread, but holding on nonetheless. Despite the hope of many in Israel, Palestinians will not disappear. They engage in daily acts of nonviolent resistance, from demonstrations against the wall and land confiscation, to simply remaining in their homes against all odds. Young people are joining organizations designed to preserve their culture and identity. Older Palestinians have said to me, "We lived through the Ottoman Empire, we lived through the British Mandate, we lived through Jordanian rule, and we will live through Israeli occupation." This too shall pass.

In Israel, it seems that within the traditional "Zionist left," Jewish Israelis are beginning to have open conversations about the exclusivity of Zionism as a political ideology, and are questioning it more and more.

In the US, I have been traveling around speaking to groups about Palestine, and they get it. Even those whose prior information has come only from US mainstream media, when they hear what is actually happening, they get it. When we explain the difference between being Jewish (a religion or ethnicity), Israeli (a citizenship), and Zionist (an ideology), people understand.

"Does Israel have a right to exist?" people ask. What does that mean? Do countries really have rights, or do people have rights? The Jewish people have a right to exist, the Israeli people have a right to exist, but what does "Israel" mean? Israel defines itself as the state of the Jewish people. It is not a state of its citizens. It is a state of many people who are not its citizens, like myself, and is not the state of many people who are its citizens, like the 20 percent of its population that is Palestinian. So if we ask a Palestinian person, "Do you recognize the right for there to be a country on your historic homeland that explicitly excludes you?" what kind of response should we expect?

So when Olmert warns that we will "face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights" and that "the state of Israel [will be] finished," I get a little flutter of excitement. I think of the 171 Palestinian organizations who have called on the international community to begin campaigns of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel until Israel complies with international law. This is already a South African-style struggle, and we outside of Palestine need to do our part. Especially those of us who live in the US, the country that gives Israel more than $10 million every single day, must take responsibility for the atrocities committed in our name and with our money.

Ultimately, this is our role as Americans. It is to begin campaigns in our churches, synagogues, mosques, universities, cities, unions, etc. It is not to broker false negotiations between occupier and occupied, and it is not to muse over solutions the way I have above. But one can dream. And as a Jewish-American, I know that while it might be scary to some, while it will require a lot of imagination, the end of Israel as a Jewish state could mean the beginning of democracy, human rights, and some semblance of justice in a land that has almost forgotten what that means.

Hannah Mermelstein is co-founder and co-director of Birthright Unplugged, which takes mostly Jewish North American people into the West Bank to meet with Palestinian people and to equip them to return to their own communities and work for justice; and takes Palestinian children from refugee camps to Jerusalem, the sea, and the villages their grandparents fled in 1948, and supports them to document their experiences and create photography exhibits to share with their communities and with the world. Anna Baltzer helped contribute to this article.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9169.shtml

Edited December 21, 2007 by wife_of_mahmoud

[me_4_musa 1]

Of course, all this is nothing compared to what Israel does to Palestinians in the West Bank, and in Gaza.

Exactly! Especially in Gaza.

[hopeful... 0]

Can you say apartheid??? I'm all for Israel's right to exist, but sheesh...

Fatina and Ahmad Zubeidat, young Arab citizens of Israel, met on the first day of class at the prestigious Bezalel arts and architecture academy in Jerusalem. Married last year, the couple rents an airy house here in the Galilee filled with stylish furniture and other modern grace notes.

But this is not where they wanted to live. They had hoped to be in Rakefet, a nearby town where 150 Jewish families live on state land close to the mall project Ahmad is building. After months of interviews and testing, the town's admission committee rejected the Arab couple on the grounds of "social incompatibility."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22335973/

I'm sorry, but the Arabs aren't exactly welcoming to the Israelis either. Works both ways. I lived next door to Israelis when I lived in Egypt. These poor souls had to have their cars "swept" every day, had to have cameras installed in their flat, and we had to have guards posted outside our building constantly- day and night. If you have an Israeli visa in your passport, many Arab countries won't let you travel there. When my co-workers in Egypt travelled to Jerusalem, they had to beg the Israeli passport control to NOT stamp their passport because they would be so hassled when trying to travel elsewhere in the Middle East. Both sides are exclusionary and both sides are too stubborn/foolish to learn to coexist. Too many Palestinians are often their own worst enemies with their rock throwing, their flag burning, their calls to destroy Israel and America, their suicide bombings, and their support of Hamas. Let's not forget their "humble" leader, Arafat, who soaked up millions when his "people" were starving. Most of the Middle East is a mess for very clear reasons... Dictatorships, religious political systems, corrupt leaders, and large pockets of uneducated, poor people that are easily mislead and manipulated = a mess.

