For the Jewish New Year last week, the Jewish state published a list of the most popular names given to Jewish boys and girls during the Jewish year 5774. Sounds logical, right? Not if you're the New York Times' Jodi Rudoren (who, of course, is also Jewish). Jodi complains that what they didn't tell you is that the most popular boys' name in Israel was Mohammed, a fact that I heard in more places than I'd like to remember.
But even more striking was that Israel’s population authority left Muhammad off the annual Top 10 list of baby names it issued last week before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Haaretz, the left-leaning Israeli daily that first reported the omission, called this in an editorial “another form of racism, which in Israel has become institutionalized and self-evident.”
Sabine Haddad, a spokeswoman for the agency that published the list, described the missing Muhammads as something between a mistake and a misunderstanding. The list, she said, was simply a response to requests “for Hebrew names” in conjunction with the start of “the Hebrew New Year.” It would have been better, she acknowledged, to put an asterisk noting that what she called “obviously Arabic names” were left off. “There was no intention, no political intention,” Ms. Haddad said in an interview. “When journalists called me and asked for the whole list, they received the whole list. It’s not that we hide that.”
Intent aside, Hassan Jabareen, director of Adalah, a legal advocacy center for Arab minority rights, said the episode revealed a deeper issue of invisibility for Israel’s 1.4 million Palestinian citizens and more than 300,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.
Arabs have served in Israel’s Parliament since its opening in 1949, but only one has been a government minister. A 2011 Adalah report found that 6 percent of the state’s Civil Service jobs and 1.2 percent of tenure-track positions in universities were filled by Arabs.
“On TV, if we open Channel 1, Channel 2, Channel 10, in prime time, we don’t see Arabs as producers, as anchors — we don’t see them, they do not exist,” Mr. Jabareen complained. Each channel has an analyst of Arab affairs, but they are Jews, he added, “sending a message that in fact the Arabs are foreigners, this is why we need a mediator between us and them.”
Yes, there is job discrimination against Arabs and everyone here knows it. But there is also job discrimination here against anyone who is not from Ashkenazi (Western) background and often also against anyone who is not secular Ashkenazi and against anyone who hasn't served in the army. It's not just the Arabs.
Second, yes there are jobs here from which Arabs are generally systematically excluded. Anything remotely connected to national security, for example (does anyone wonder why?).
Third, the Arab affairs analysts are meant to explain the Arab viewpoint to Jews - not to propagandize. The only Arab I can think of in this country who could be entrusted to do that is Khaled Abu Toameh, and I suspect that he had wished to do so, he could have been an Arab affairs analyst for one of the television stations a long, long time ago.
Fourth, how many Arabs have the advanced university degrees that are required for many civil service jobs?
Fifth, when have the 'Israeli Arab' parties shown an interest in this sort of thing? What percentage of 'Israeli Arabs' vote in any Israeli election (hint: much lower than the percentage of Jews who vote).
By the way, how many Jews are there in civil service jobs in any Arab country? How many Jewish professors are there in any Arab universities? (How many universities are there in the Arab world anywhere outside the 'Palestinian Authority')? How many Arab countries even have Jewish affairs analysts at all? How many Arab countries have given up hope of extirpating the Jewish state?
US defends Kuwait Airways discrimination against Israelis
The United States Secretary of Transportation is defending Kuwait Airways against charges of discrimination due to the airline's refusal to carry Israelis on its non-stop New York - London route.
In late 2013, a formal
complaint was filed with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation
(Secretary) alleging illegal discrimination by Kuwait Airways (KA) on
the basis of national origin, in violation of federal law
proscribing such discrimination by air carriers. The complaint concerned
the airline's refusal to transport Israeli nationals on nonstop flights
from New York to London. KA's bigoted policy is readily apparent: to
purchase tickets through the airline's website, the passenger must
select his or her nationality from a drop-down list of countries, as
well as the passport issuing country. Israel is absent from these
drop-downs and, consequently, Israeli nationals cannot buy tickets.
The Secretary denied the
complaint earlier this year, asserting that KA had not violated any
U.S. anti-discrimination law because the airline is required to comply
with Kuwaiti law, which prohibits Israeli passport holders from entering
Kuwait. As the attorney now pursuing this matter correctly articulated,
"In essence, the Secretary determined that Kuwait Airways did not
violate U.S. law because that airline was required by Kuwaiti law
to discriminate against Israeli nationals." The Secretary's rationale
is particularly unfounded because the flight at issue goes from New York
to London; the fact that Israeli passport holders cannot enter Kuwait
is wholly irrelevant. Moreover, if any entity conducts business in the United States, it must comply with U.S. law.
