<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Israel: The ugly&nbsp;truth]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<div id="ctl00_cphBody_dvArticleInfoBlock">
<div id="ctl00_cphBody_dvSummary" class="articleSumm"><em>As it slides further into open and violent racism, Israel offers the Western world a reflection of itself.</em></div>
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<div id="dvByLine_Date"><strong><span id="ctl00_cphBody_dvByLine" class="byLine"> Mya Guarnieri</span><span id="dvArticleDate"> Last Modified: <span id="ctl00_cphBody_lblDate">22 Jan 2011 12:16 GMT | &#8211; Opinion &#8211; Al Jazeera English</span> </span></strong></div>
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<td align="center"><span style="font-size:10px;font-family:Verdana;"><span style="font-size:10px;font-family:Verdana;"><strong>Violence  towards immigrants and Palestinian citizens of Israel may seem like  distinct issues, but there is evidence to suggest that moves targeting  one group soon spread to another [GALLO/GETTY]</strong></span></span><strong> </strong></td>
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<p>There was that jarring week in December &#8211; a protest against  Arab-Jewish couples, a south Tel Aviv march and demonstration against  migrant workers and African asylum seekers, the arrest of Jewish  teenagers accused of beating Palestinians and the expulsion of five Arab  men from their home in south Tel Aviv. It left me with the question:  What is next?</p>
<p>It is impossible to predict the future. But there are signs that violence, perpetrated by citizens, could be spreading.</p>
<p>In  mid-January, dozens of young Jews attacked Muslims at a mosque in Yafo  or Jaffa, the historically Arab city just south of Tel Aviv. An Israeli  media outlet reports that the youth, who were armed with stones and  Israeli flags, shouted &#8220;Mohammed is a pig&#8221; and &#8220;Death to Arabs&#8221; just as  the Muslims were preparing to pray.</p>
<p>When the police arrived, they did not arrest any of the assailants.</p>
<p>And  just a few days before that march in south Tel Aviv, seven Sudanese men  were attacked in Ashdod, a coastal city in the south of Israel.</p>
<p>According  to Israeli media reports, someone threw a flaming tyre into the  apartment the men shared. Five suffered from smoke inhalation, two were  hospitalised.</p>
<p>Another alarming act of violence took place in  south Tel Aviv that same night. The Hotline for Migrant Workers, an  Israeli NGO, reports that three teenage girls &#8211; Israeli-born,  Hebrew-speaking daughters of African migrant workers &#8211; were beaten by a  group of Jewish teenagers. The attackers, one of whom was armed with a  knife, allegedly called them &#8220;dirty niggers&#8221;. One of the girls needed  medical treatment for her injuries.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s worth noting that the  girls had already experienced such violence in the neighbourhood,&#8221;  Poriya Gal, the spokeswoman for the Hotline for Migrant Workers, says.  &#8220;But they chose not to report it to the police out of the fear that they  would be attacked again.&#8221;</p>
<p>Another frightening indicator of the  mood here: In south Tel Aviv, on the day of the protest, a number of  afterschool programmes closed early so that children could get home  safely before the demonstration began. Administrators were worried that  the children might otherwise get caught up in the march and attacked by  protestors.</p>
<p>Because asylum seekers are often reluctant to ask for  help &#8211; and they are unlikely to turn to the police &#8211; it is hard to  determine the precise number of racially motivated attacks.</p>
<p>But  the African Refugee Development Committee (ARDC) reports that asylum  seekers are increasingly being evicted from their homes, despite the  fact that they have paid rent. And the committee has been alerted to  another alarming trend. Dara Levy-Bernstein of the ARDC says: &#8220;There  have been a lot of [asylum seekers] complaining about being stopped by  police or soldiers &#8211; we&#8217;re not entirely sure which &#8211; but they&#8217;re people  in uniform who have been taking their visas and tearing them up.&#8221;</p>
<p>Some  argue that asylum seekers and Palestinians represent distinct issues  that are distinctly complicated. In some ways, they do. But the police  or soldiers who tear asylum seekers&#8217; visas are the same people who fail  to arrest Jewish citizens for throwing stones at Muslim worshippers. And  it boils down to something very simple: How Israel, and some of its  citizens, views those it considers &#8216;others&#8217;.</p>
<p><strong>Turning away the other</p>
<p></strong>When  I ask Orit Rubin, a psycho-social coordinator at ASSAF Aid Organisation  for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, if she has noticed a rise in  violence, she asks me to define violence.</p>
<p>While she has not seen  an increase in physical attacks, she has recently received reports from  Sudanese café and pub owners who say that police have entered their  places of business and sprayed tear gas into the air, without any  provocation.</p>
<p>The most common problem Rubin sees is African  children that are being refused the public education that they are  legally entitled to. Right here in Tel Aviv &#8211; the supposed bastion of  Israeli liberalism &#8211; five children from two Eritrean families were  recently refused registration.</p>