[Jenn! 918]

Can you say apartheid??? I'm all for Israel's right to exist, but sheesh...

Fatina and Ahmad Zubeidat, young Arab citizens of Israel, met on the first day of class at the prestigious Bezalel arts and architecture academy in Jerusalem. Married last year, the couple rents an airy house here in the Galilee filled with stylish furniture and other modern grace notes.

But this is not where they wanted to live. They had hoped to be in Rakefet, a nearby town where 150 Jewish families live on state land close to the mall project Ahmad is building. After months of interviews and testing, the town's admission committee rejected the Arab couple on the grounds of "social incompatibility."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22335973/

I'm sorry, but the Arabs aren't exactly welcoming to the Israelis either. Works both ways. I lived next door to Israelis when I lived in Egypt. These poor souls had to have their cars "swept" every day, had to have cameras installed in their flat, and we had to have guards posted outside our building constantly- day and night. If you have an Israeli visa in your passport, many Arab countries won't let you travel there. When my co-workers in Egypt travelled to Jerusalem, they had to beg the Israeli passport control to NOT stamp their passport because they would be so hassled when trying to travel elsewhere in the Middle East. Both sides are exclusionary and both sides are too stubborn/foolish to learn to coexist. Too many Palestinians are often their own worst enemies with their rock throwing, their flag burning, their calls to destroy Israel and America, their suicide bombings, and their support of Hamas. Let's not forget their "humble" leader, Arafat, who soaked up millions when his "people" were starving. Most of the Middle East is a mess for very clear reasons... Dictatorships, religious political systems, corrupt leaders, and large pockets of uneducated, poor people that are easily mislead and manipulated = a mess.

Where is the love?

[sandinista! 1,816]

Can you say apartheid??? I'm all for Israel's right to exist, but sheesh...

Fatina and Ahmad Zubeidat, young Arab citizens of Israel, met on the first day of class at the prestigious Bezalel arts and architecture academy in Jerusalem. Married last year, the couple rents an airy house here in the Galilee filled with stylish furniture and other modern grace notes.

But this is not where they wanted to live. They had hoped to be in Rakefet, a nearby town where 150 Jewish families live on state land close to the mall project Ahmad is building. After months of interviews and testing, the town's admission committee rejected the Arab couple on the grounds of "social incompatibility."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22335973/

I'm sorry, but the Arabs aren't exactly welcoming to the Israelis either. Works both ways. I lived next door to Israelis when I lived in Egypt. These poor souls had to have their cars "swept" every day, had to have cameras installed in their flat, and we had to have guards posted outside our building constantly- day and night. If you have an Israeli visa in your passport, many Arab countries won't let you travel there. When my co-workers in Egypt travelled to Jerusalem, they had to beg the Israeli passport control to NOT stamp their passport because they would be so hassled when trying to travel elsewhere in the Middle East. Both sides are exclusionary and both sides are too stubborn/foolish to learn to coexist. Too many Palestinians are often their own worst enemies with their rock throwing, their flag burning, their calls to destroy Israel and America, their suicide bombings, and their support of Hamas. Let's not forget their "humble" leader, Arafat, who soaked up millions when his "people" were starving. Most of the Middle East is a mess for very clear reasons... Dictatorships, religious political systems, corrupt leaders, and large pockets of uneducated, poor people that are easily mislead and manipulated = a mess.

Where is the love?

these kids know. we could all learn so much from them. but alas, they seem to have disappeared...

