The claim that Israel is a racist country is more relevant to the modern political discourse so let’s look at it in some detail
Barry Werner – PT. 2 The Left, The West and the Occupation
CONTINUED:
The claim that Israel is a racist country is more relevant to the modern political discourse so let’s look at it in some detail. First, the claim of racism ignores the fact that a very large fraction of the Jews of Israel descended from immigrants from Arab countries and that many Jews, especially those from Yemen and Ethiopia, have dark skin. Furthermore, most of the Arabs who are indigenous to Palestine descended from Byzantine Christians and Jews who had converted to Islam, so Jews and Arabs are racially related. So, it can’t be said that white Jews are oppressing brown Arabs based on racial differences.
Progressives claim that the tensions between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs are due to racism. Is there anger and mistrust between Arabs and Jews? Unfortunately yes, but it is not racially based. The relationship between Arabs and Jews is complicated by cultural differences and a long history of violent conflict. Israeli society has been trying hard to overcome the internal tensions resulting from the overall Arab/Israeli conflict. Most Jews want to see the full integration of Israeli Arabs into Israeli society proceed successfully. There are no official barriers to integration, the Arab citizens of the State of Israel enjoy full civil rights. Arabs can be found in every part of Israeli society, including the government, the judiciary, medicine, etc. if it were not for the overall Arab-Israeli conflict, their integration would proceed much more quickly.
The BDS campaign (Boycott, Divest, and Sanction) portrays Israel as an apartheid state and wants the world to apply to Israel the exact same punishment it applied to Apartheid South Africa in order to suggest a direct connection. But Israel is not an apartheid state, there are no laws that force people of different races to live differently. To make that claim is to insult the memory of apartheid.
The claim of racism is also used to explain general social inequities in Israeli society. Are there social inequities in Israel? Unfortunately yes, but they are not racially based. As in every country, groups and families who establish themselves earlier than others often lock in advantages that they pass down preferentially to the members of their group or family. (To take an extreme case, Europe had hereditary royalty, some of whom are still monarchs today. In the US, white “Anglo-Saxon” Protestants are socially dominant.) In the case of Israel, there were waves of immigration from different parts of the world. For example, over a million and a half immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia have been absorbed and integrated into Israeli society in just the last few years, for the most part successfully. The resulting social inequity is not racially based, the advantaged and disadvantaged groups are recognizable mainly in the way they differ in culture and traditions. Social integration is not a problem specific to Israel and it is not a problem that is likely to last for many generations and become entrenched in Israel as it has in many other countries. Actually, Israel has become rather adept at it.
Barry Werner – PT. 2 The Left, The West and the Occupation
TO BE CONTINUED
Bio:
I was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, NY and attended an Orthodox yeshiva, but I am a secular Jew today and still have a high regard for Judaism. I enjoy learning about Judaism, Jewish history and history in general.
In yeshiva I learned what it is like to be religious and how to be religious without being a fanatic. I recognize the power and importance of religion in people’s lives and the need to restrain religious fanaticism.
I was born in 1944, when the Nazi Holocaust was in full operation. I grew up when the world was just beginning to comprehend what had happened. When I read about the willing participants to the Holocaust from other European countries, I realized that the Holocaust was not an aberration restricted to Germans, but it represents the depravity that humanity in general is capable of.
I wanted to understand the world as science understands it (which is a rather religious thing to do) so I earned a PhD in Physics at Brandeis University. My PhD thesis was in Astrophysics and my professional career was in Medical Physics. For many years I did research in the fundamentals of Medical Physics and taught Medical Physics in universities.
I made aliyah in 2009.
I am very interested in the Arab/Israeli conflict and especially in the phenomenon of anti-Zionism. I enjoy discussing Israel with left-wingers, right-wingers, Arabs, Europeans, and anyone who is interested in the Arab/Israeli conflict.
Barry Werner – PT. 2 The Left, The West and the Occupation
