What is behind the Israeli mistreatment of African migrants?
Disturbing rhetoric on race from Israeli government ministers.
By Ben White Published 28 May 2012 16:12
African immigrants in Tel Aviv Photograph: MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/GettyImages
The recent anti-African mob violence in Tel Aviv was, sadly, no surprise. Only a few days previously, Prime Minister Netanyahu warned “illegal infiltrators” could threaten the country’s existence “as a Jewish and democratic state”, with Interior Minister Eli Yishai saying that “the migrants are giving birth to hundreds of thousands, and the Zionist dream is dying”.
Cabinet ministers talk in terms of “expulsion by consent or without consent” to “preserve the country's Jewish identity”, and of “taking steps to kick out” the “scourge” of “infiltrators”. A prominent Likud parliamentarian and chair of the “Knesset Caucus to Solve the Infiltrator Problem” urged for this “plague” to be removed “without delay and without mercy”.
A disturbing conference held in April in Ramle gives further insight into this mainstream racism, and points to an important connection between the anti-African incitement, and the institutionalised discrimination faced by Palestinians.
At the annual get together, “Israeli politicians and right-wingers – including Knesset Members and rabbis who are paid by the government – gathered to discuss the ‘problem’ of foreigners (read: non-Jews) in Israel”. One analogy is to imagine British MPs and even cabinet members proudly attending – and speaking at – an English Defence League convention.
Yishai gave an address, and one rabbi told the audience that Israel “is our home and an Arab who wants to express his nationalism has many countries in which to do so”. Perhaps the most extraordinary contribution came from the head of a campaign group "Fence for Life", which emerged as a prominent voice supporting the construction of Israel’s Separation Wall.
Here, Ilan Tsion explicitly makes the case for the Wall on the basis that it can keep out non-Jews, grouping together both Africans and Palestinians as threats to the Jewish character of the state. Instructively, Tsion boasted of his group’s role in lobbying for both the Wall and for a continued ban on Palestinian family reunification.
This week, Yishai asked rhetorically: “So what, the State of Israel, as the Jewish state, in the name of democracy, in the name of honouring UN resolutions, (should accept) a recipe for suicide?” Likewise, when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the separation of Palestinian spouses, the majority opinion stated: “human rights are not a prescription for national suicide”.
The "demographic threat" discourse is commonplace amongst both the left and right. Netanyahu, as Finance Minister in 2003, described Palestinian citizens as the real “demographic problem”. When Ehud Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem, he considered it “a matter of concern when the non-Jewish population rises a lot faster than the Jewish population”.
Worrying about the numbers of Palestinian babies is also a concern for the so-called "liberals" or "peace camp", who echo the logic found in this recent op-ed (titled “Keep our Israel Jewish”) that “[African migrants] should be deported, for the same reason I think we should finalize a diplomatic agreement with the Palestinians: Because I want to keep living in a Jewish state”.
This kind of ideology is inevitable in a country where racial discrimination is part and parcel of core laws and policies, and whose very establishment as a "Jewish majority" state was only possible, as Israeli historians like Ilan Pappe have pointed out, through ethnic cleansing and mass land expropriation. Indeed, the Ramle conference takes place in a town almost entirely emptied of its Palestinian population in 1948.
In 2012, African refugees are attacked in Tel Aviv for "threatening" the Jewish state; in 1948, Israeli forces targeted columns of Palestinian refugees “to speed them on their way”. In today’s Israel, politicians plan fences and detention camps for non-Jewish “infiltrators”; by 1956, as many as 5,000 Palestinians trying to return home had been killed as “infiltrators”.
This thread running through Israel’s past and present – of expulsions, ethnocratic legislation, and obsessions with birth rates – is the context for the targeting of African refugees and Palestinians, and is one of the reasons why Israel’s advocates in the west are having to work so hard to maintain the myth of Israel’s democracy.
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207 comments
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=256358
'Gentile sperm leads to barbaric offspring'
Rabbi Dov Lior says Jewish Law prohibits sterile couples from conceiving using non-Jew's sperm, as it causes adverse traits. On subject of single mothers he says, 'Child cannot be 100% normal'
Rabbi Dov Lior, a senior authority on Jewish law in the Religious Zionism movement, asserted recently that a Jewish woman should never get pregnant using sperm donated by a non-Jewish man – even if it is the last option available.
According to Lior, a baby born through such an insemination will have the "negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews." Instead, he advised sterile couples to adopt.
