Racism in the Jewish State

Israel’s population has once again demonstrated how widespread racism and hatred are in the country, 20 per cent the population of which is Arab. A few days ago – in response to the demand by the Arab party’s demand for civic equality – Israel’s Transport Minister, a religious Jew aptly named Smutrich (spelled Smotrich, I believe), quoted from Numbers 33:55 (the bible is always a useful source for whatever needs one may have): “If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides.”   

Since Netanyahu came to power, incitement against Arab citizens, by his own party and by most other political parties, has reached unbelievable lows. Legally Arabs have the same rights as Jews, but the attitude has always been that whereas Arab citizens might be tolerated, they should not have a say in the running of the state. Some, and they are not a few, come up with land-swap and population-swap ideas that would in effect eject certain areas with a predominantly Arab population to become part of a Palestinian territory.

Establishing and embedding the outrageous perception of an ethnic minority as an enemy within, as disloyal, as a fifth column, is not an Israeli invention. Our Jewish history bears witness to it. Israeli Arabs are in an unenviable situation and the onus is upon the Jewish majority not to do to others what they do not want done to themselves.

It is high time that, Diaspora Jewry, which regularly raises alarm about Antisemitism, acts to disassociate itself from the racist reality of the Jewish State.