Bnei Brak is a city of around 150,000, next to Tel Aviv. Apparently [according to Ynet], "notices against employing Palestinians in Israel without a permit" have been appearing in the last week.
The notices stated, "As is known, for a number of years we have suffered from the presence of alien workers (at one of the major intersections) throughout the day. These alien workers include dozens of members of the minority – Arabs who strike terror in the hearts of the public, wander aimlessly in stairwells and porches, provoking our children and even doing things which cannot be detailed here."
And there was more:
The organizers of the notices did not forget to add a halachic injunction, mentioning various rulings including the preference of our own nation over all others, noting that when they employ an Arab they cause the Arab to stay and keep hold of the Holy Land.
Meanwhile, on Monday, there was a report on a row in the southern Kiryat Malachi municipality over road signs in Arabic. Shai Geffen, writing to the mayor, complained that the Arabic signs hurt the feelings of the public trying to bring up their children as Jews, as well as endangering life. Mayor Moti Molka has promised to act. [Thanks Awatef for the translation]
Of course they are afraid. They are imagining that Arabs might be as savage as they have been if ever they got the chance. You know, eye for and eye, and all that.
I certainly don’t support what’s going on in Bnei Brak, but given that many, many Arabs have worked in Israel in the past, could it possibly be that just about everybody in Bnei Brak probably knows someone who was killed or injured by a suicide bomber?
Can you possibly recognize the humanity of the Israelis here?
What does Arabs working in Israel have to do with people in Bnei Brak knowing people killed by suicide bombers?
I’m having trouble seeing any logic whatsoever, just weird racism.
Because this post is decontextualized and makes it seem like people in Bnei Brak just woke up one day and started fearing Arabs, when in reality there is a reason. Of course it’s racism; I don’t deny that it is. As I said, I don’t support what is going on in Bnei Brak. But it is result of suicide bombing.
If you had the experiences people in Bnei Brak had, and learned through bitter experience that an Arab worker could be a guy with a suicide belt on, you might be fearful as well. That is why suicide bombing is such a terrible thing.
Why does the Israelis being human mean that we should approve of their racism?
And I’m glad to note that you’ve provided the perfect excuse for suicide bombing, since estimates are 1/3 of the men have been subjected to physical abuse of some kind at the hands of the Israeli army, not to mention the state-sponsored murder and mass executions, ethnic cleansing, home demolitions, land confiscation for Jewish-only roads and settlements – and the Palestinians are the native people of the land, not most Israeli Jews, as Helen Thomas so impolitely noted. The problem with the Israeli racism is that it’s one of the root causes of the conflict – Israel’s founders wanted Palestine without the Palestinian Arabs (because they were profoundly racist) hence they killed a lot of them and terrorized hundreds of thousands more into leaving.
Can you possibly recognize the humanity of the Israelis here?
The Israelis will have to act humanely, to be recognized for their humanity.
So far they have been failing miserably. And its supporters such as yourself, certainly don’t help its image by justifying its murderous mad dog rampages.
“Can you possibly recognize the humanity of the Israelis here?”
O.K. That sentiment convinces me. You are Richard Witty, and I claim my five pounds.
Road signs in Arabic! How hurtful! How scary!
There’s black people drinking in my water fountain! And you know black people are [INSERT WHATEVER RACIST GENERALIZATION WAS ACCEPTABLE IN MAINSTREAM SOCIETY AT THE TIME].
WAAAAAAA!!!
Maybe someone should send these notices to the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, substituting “black” for “Arab”.
Well, if black people had gone around during the ’60′s blowing themselves up with the aim of killing as many whites as possible, and the CBC response was to support the black “right of resistance” I don’t think blacks would have gotten equal rights in this country and I think white people would be pretty scared.
So, since Israeli Jews have been going around killing as many Palestinians as they can get away with, you don’t believe Jews should have rights on par with the native Palestinians. I’m glad.
Bnei Brak is not just a suburb, though – it is a primarily ultra-orthodox city. This means it is mostly poor (because the men cannot be employed until they’re in their 30s, due to an arrangement with the military) and is not very much into laws of anything but the halacha.
Michael II over at Shalom-salaam found this little ray of hope, it’s about a French tv show with a dozen Israeli and Palestinian youth being locked in a house ala Big Brother, and told to come up with a solution. It’s in French though, parlez francais anybody?
link to lefigaro.fr 09ARTFIG00460-une-emission-pour-resoudre-le-conflit-israelo- palestinien.php
link to lefigaro.fr 09ARTFIG00460-une-emission-pour-resoudre-le-conflit-israelo- palestinien.php
Here you go Droog:
link to bit.ly
And a google translation of same for non-French speakers (such as myself):
link to bit.ly
Sounds like it will be a really interesting series – especially since the Israelis will not be permitted to carry heavy weapons into the house..
Wow. Can’t believe it, I passed some of the best moments of my life on the Iles du Frioul. Thanks for the news.
O, Puté !
If Israelis were willing to do their own scut work, they wouldn’t have to import any foreign workers.
ariehzimmerman
It is too bad that the very thing rightfully condemned in Israel society appears also in generalizations of the Israelis by others.
“The Isarelis”, “they”, “them” , sound to me no different than “The Arabs”, “they”, “them” when mouthed by the right-wing admirers of the Natnayau/Lieberman axis.
I ask for no special consideration for right-wing Israelis, than were allowed for racist South Africans, Southern Whites, or Turkish haters of Armenians. I remember all to well, myself in my teens, sure that any white South African was a bigot, but knowing nothing of Helen Suzman or Alan Paton or many others.
It doesn’t take a hell of a lot of Googleing to see that millions of Israelis reject the stupidity and racism which guide the last few of our governments.
So, leave me out of “they” and “them”, and I’ll try to not to remember that Americans voted for Bush twice.