[kerewin21 2]

Regardless of what has been done to the Jewish Israelis, I don't think it's acceptable to underfund schools that cater to Arab Israelis (who are citizens), to exclude people who have the same passport as their neighbors from living situations because of their ethnicity. This smacks of apartheid and Jim Crow and I think there is no justification for treating one's fellow human beings differently based on their ethnicity/religion.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I found this in the New York Times today. It's a pretty impressive multi-media presentation.

Life in Gaza, Under Siege

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/11...A_FEATURE.html#

[hopeful... 0]

Regardless of what has been done to the Jewish Israelis, I don't think it's acceptable to underfund schools that cater to Arab Israelis (who are citizens), to exclude people who have the same passport as their neighbors from living situations because of their ethnicity. This smacks of apartheid and Jim Crow and I think there is no justification for treating one's fellow human beings differently based on their ethnicity/religion.

Yes, they suffer tremendously, but there ought to be"sympathy" for both sides. People from both sides have been victimized. I don't really see the Palestinian's Arab neighbors stepping up to help them. Where is Saudi? Where is Kuwait? Where is the UAE? Their kingdoms have more money than God and yet they let the Palestinian people suffer and simply point the finger at someone else (and as usual that finger is at the U.S.). They want the U.S. to dump billions of more dollars into this region while they sit by and count their oil revenues. When Palestinians attempt to relocate, do their Arab brothers and neighbors welcome them with open arms? No! Just as the Palestinians have suffered so have the Israeli mothers/fathers whose sons and daughters lives are destroyed by radical Islamists. Instead of doing things like violently protesting and burning flags about cartoons, I'd love to see Muslim, Arab people get equally worked up about radical Islam and protest (peacefully) against the animals who falsely invoke the name of their religion to carry out atrocities and protest against their own governments that keep them caged. Change cannot happen from "without" (see the mess in Iraq), it has to happen from within. Until Arab, Muslims collectively and bravely stand up against the real threats (radical Islam, corrupt dictatorships, religious governments), nothing will change. As a human being, I don't want to see anyone suffer, and, unfortunately, there are many people suffering around the world, not just Palestine. Iranians, Egyptians, Cubans, etc. suffer under their own governments. The poverty I saw while living in Egypt sickened me, especially when I saw how the small percentage of wealthy people there treat the poor- quite literally as slaves (work 16 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week for $100 a month, forcing them to wear ridiculous uniforms that essentially identify them as the lowest class, yelling and screaming at them). Most of these workers' children cannot go to school either, and they live in homes that are literally collapsing. Christian Copts in Egypt are discriminated against routinely. I've visited the U.A.E. and have you seen the slave labor that the government contracts from Pakistan and India to do most of the service jobs there. Have you seen the disgusting places where these people are forced to live? Unfortunately, Israel is not alone in treating their fellow human beings differently. Arab governments are just as guilty.

[allousa 1]

Let me just throw my two cents worth in....

This certainly isn't a black and white issue here. There are many, many shades of gray when it comes to the Palestinian issue. Poverty is a key issue when it comes to radicalism. If your family were starving, would you accept food and money from someone giving it to you, nevermind the "cost", or would you stand by and let your family starve to death or die from lack of medical care to be able to stand on your principles? I'll tell you this, if it came to helping my son survive, I would do whatever it took. You must keep in mind that many of these people that are just trying to survive don't feel they can "speak out" because how else will they survive?

Secondly, while I whole heartedly agree that there is ethnic mistreatment in other parts of the world, the Palestinian issue is different. It is different because Israel controls ALL borders (land, sea, air). They control the economy, the taxes, utilities and water that goes into Gaza and the West Bank. My husband's family have lost homes and some family member because of IDF incursions into Gaza. As long as Israel continues to dehumanize the people that are trapped in the largest open air prison, then the violence and desperation of those living in Gaza will continue. It's definitely a two way street and I'm not saying that one "side" is more guilty than the other.

I would ask the same of why aren't the American people gathering to protest our senseless and violent incursions into the Middle East. Some of the Palestinian neighbors have tried to help the Palestinians but have had their assests frozen by the American government and told not to help them.