<p>And for four months, four Eritrean  children have been turned away from a school in Bnei Brak, a religious  suburb of Tel Aviv, because they are not Jewish. Rubin says she has  written to the minister of education about the matter. She is still  waiting for a response.</p>
<p>And then there are those who are  illegally denied medical care. Rubin remarks: &#8220;This morning I got news  from [our field worker] in Eilat that a pregnant woman was sitting at a  medical clinic and the doctor came out and said &#8216;I&#8217;m not taking care of  Sudanese&#8217; and they asked her to leave.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rubin adds that the  doctor&#8217;s refusal of treatment was even more shocking because the woman  had insurance, something many asylum seekers lack.</p>
<p>The same day I  interview Rubin, I meet an Ethiopian asylum seeker in Ashkelon who  tells me that he recently sought medical help after he was attacked on  the street by a Jewish Israeli. He was bleeding when he arrived at the  hospital. And he was turned away.</p>
<p><strong>Testing the water<br />
</strong><br />
It  might seem sensationalist to draw conclusions about violence and  discrimination from such examples. But it is important to recognise  these trends early on and act on them, before they have a chance to lay  root.</p>
<p>Yohannes Bayu, the founder and director of the ARDC, points  out that the Israeli rabbis&#8217; edict against renting and selling property  to Arabs came months after a similar letter was posted in south Tel  Aviv.</p>
<p>&#8220;It started there, with the refugees,&#8221; Bayu says. &#8220;And  nobody responded. And then it was, &#8216;Let&#8217;s expand that&#8217; and [the rabbis]  came up with [the edict against] the Arabs.&#8221;</p>
<p>So if there is not a  strong response to what is happening in south Tel Aviv now, Bayu says:  &#8220;It&#8217;s obvious that [things] can go to another level. This is what  happened in Germany and many other places.&#8221;</p>
<p>When asked if he  hopes that the government will step in and help prevent an escalation,  Bayu answers: &#8220;They&#8217;re the ones who started it.&#8221;</p>
<p>He points  towards the remarks of Eli Yishai, the interior minister, that migrants  bring &#8220;a profusion&#8221; of diseases and drugs to Israel &#8211; claims that fly in  the face of ministry of health data proving that migrants have low  rates of illness.</p>
<p>Other government employees, including a Tel  Aviv city council member, have blamed foreigners for increasing crime  even though a recent Knesset report proves that asylum seekers are  actually much less likely to be involved in criminal activities than  Israelis.</p>
<p>And both migrant workers and asylum seekers were  targeted by a government campaign of advertisements depicting &#8220;real  Israelis&#8221; (read: paid actors) who did not have work because of  &#8220;foreigners&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;First, they [the government] try to create this  fear among the public, to create this discrimination, and then the  result is always violence,&#8221; Bayu says. &#8220;That&#8217;s my biggest fear.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Fear of the unknown<br />
</strong><br />
Rubin agrees that the problem is rooted in the government. But she also adds that it says something about society.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think that some of it is not just Israel. It&#8217;s human nature to fear what you don&#8217;t know, to fear what is different.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rubin pauses.</p>
<p>&#8220;Me,  personally,&#8221; she continues, &#8220;I was brought up in a home of Holocaust  survivors and I was always taught that Israelis are different &#8230; that  they have learned from experience and will be weary before they slide  into racism. But, you know, it&#8217;s not like that.</p>
<p>&#8220;Part of it is  that we forgot what happened in the Second World War was human. Humans  were doing it &#8211; not beasts, not monsters, but humans.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Reflection of the West</p>
<p></strong>It  is too easy to demonise Israel, in part because the government, the  army and some of the people do things that make it so easy.</p>
<p>But  one of the ugliest truths about Israel &#8211; a truth that must be faced in  both the US and Europe, where xenophobic and anti-Islamic sentiments are  also on the rise &#8211; is that Israel offers the Western world a reflection  of itself.</p>
<p>Of course, it is an exaggerated, hyperbolic image.  But it is a picture of nationalism gone wrong. It is a picture of what  can happen when a state believes that its very survival depends on  maintaining a certain demographic balance. It is a picture of what  happens when any country believes that those who change these numbers  are an existential threat.</p>
<p>And it is getting more and more frightening here by the day.</p>
<p><strong><em>Mya  Guarnieri is a Tel Aviv-based journalist and writer. A regular  contributor to Al Jazeera English, her work has also appeared in The  Guardian and The Huffington Post, as well as other international media  outlets.</p>
<p>The views expressed in this article are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera&#8217;s editorial policy.</em></strong></p>
<p>via <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/01/2011121175420298767.html">Israel: The ugly truth &#8211; Opinion &#8211; Al Jazeera English</a>.</p>
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