Lior addressed the issue during a women's health conference held recently at the Puah Institute, a fertility clinic. His conservative stance negated a ruling widely accepted by rabbis, which states that sperm donated by a non-Jew is preferable to that of an anonymous Jew, who might pose a genealogical risk.
"Sefer HaChinuch (a book of Jewish law) states that the character traits of the father pass on to the son," he said in the lecture. "If the father in not Jewish, what character traits could he have? Traits of cruelty, of barbarism! These are not traits that characterize the people of Israel."
Lior added identified Jews as merciful, shy and charitable – qualities that he claimed could be inherited. "A person born to Jewish parents, even if they weren't raised on the Torah – there are things that are passed on (to him) in the blood, it's genetic," he explained. "If the father is a gentile, then the child is deprived of these things.
"I even read in books that sometimes the crime, the difficult traits, the bitterness – a child that comes from these traits, it's no surprise that he won't have the qualities that characterize the people of Israel," he added.
'Kids born to single moms become criminals'
Lior condemned artificial insemination and sperm donation in general, saying that they lead to waste of sperm, unclear genealogy and other Jewish law offenses. He warned against undergoing intrauterine insemination at hospitals, where the workers may mix sperm samples for one reason or another - a major halachic violation.
On the subject of women who freeze their eggs to use at a later date, the rabbi asserted that instead they should concentrate their efforts on getting married younger.
"Our public has been influenced by a part of the Western culture in which every woman, instead of becoming a mother, needs to get a Masters Degree," he lamented. "The role of women – child rearing – is not less important than an academic degree." Lior noted that there is nothing wrong with attaining a profession, but it should not be a priority.
Moreover, the rabbi spoke against single women getting pregnant.
"We can understand the desire of every woman to have a child, but according to our Torah it is impossible to address the demand of a certain woman when it can cause someone else suffering," he said.
"If a child is born without a father, he cannot be 100% normal." He stated that rabbinical literature defines these kids as "criminals and subjects of other negative phenomena."
Just google this mad Rabbi for more of his gems on why Arabs are evil camel riders, Barack Obama as a "kushi of the west" and why Europeans are "Nazi collaborators".
it's not what this objectional little turd has said but what happens to him next. extremists like this rabbi exist in all religions, it's what religion is frequently all about at the frontiers; us against them.
the problem isn't Judaism, same as the problem isn't Islam. the problem is humans themselves.
what the rabbi should realise is that all humans are Africans, we are all related to a degree of intimacy that is astonishing. there is less than 1% genetic variation within the 7 billion humans alive today. an average Chimp troupe has a genetic variation over 10%. but this rabbi is likely an uninformed t*sser who gets rewarded the more outrageous his lies and propaganda about genetic purity become (the irony is astonishing of course)
'we' are family. fact.
I've read these comments with great interest. As an impartial reader my conclusion is that Coleridge, JJJ and Frederick exude words of wisdom. Arminius and Jankass exude what emerges from a horse's ass.
great, another sock puppet joins the Alliance...let me just say a warm and hearty welcome Terence McUnty.
Maybe you should leave the comments to those with brains larger than a grape.
How charming. I am 69 years old and have never commented on an on-line magazine before. I am neither Jewish or Arab. I make what I think is a pretty innocuous comment and get called a 'c.nt' by one Mohammedan and am told my brain is smaller than a grape by a second mohammaden. I am a retired former headmaster. Tell me please what chance of peace between Arab and Israeli when someone such as myself is subjected to such extreme histrionic abuse for daring to intrude into this interminable squabble?
ah shucks Terence, so because you are 69 you think you can call a 47 year old an ass and not get insulted right back? and why you think i am a "Mohammedan" is only logical if you are just another sock puppet.
what hope peace? well let's start by you joining threads in a constructive manner, or perhaps you reckon calling my contributions "horse droppings" was friendly and constructive?
yeah rrrright...so by all means mend some fences and apologise for how you joined this thread, otherwise you will remain known as McUnty.
over to you dear.
Personally I don't think your brain is smaller than a grape. I suggest it's somewhere between a rat's dropping and a bird's dropping, whichever is smaller.
Don't worry though, if it's any consolation one of my ex-headmasters was a right t0sser (I don't think you're related though, he was a bit intelligent; but a t0sser!).
Ps, I know you said you're 69, but if you don't like being insulted then don't insult others. simples really.
A sock puppet is a sock puppet no matter what bs fairy tales they post.
