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In Israel, ‘likeminded’ people just like to live in the same neighborhood, and town too

Nathan Jeffay has a story in the Forward from Tel Aviv about a new bill, headed for passage, that would authorize housing-sale discrimination in certain small communities on the basis of “social suitability”– which seems to mean Jewish not Palestinian.

Israel is poised to enshrine in law the right of some villages to handpick residents, following the advance of legislation that some decry as carte blanche for ethnic discrimination.

There is an interesting comment in the piece from a guy who evidently grew up in the U.S. He is talking about the “absorption” committees that carry out the discrimination:

Joel Golovensky, president of the Institute for Zionist Strategies, a think tank dedicated to Israel’s continuation “as both a Jewish and a viable democratic state,” said that critics of the committee ignore Israel’s culture of likeminded people living together, and view Israel as if its culture is the same as America’s. “I was educated in America, and it was very difficult for me to see how life in this respect is different here.” The committees, he said, “clearly separate people, like a million other things separate people, but I would not call it discrimination; I would call it empowering [for communities].”

 

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