Dissatisfied with the
response, Eldad Gatt, who filed the initial complaint, commenced an
action in U.S. federal court in March 2014, appealing the Secretary's
denial and requesting appropriate relief, arguing that "[t]he Secretary
has officially endorsed Kuwait Airways' policy of boycotting Israeli
nationals, and has explicitly authorized Kuwait Airways to continue its
blatantly discriminatory practices."
The complainant is hoping that Kuwait Airways will be barred from operating in the United States if it refuses to change its discriminatory practices.
I'm planning a trip next month, so just for the fun of it, I went to Kuwait Airways' website and tried to book a round trip between London and New York. It keeps telling me that there are no flights available. In fact, I even tried pushing the reservation to June and got told no flights available. And I never reached the nationality question. You don't think they're refusing to transport me because my computer is in Israel, do you?
You know, back in 1991, Israel took a whole bunch of missiles for Kuwait....
What a surprise: There's employment discrimination against Haredim (and Arabs)
I'm sure that you Israelis will all be shocked - just shocked - to hear that a sizable number of Israelis (and an even more sizable number of Israeli employers) is willing to admit an unwillingness to work with Haredim.
A survey of employers and employees, commissioned by the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), reveals disturbing data about
the willingness employees and employers in Israel employ various workers
to work alongside them.
The survey was conducted among 500 respondents, a representative
sample of the adult Jewish population and Hebrew speakers. The results,
which were revealed Sunday, note that politics have a considerable
impact on the type of person employers are willing to hire.
Half of respondents (46%), both employers and employees, expressed
reluctance to work with Arab men. 30% of respondents expressed
reluctance to work with a hareidi man, and 28% are reluctant to work
with educated Arab women.
Employers show particular prejudice, according to the survey. 42% of
employers showed reluctance to employ Arab men; over a third of
employers (37%) expressed a reluctance to employ hareidi men; and 13% of
employers were unwilling to employ married women with small children
from any sector.
Read the whole thing. If you can't get a job because of prejudice and there are no government handouts, on what are you supposed to live?
You all might recall that Naftali Bennett admitted that discrimination against Haredim was an issue when I heard him speak in January.
In this month's Commentary Magazine, Evelyn Gordon has a lengthy piece on the 'Women of the Wall.'
In an interview with Haaretz shortly before finishing his term
as Israel’s ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren said he had been
devoting considerable effort to convincing Israeli leaders that the
battle over the attempt by a women’s group to hold prayer services at
Jerusalem’s Western Wall “could have strategic implications.” In Israel,
Oren explained, the controversy over Women of the Wall “is perceived as
a marginal question,” but “Americans see it as an issue of human rights
and women’s status and freedom of worship.”
This divergence of views between Jews of the diaspora and Jews in
Israel has a simple explanation. Americans see the struggle of Women of
the Wall as a crucial battle for human rights and women’s status because
they believe both are under threat in Israel. Israelis see the struggle
as a marginal issue because they believe neither is under threat. The
story of how that perceptual gulf has developed, and how a 25-year-old
organization exploited it to catapult itself from relative obscurity to
worldwide fame, is indeed a story with “strategic implications.” It’s
the story of how Israelis opposed to their countrymen’s choices at the
ballot box have sought to generate outside pressure to overturn those
choices by creating a false narrative of an Israeli slide into
fundamentalism and fascism.
...
[S]ince most Americans weren’t familiar with the details of the
[Supreme] court’s [2003] ruling [seemingly barring WOW from the main prayer area], it was easy for WOW to obscure the police’s legal
justification and claim that the force was simply kowtowing to Haredi
demands, especially given the Haredim’s vocal (and physical) opposition
to WOW’s services. That in turn played straight into the “exclusion of
women” narrative—a connection WOW made explicitly. As its director,
Leslie Sachs, said after one incident, “Today police succumbed to Haredi
bullying and put us at the back of the bus again.” Thus, to Americans,
it looked like official Israel, in the form of its police force, was
colluding with a fundamentalist demand to remove women from the public
square.
The organization also enjoyed one serendipitous piece of luck: In
April 2013, the Jerusalem District Court asserted that police had
misinterpreted the 2003 Supreme Court ruling, and that it hadn’t
actually barred WOW from praying at the main section of the Wall. This
was a claim WOW had never even made; its own website interprets the
Supreme Court ruling the same way the police did: as saying that its
right to pray at the Wall “was not without boundaries,” and therefore,
it should hold its services at Robinson’s Arch. But since the state
opted not to appeal the district court’s interpretation, it became
binding, and thereafter, police did try to protect WOW’s monthly
services.