That region is controlled by the most violent mix of religion and politics that I have ever seen. This is an issue very close to my heart because I have come to know and love my husbands family very much and am constantly worried for the welfare. I've also studied the history of that region and keep current with what is going on and yet...I couldn't even begin to tell you what the answer is.

I do believe that it is the common people that want peace and if the bull-headed politicians and religous leaders would get out of the way...maybe...just maybe there could be peace.

[hopeful... 0]

Let me just throw my two cents worth in....

This certainly isn't a black and white issue here. There are many, many shades of gray when it comes to the Palestinian issue. Poverty is a key issue when it comes to radicalism. If your family were starving, would you accept food and money from someone giving it to you, nevermind the "cost", or would you stand by and let your family starve to death or die from lack of medical care to be able to stand on your principles? I'll tell you this, if it came to helping my son survive, I would do whatever it took. You must keep in mind that many of these people that are just trying to survive don't feel they can "speak out" because how else will they survive?

Secondly, while I whole heartedly agree that there is ethnic mistreatment in other parts of the world, the Palestinian issue is different. It is different because Israel controls ALL borders (land, sea, air). They control the economy, the taxes, utilities and water that goes into Gaza and the West Bank. My husband's family have lost homes and some family member because of IDF incursions into Gaza. As long as Israel continues to dehumanize the people that are trapped in the largest open air prison, then the violence and desperation of those living in Gaza will continue. It's definitely a two way street and I'm not saying that one "side" is more guilty than the other.

I would ask the same of why aren't the American people gathering to protest our senseless and violent incursions into the Middle East. Some of the Palestinian neighbors have tried to help the Palestinians but have had their assests frozen by the American government and told not to help them.

That region is controlled by the most violent mix of religion and politics that I have ever seen. This is an issue very close to my heart because I have come to know and love my husbands family very much and am constantly worried for the welfare. I've also studied the history of that region and keep current with what is going on and yet...I couldn't even begin to tell you what the answer is.

I do believe that it is the common people that want peace and if the bull-headed politicians and religous leaders would get out of the way...maybe...just maybe there could be peace.

I would argue that you say it's "different" in Palestine because you have family there now. If you look where I lived for two years, Mubarak also controls this country completely, and there are many starving Egyptians who have no access to water, housing, or education. If you are Christian, in Egypt, you can legally change your religion to Muslim, no problem. If you are Muslim and want to change, forget it. My point is that virtually all of the Middle East is a mess, not just Palestine, and too many Arabs fail to look within or in the mirror. Is it also Israel's fault that Saddam tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of his own people - while his Arab neighbors remained silent- because Saddam was of the same religious sect as them and, after all, he was only eliminating the other sects? Is it Israel's fault that Syria interferes in Lebanon, that the Muslim radicals in Africa are slaughtering countless human beings, that Iran has a nut-job for president? Yes, I wholeheartedly believe the Israeli government has done many things wrong. I also believe the Arab governments and radical Islam are mainly at fault for the overall mess in the Middle East. As far as people there not be willing to speak out, there is nothing the U.S. can do about that. Hundreds of years ago, this country was ruled tyranically by what was then the world's super power- Great Britain. The people here, in America, didn't stand a chance of defeating the British, but they did, because they were courageous. If the Arab people want a better way of life, they are going to have to fight against their own corrupt political systems and stop cowering to the terrorists who give them money (or a blessing) for killing themselves and a bunch of innocents. There are, regretably, many desperate people around the world (see China, see Cuba, see Venezuala, see North Korea etc., etc.) who are also dehumanized and do not resort to blowing up buses and cutting off people's heads. I think it's a hard sell to expect Americans to support a population that shows more disgust over a cartoon or a teddy bear being named Mohamed (by children) than they show when a Muslim terrorist videotapes the execution of a Jewish reporter and does it in the name of their religion. I guess, in the end, we just have to agree to disagree on this one. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year... I'm off to see hubby tomorrow, and I was glad to read you'll be visiting with yours soon enough, too!! Stay strong...

[kerewin21 2]

I agree, it's a complete mess from all sides and in all places