Racism
By Steven Plaut
Allow us to introduce you to young Kochav Segal Halevi. The life of
the Israeli 26 year old is in danger and he is receiving death
threats. In fact he had to go into hiding. His offence? He
purchased an apartment in the Arab town of ‘Iblin not far from Haifa.
The Arabs of the town do not like the idea of their town being
polluted by the presence of a Jew. I mean, one Jew and there goes the
neighborhood. The left-leaning Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot (Nov. 7,
2010) described the threats he has been receiving and how he fears for
his life. He is now in hiding. Arabs who sell real property to Jews
have similarly been threatened and attacked. And of course the
moderates from the Palestinian Authority routinely torture and execute
summarily Arabs who sell property to Jews.
Now I mention all this because the leftist media in Israel and in the
world are - as usual - up in arms over supposed Israeli Jewish
“racism” against Arabs. There are some Jewish closed communities in
Israel, some of them religiously observant, in which one must be
accepted as a member by an admissions committee in order to live
there, and these tend to refuse membership to Arabs “to preserve the
character of the community.” (In religious communities, non-religious
Jews get barred as well. Other communities, including kibbutzim, have
age and marital status restrictions.) There have also been calls in
recent days, including from some local public officials, in Carmiel
and in Safed in the Galilee, to restrict the movement of Arabs into
those towns.
But of course the reality is that, by and large, Israeli Arabs may
move into and live in just about any Jewish area in the country, while
Jews cannot move into any Arab town or village or neighborhood. The
Jews cannot move into the Arab areas because they will be murdered if
they move there. Every single Israeli understands these unwritten
“rules of the game.” In fact, Jews often risk their lives just
passing through Arab areas, as a group of four Hebrew University
Jewish students discovered over the past weekend when they were almost
lynched after making a wrong turn into an Arab neighborhood next to
the campus. (I myself have made that same wrong turn, the signs being
unclear at that intersection.) Jews are also attacked when holding
political marches in Arab towns, in contrast with the anti-Jewish
marches regularly conducted by Arabs in Tel Aviv and other Jewish
areas.
Arabs from (Arab) Nazareth routinely buy housing in (Jewish) Upper
Nazareth, but the Jews from Upper Nazareth never purchase property in
(Arab) Nazareth, knowing they will be murdered if they do. During the
pogroms by Galilee Arabs in the summer of 2000, Arabs invaded Upper
Nazareth and attacked Jews there. The Jews of Upper Nazareth did NOT
attack Arabs in Nazareth. So who are the racists there? The Orr
Commission set up to investigate those pogroms condemned the Israeli
police and their commanders for using “excessive” force against the
Arab lynch mobs attacking Jews, but it did not denounce the lynch mobs
themselves.
More generally, the new party line of the radical Left and their
Islamofascist allies is that – yes – Arabs must be permitted to live
anywhere they want among Israeli Jews, but – no - Jews must be
prevented from ever moving into areas the Left regards as “Arab
areas,” places where Jews do not belong. The Hebrew University’s
tenured Leftists (and their jihadi fellow travelers) have been leading
the marches in Jerusalem to prevent Jews from moving into
neighborhoods inside Jerusalem regarded by these Klansmen of the Left
as areas where Jews are regarded as “intruders.”
So imagine, if you will, a situation in which people are demanding
that all whites in the American South be permitted to move into towns
and neighborhoods with black majorities and characters, but that no
black people at all be allowed to move into any areas in which whites
live. Now you might object that I have reversed the “majority” and
“minority” groups in the metaphor. But you would be wrong. Many
parts of the Galilee today have Arab majorities. The Jews in Carmiel
and Safed, to name but two towns, feel they are under demographic
siege. Much of the local opposition to Arabs moving into those towns
is based upon the fact that violence and hostilities have broken out
when significant numbers of Arabs move to neighborhoods there. After
all, we are in the middle of a war and the local Arabs, by and large,
openly identify with the country’s enemies. Then, of course, there is
also the little fact that no Jews at all can move into Arab towns and
villages in the surroundings of those same towns without being
murdered.
The anti-Israel Left sees “racism” in calls to restrict Arabs moving
into the Jewish towns of the Galilee, but has never ever ever ever
expressed an iota of criticism about the violent threats that prevent
Jews from moving into Arab areas. Those folks have had nothing to say
about the plight of young Halevi. THAT is NOT racism, you see. The
Left also is completely sympathetic to the violent attacks by Arabs
against rightwing Jewish protest marchers who hold marches in some
Arab towns, like Umm al-Fahm, the seat of the Israeli Arab pro-jihad
Islamofascist movement (a movement that openly identifies with the
Hamas). After all, those Jewish marchers are violating the
anti-Jewish sensitivities of the local Arabs. Of course, when gay
pride marches are held in Jewish religious neighborhoods of Jerusalem
(but never, mind you, in Moslem neighborhoods there!), no Leftist
thinks THOSE marchers should be expected to respect local
sensitivities. These are the same leftists who see nothing “racist”
about Gazan Arabs firing thousands of rockets into the homes and
schools of Negev Jews. Racism is only when Israel retaliates by
restricting imports into Gaza.
Now it is true that the threats against Jews, which effectively
prevent Jews from living in Arab areas in the Galilee and Negev and
elsewhere, are not formal and officially proclaimed. That is why the
Israeli courts never have anything to say about them, but get livid
and self-righteous whenever any Jewish gated communities shut their
gates to Arab residency. Nevertheless, everyone in the country
understands the threats of violence that operate against Jews seeking
to live in Arab areas. Jews only challenge those threats when they
come in large numbers and with massive police protection, such as in
some places in Jerusalem into which Jews have moved.
As I say, the media responses and the leftist kneejerk responses to
those Jewish “invasions” of areas where “Jews do not belong” have been
to demand that the Jews be evicted. Let in a few Yids and there goes
the neighborhood! Arabs routinely move into many Jewish
neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa and there have been
virtually no incidents of violence against them. Meanwhile the Left
keeps insisting that any peace deal with the Palestinian Authority
must involve the complete eviction of all Jews living in the West
Bank. Arabs will be free to live in Israel after any such “peace
deal,” but Jews must be prohibited from living in what could become
“Palestinian areas.” So who here are the real racists? Where is the
REAL apartheid?
Let us also note that none of the Hebrew University tenured leftists
leading the marches against Jews living in Jerusalem neighborhoods
where the profs think they do not belong have any Arabs living in
THEIR buildings next to them!
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