Former Knesset member speaks on Haider and Israeli internal racism
Regional-Israel, Politics, 2/3/2000

A left wing Israeli activist came out openly against her own country's outcry with regard to the latest developments in Austria saying that Israel "should first clean up its own home front from racism before it voices protest against the rising power of Jeorge Haidar's right wing party in Austria. Shulamit Aloni, the former Knesset member and ex-head of left wing Meretz Party said in a radio interview that Israel should first address the racism problem from within before it looks at what is happening beyond the borders of the Jewish state.

"I hate all racists but let us not forget that Haidar never said anything anti-Semitic," said Aloni urging Israelis to clean up their own home front from racism, which has been legalized by the existing system of rule in Israel.

Aloni attacked the way foreign workers are being treated in Israel and said they have become slaves of their Jewish employers. "Everyone in Israel knows that foreign workers are badly treated; their passports are confiscated so they can become slaves of their employers and their women are raped while they do not even dare complain to the police out of fear of being deported out of the country," she said.

Aloni recalled a visit by Zvulun Orlev, member of the National Religious Party who heads the Knesset education committee, to a school in Tel Aviv lately in which he spoke out openly against foreign workers and their children. "Kick them out of our country. They live here at our expense," Aloni quoted the MK as saying and noted that his statement was a reflection of how bad things have become in Israel. She also attacked the Education Ministry for preparing what she called a black list of children who are considered to be Jews but are not recognized as such by the ministry simply because their parents may have converted without going through the traditional religious rulings of the ultra-orthodox parties. "This is racism made legal," she said.

When Mr. Murtada, the first Egyptian ambassador to Israel arrived in the country, said Aloni, he wanted to rent a house in the area of Savion on a land slot that was Arab and later became under the control of the Keren Kayemet, Israel's Jewish National Fund. At the time, she said, Rabbi Hess of Bar Ilan University and his followers opposed giving the house to the new ambassador though he was the fist messenger of peace from the Arab world. Hess and his followers, said Aloni, had insisted that a non-Jew should not be allowed to live in a Jewish neighbourhood. The ambassador finally got the house with the intervention of then-Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, she said.

Aloni criticized the exaggerated use of Holocaust by Israelis saying that the people in Israel have got used to utilizing the Holocaust for their public campaigns sometimes without any need. "We should not make use of the Holocaust with or without need. Only when there is need, we should do so in order to educate the future generations and to warn of possible repetition of the Holocaust."

Ethiopian Jews are also victims of racism in Israel, said Aloni. She noted that they are being identified as Ethiopians and not as Jews because their Jewish identity has yet to be approved by the religious parties. "We always yell and complain all over the world believing that it is our right to criticize anybody and everybody yet we insist that we should not be criticized by others," she said. "Can you imagine that in England some would say that whoever does not belong to the Anglican Church is a second class citizen? Can you imagine that Jews are accordingly treated as second class citizens in England?" said Aloni. She said she differed with the claim in Israel that it is a state for all its citizens. "In fact we have a fragmented society of more than 12 different ethnic and religious sectors," she said.

Aloni said that the Arabs were also victims of Israeli racism saying that the authorities for instance have taken over lots of Arab property in Palestine, including 2.5 million dunums that were handed over to the Keren Kayemet so that Arabs would never have the chance to buy their property back from us. By contrast, she added, Jewish settlers and a number of Jewish organizations have looked for every site in the West Bank where they claimed it was Jewish, took it over and turned it out into a historic site. Arabs, she said, are never given a chance to renovate their homes in which they live or retrieve part of the property that was taken from them.

Previous Stories:
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  Israelis not satisfied with Swiss deal   (8/17/1998)
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