Israel Matzav

Ashkelon a den of apartheid?

On Tuesday night, the city council of Sacramento, California will meet to decide whether to enter into a sister city relationship with rocket shelled Ashkelon in southern Israel. Opponents are attacking Ashkelon as an 'apartheid' city, claiming that Arabs and Jews do not enjoy equal rights in the city (by law they do) and claiming that Arabs were expelled from Ashkelon during the 1948 War of Independence (no, Ashkelon is not over the 'green line') in which the nascent Jewish state was attacked by five Arab armies aided and abetted by the British.

Ironically, Sacramento already has a sister city relationship with another city in which Jews are excluded from political life and Christians are gradually being forced to convert (to what else - Islam) or leave. That city would be Bethlehem in the imaginary state of 'Palestine.'

When Sacramento entered into its sister city relationship with Bethlehem in 2009, one of the promises made was that Sacramento would enter into a similar relationship with an Israeli city in the future. The future is now. And on Tuesday night, we will see whether Sacramento joins New York, Los Angeles and Boston and other US cities in having a sister city relationship with a city in Israel.

According to a group calling itself, “No Human Rights, No Sister City,” Ashkelon is such a den of overt discrimination, that if Ashkelon is approved as a sister city it will expose Sacramento to law suits because “discrimination on the basis of national origin is prohibited in the U.S. and California constitutions.” Under this reasoning the more than forty cities across the United States which already have sister-city relationships with towns in Israel, many of which have been in existence for decades, are all vulnerable to discrimination suits. Those cities include New York (Jerusalem), Los Angeles (Eilat), Chicago (Petach Tikva) and Boston (Haifa).

The anti-Ashkelon activists also describe Ashkelon as having been the thriving “Palestinian” city of Majdal Asqualan whose residents were thrown out in waves of ethnic cleansing by Israeli military, starting in 1948.

The ancient Biblical connection between Ashkelon and the Jewish people is not included in the hate literature. Ashkelon is the site of the most famous haircut in Jewish history – it is where Delilah cut Samson’s hair, depleting his strength, in the famous Biblical story found in Judges XIV-XVI.

Although Arab Israelis have the same rights as do Jewish Israelis both in Ashkelon and throughout Israel, Sacramento does indeed have a sister-city where Apartheid reigns.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Ashkelon, BDS, Bethlehem, Israeli apartheid

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:38 AM