IT IS BEYOND MY KEN how people parrot “facts” that are indeed lies.
Israel is an “apartheid state.”
Israel oppresses Arabs.
Israel is racist.
Those canards are, in two words, BOVINE EXCREMENT
QUICK QUESTION
Have any of the people making these claims ever BEEN to Israel. Do any of these people have first hand knowledge of life in Israel?
HONESTY IN BLOGGING: I live in Yavne, Israel, within range of Hamas’ missiles targeting civilian sites.
I am being treated at a Tel Aviv hospital because my family doctor feared to send me to Ashdod, south of Yavne, because of Hamas’ missiles.
I have been confined to a roughly 10*12 “safe room” with three other adults, three children, and a large dog because of Hamas’ rockets.
Apartheid
First, define “apartheid.”
Wikipedia does this at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid
Britannica defines it at https://www.britannica.com/topic/apartheid
Merriam-Webster lists it at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apartheid
Collins Dictionary explains it at https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/apartheid
Dictionary.com offers a succinct definition at https://www.dictionary.com/browse/apartheid:
- (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid former policy of segregating and economically and politically oppressing the nonwhite population.
any system or practice that separates people according to color, ethnicity, caste, etc.
All definitions basically are the same; some offer more commentary, but the “bottom line” is segregation and economic restrictions.
APARTHEID DOES NOT EXIST IN ISRAEL
True, there are predominately Jewish neighborhoods.
Likewise, there are predominately Muslim neighborhoods.
There also are — fewer now following recent riots — mixed neighborhoods. (https://tinyurl.com/wvvt2kcp)
By law, any Israeli citizen — Arab (Druze, Muslim, etc.), Jew, and “other” — can live any place he or she can afford.
Most people tend to prefer living close to people of similar background; that’s human nature. Call it “natural” social apartheid.
Economic apartheid
There IS economic apartheid in Israel.
Muslims rarely are found in positions where national security is an issue.
Rarely, but not absolutely.
Arabs — whenever “Arab” appears on this blog, the word refers to Arabs regardless of their religion, or lack of it — are everywhere:
- Courts
Knesset
Medicine,
Military
Municipal governments
Police
Universities and schools
There are NO Arab-free occupations (except perhaps the rabbinate).
There ARE some “Muslim-free” occupations when national security is concerned.
- Communists once were banned from employment by the U.S. government. Communists once also were banned from Congress. Apartheid? Or common sense?
I recently spent far too many days in an Israeli hospital.
I was checked by Jewish and Muslim doctors.
I was “observed” by Jewish and Muslim medical students trailing their professor on rounds.
I had blood drawn (repeatedly) by Jewish and Muslim technicians.
Jewish and Muslim nurses attended to my care.
Jewish and Muslim aides were a constant.
I shared space with an Arab.
What was absent was animosity, at least as far as patient care was concerned.
In other words, no apartheid at the hospital (or the associated university).
Occupation
When your country is repeatedly attacked by your neighbors, you try to keep the neighbor at bay.
The so-called West Bank was captured by Jordan in 1948.
The so-called West Bank was reclaimed from Jordan after the 1967 (6-Day) war in which Israeli implored Jordan not to enter.
Even after defeating the invading Arab armies (again) and gaining control of Israel’s historic capital (Jerusalem), Israel allowed the Muslim Waqf to maintain jurisdiction over Judaism’s holiest site — only Number 3 to Muslims — making the Temple Mount a place Jews cannot pray.
Talk about apartheid!
Check points
What is the purpose of border check points?
According to Wikipedia (https://tinyurl.com/34vr9m62), A border checkpoint is a place, generally between two countries, where travelers or goods are inspected. Authorization often is required to enter a country through its borders. ... To prevent entrance of goods that are illegal or subject to restriction, or to collect tariffs.
Arabs from the PLO/PFLP and Hamas occupied territories are obliged to go through check points to enter Israel.
(Israelis enter these areas at the risk of their lives. Now THAT’s apartheid.)
Arabs from Hamas-controlled Gaza also must pass through an Egyptian check point — when the border portal is open.
U.S. citizens visiting Canada are required to pass Canadian border security inspection. On their return, U.S. citizens (now) need to provide a U.S. passport and a declaration statement.
Only illegal aliens crossing the U.S. southern border are exempt from these onerous inconveniences.
Residents of both PLO/PFLP and Hamas have been known to sneak weapons into Israel to murder Israelis — Arabs, Jews, and “others.” Most security-conscious people would consider a border check point a wise endeavor.
Despite the fact that too many people from the PLO/PFLP and Hamas-controlled areas have tried, and sometimes succeeded, to murder Israels, their masters complain about the inconvenience.
Racism
Is there racism in Israel?
Yes.
Although they have been in Israel since King David, the swarthy Israeli is looked down on by Euro-Jews, recent arrivals (c 1890).
These is the same culture that brought racism to the U.S.
The U.S. inherited racism from the English who not only are racists but classists (snobs) as well.
It might be considered “fair” since the first Jews in North America were Spanish-Portuguese (Sefardi). The Sefardim were less than welcoming when the German Jews arrived. (The Germans then snubbed Jews who came later.)
Israel is a nation of color.
White as snow to black as night.
There are no restrictions on where any Jew (or Arab citizen, for that matter) may reside, but as noted above, people tend to prefer to live with others of a like mind.
Likewise, there are no restrictions regarding employment.
There is a requirement for a university degree to get any good paying job in Israel; no paper, no prestigious job. It’s not what you know but what piece of paper you have. (Another left over from the English.)
The Ethiopians are the newest immigrants. As the “new kid on the block,” and lacking higher education, they currently are working mostly as unskilled labor.
BUT, they are gaining education and as others before them, they too will move up.
It’s not “racism,” it’s “paper-ism.”
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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