Dear Mr Mcarthy, I am so sorry that you have been subjected to this sort of abuse. The culprits are a bunch of uncouth, rather primitive Islamists who are indistinguishable from the turbaned sub-humans one sees on TV running around screaming 'alahu akhbar', waving swords, screaming "death to this and that" and setting flags alight and sometimes cutting off people's heads. I am sure that there is nothing personal in the abuse you have been subjected - they hate everyone, would like to kill everyone and even kill each other and themselves. Kind regards F.
just to pick you up on 1 amongst many many errors. you say "I am sure that there is nothing personal in the abuse you have been subjected..."
wrong. it most certainly is personal, based entirely on what that particular sock puppet posted. it does remain quite amusing to see you post under a variety of names, and then praise yourself for being a clever little sh*t. keep entertaining me or i am off Fredprick. chop chop....
Four guilty of Danish terror plot
'The men were arrested in late December 2010 just hours before authorities say they planned to carry out a violent attack on the Jyllands-Posten's offices in Copenhagen.
The Glostrup City Court handed down prison sentences to Mounir Ben Mohamed Dhahri, Munir Awad, Omar Abdalla Aboelazm, and Sabhi Ben Mohamed Zalouti.
The men, Swedish residents of North African and Mideast origin, had been under surveillance by Swedish and Danish intelligence agencies at the time but denied the charges during the trial. The four gave conflicting explanations about the purpose of their journey, which included New Year celebrations in the Danish capital and travel in Sweden.
Surveillance recordings played during the trial showed the four men meeting in Stockholm and discussing martyrdom, the Jyllands-Posten newspaper and how they should kill as many people as possible inside the building housing the paper and take one hostage...'At a prayer service in Denmark before their arrest, the men were heard on a surveillance tape saying "when you meet the infidels, cut their throats" '
Scandinavia is no stranger to terrorism originating from the Middle East:
"Israel's intelligence service, Mossad, acted without Norwegian help in a botched 1973 assassination in the ski resort of Lillehammer, a national commission concluded yesterday.Norwegians have long speculated about involvement by their own police or intelligence service in the killing, which has been shrouded in secrecy for 27 years, and which has been a sore point in otherwise warm relations between Norway and Israel.
On July 21 1973, a team of Israeli hitmen shot dead a Moroccan waiter, Ahmed Bouchikhi, as he walked home from the cinema with his pregnant wife in the resort, 110 miles north of Oslo. The assassins apparently mistook Bouchikhi for Hassan Salameh, a PLO intelligence chief suspected of masterminding the killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. "This was much more than a murder," said Gullow Gjeseth, head of the six-member government commission. "This was a violation of Norwegian sovereignty. It is a completely special case."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/mar/02/israel
These primitives ought to be stoned to death.
and Frederick's mask slips.....maybe this is how you Islamofascists behave in your apartheid Pakistan, but here in the civilised West we believe in the rule of law. go back to your cave and shag a goat or corpse blah blah blah blah
Yet another suicide bombing. Sunni fanatics against Shiite fanatics in Iraq. 30 dead. Brought to you by the religion of peace and happiness.
When the Ba'ath Party ruled Iraq, there were no such atrocities until the USofA decided to bring the benefits of democracy to a desperate country. Sectarian infighting and murder brought to you by the plutocrats in the West.
Arminius I suggest you rapidly head back into your Pakistani cave: you'll be hearing the buzz of a good ol USofA drone above you shortly.
I would suggest you stop posting drivel if I thought you would pay any heed. Maybe you could get together with JJJ and bulk buy your Bacofoil.
Since you are so obssesed with Bacofoil (every post or so of yours) it's a surprise you haven't posted on the 'Stuffed with cream cheese -and love' article.
Is it kosher?
So Armi, Iraq was a paradise sur the Euphrates was it? You degenerate racist. What else to expect from a scummy admirer of the Fuhrerprinzip.
I don't think I suggested it was numbnuts but the US was happy to supply Saddam so long as he was killing Iranians (plus some Kurds and Marsh Arabs). How many thousands have died since the US initiated its masterpiece of foreign policy? Why are you so nasty? Did the Moil's knife slip when he was mutilating your schwanz?
But we are talking about now, not about the war which removed a mass murderer and his psycopathic sons. For the record, France and the Soviet Union, Germany and China supplied Saddam with weapons for years. This was all part and parcel of the Cold War, numbnuts.
And for you to blame the Americans fo the mass murder campaign by Al Quaida in Iraq and for all the other barbarity that muslims show their co-religionists is intellectual dishonesty of the highest order. Coupled with your racism- I've told you that I'm not Jewish. You then responded that you didn't care if I was or not. So here you go resurrecting your rubbish.
What is common to antisemites is the way they throw out words in Hebrew or Yiddish to show their superior knowledge of the Jews.
Like Eichmann, the 'Jewish expert'.
What's a Moil, Mr. Schmutz?
So how do you think we got to the "now" dipsh*t? The US was happy to support the mass murderer so long as it suited its strategic interests and when it did not he was removed. This opened a pandoras box which is still killing Iraqis.
You are Jewish and live in a Kibbutz outside Tel Aviv. A little troll told me so.
so because a few extremist Muslims are murdering one another, and innocent bystanders, in Iraq you think Israel is justified to discriminate against Muslims in Israel?
No jackarse the point is that Moslem fanatics just can't stop slaughtering each other and anyone else who has the misfortune to come into contact with them. That's why Islam is at war with the Jews, Christians, the secular, women, Gays, Americans, Nigerians, Chinese, Russians, Thais, Phillipines, Hindus and sikhs as well as themselves.
oh an insult, gosh, how dreary. fine Fredprick we'll play it your way again.
thanks for sort of answering the question though Fredprick. yes those you've correctly identified as the "Moslem fanatics" do tend to slaughter opne another, but that does not by default mean 'all Muslims' are similarly inclined. do the maths dumbo.
by your logic all Catholics would be kiddy fiddlers....do try and think a bit more Fredprick rather than display just what an utter bigoted-dick you are.
Mr Hussein who runs the corner shop where I buy my morning paper is a Muslim so does this mean he is at war with me? What now? Do I do a forward roll into his shop tomorrow morning, draw my Glock 17 and give him a double tap to the head or do I simply boycott Muslim shops? Maybe a couple of EDL boneheads on the door to make sure others don't go in.
Personally I'd take no chances with your Mr.Hussein supposedly innocent newsagent. He sound very much like psycho al-Qaida to me.
Oh please. Spare us the invented scenarios of 'Mr. Hussein' from the 'paper shop'. You spend all day on the internet and you don't leave your padded cell, even to go down to the 'paper shop'.
Sorry to shatter your distorted view of me but Mr Hussein does exist and I buy The Scotsman most days from his shop on the way to work. Maybe if you spent less time posting crap here you might also find paid employment (sorry Mr Husein has no vacancies).
Do they read The Scotsman in Abbotobad?
Whatever the organisation employing you to post here is paying you, it is far too much.
Evidently noone is paying you except the DSS.
ouch...
I think you mean his padded cave in apartheid Pakistan.
The caves in Pakistan must be really high tech if you think they have high speed broadband connections in all of them. Much easier to post the pish you do rather than work a brain cell thinking.
The caves in Pakistan must be really high tech if you think they have high speed broadband connections in all of them. Much easier to post the pish you do rather than work a brain cell thinking.
Since its pretty obvious from your posts that you are a pathologically anti-Jew racist Islamist fanatic - your questions are a tad otiose.
Since its pretty obvious from your posts that you are a pathologically anti-Jew racist Islamist fanatic - your questions are a tad otiose.
Frederick, I don't believe that Armi is a Muslim. Armi posted here as Sir Oswald (Mosely), he hates Jews with a vengeance and uses racist terminology can only be one thing: A Nazi. Armi is a Nazi who uses the Muslims as Hitler used the Mufti in WW2.
Armi has wet dreams about his Glock because he fantasizes about going to Israel and doing what Rommel would have achieved if Rommel had broken through to Palestine.
So you have never heard of Sir Oswald Stoll? Big surprise. Any more theories brewing under that tin foil hat?
na I'm pretty certain he's an Islamist loon from apartheid Pakistan with a love of Hitler, Himmler, The Handschar SS and Oswald Moseley. These figures are very popular over there.
I suspect both of you are right. He is a Nazi and an Islamist fanatic from apartheid Pakistan. The two are not exactly mutually exclusive!
Any more party tricks? Is the ghost of Menachim "I hate Goyim" Begin to make an appearance?
Equally obvious that you are a racist Zionist puppet yet I asked you a question. Much easier to post a snotty rsponse than address the issue.
Why is the NS censoring comments? JJJ posted on United Nations Resolutions. I responded and the powers-that-be here didn't like the response because it showed JJJ in a bad light. So what do they do? They remove both our posts!
You really are a dickehead aren't you? You deny the truth? That yesterday you posted about Israel and the UN, then I responded and the NS pulled both our posts.
You deny this? Scum.