Nevertheless, WOW also had no qualms about engaging in provocations
to keep the pot boiling. The tactic is familiar to its longtime
chairwoman, veteran activist Anat Hoffman. She is now executive director
of the Israel Religious Action Center, the Reform Movement’s Israeli
legal and advocacy organization. She also spent 14 years as a Jerusalem
city councilwoman for the left-wing Meretz Party and has served on the
boards of two prominent leftist organizations, the Association for Civil
Rights in Israel and the Israel Women’s Network. But she has been
involved in less mainstream activity as well: In 1988, for instance, she
co-founded Women in Black, an organization whose protests against “the
occupation” and against Israeli efforts to suppress Palestinian terror
were considered radical at that time—at the height of the first
intifada, years before the PLO recognized Israel.
...
[R]elocating away from the Haredi worshipers would defeat Hoffman’s main goal, as she herself defined it to the Jerusalem Post
last December: “I want to see and be seen.” In short, her interest is
not in holding women’s services at the Wall per se, but in doing so
where they will be clearly visible to others who find them
objectionable.
Indeed, WOW’s anti-Haredi agenda was clearly visible this past July,
when Haredim finally managed a peaceful counter-demonstration. On the
day of WOW’s planned monthly service, as many as 7,000 Haredi
high-school girls arose at the crack of dawn to reach the Wall first.
According to police, they completely filled the women’s section, leaving
no room for WOW to pray near the Wall as usual—which was obviously the
point. The organization and its supporters were furious. “We feel like
we’ve been betrayed by the police today because where we’ve been made to
pray today is not a place of prayer,” Sachs said. “It is a blatant
violation of the district court ruling,” charged Rabbi Gilad Kariv, head
of the Israeli Reform Movement, who, backed by Israeli Conservative
Movement leader Yitzhar Hess, argued that the government must ensure
that WOW can pray at the Wall when it so pleases.
What neither WOW nor its supporters explained is this: What were the
police supposed to have done with the young Haredi worshipers? Banned
them from the Wall? Kicked them out when WOW arrived? The implication
was clear. WOW’s demand for open access to the Wall applies only to
itself; Haredi women are free to come en masse only when WOW doesn’t
want the site.
WOW’s provocative behavior alienated even some Israelis who in
principle have no problem with women’s prayer groups. Hillel Halkin, for
instance, wrote an article in the Forward in June terming the
organization “childish provocateurs” indulging in the “narcissism of
thinking that one’s rights matter more than anyone else’s feelings or
the public interest.”
...
[G]enerating diplomatic pressure on Israel starts with undermining
Americans’ belief in Israel’s commitment to democratic values. Indeed,
Shavit linked the two issues explicitly in his July interview with Oren
quoted at the beginning of this article: “The Israel of the settlements,
exclusion of women from the public sphere, and keeping the Women of the
Wall away from the Western Wall isn’t distancing itself from the
American left? We’re not making ourselves unpopular with the new and
progressive America, including liberal Jews?”
During the years when Israel was negotiating with the Palestinians
and ceding territory unilaterally, the left-wing media had no need for
Women of the Wall, and consequently had no interest in it. But for the
past few years, not only were there no negotiations or withdrawals,
there wasn’t even any public pressure for them: Most Israelis attributed
the lack of negotiations to Palestinian intransigence and thought
unilaterally withdrawing from the West Bank would simply create another
Gaza-style rocket base.
Consequently, for the left, it became imperative to ratchet up
international pressure by making Israel “unpopular with the new and
progressive America, including liberal Jews.” In this campaign, Women of
the Wall proved useful, hence its sudden rise to media stardom. And in
that sense, WOW is indeed a symptom of a broader Israeli problem. But
this problem isn’t the “exclusion of women.” Rather, it’s the left’s
inability to reconcile itself to the Israeli electorate’s rejection of
their chosen policies.
It will never pass, and if it passes, it will never be enforced
A nice try by Haredi MK Rabbi Yaakov Litzman, who is introducing a bill into the Knesset criminalizing anti-Haredi discrimination.
Those who boycott hareidi Jews solely because they are hareidi should
face ten years in prison, MK Yaakov Litzman (Yahadut Hatorah) proposed
in a suggested amendment.
The amendment would add a “prohibition on boycotting due to religion
or boycotting hareidi Jews” to the criminal code. The addition would
expand an existing law against racism and “hostility” based on race or
religion.
In an attachment explaining the proposal, Litzman wrote, “As the most
recent government was being established, it arose that there was a
group that chose to exclude the representatives of a significant part of
the public from the government, solely because they were hareidi.
“This terrible statement was not only not publicly criticized, but
became the basis on which the 33rd government of the state of Israel was
established. This kind of exclusion has no place in a pluralistic,
considerate, properly functioning society that knows how to respect and
appreciate the other despite the differences between them.
“Therefore there is a need to uproot this phenomenon… Adding the term
‘boycott’ and including the hareidi community in the definition of the
crime, and in the punishment expected, is intended to warn and to
prevent this from repeating itself,” he concluded.
You might recall that in a speech the week before the elections, Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett admitted that if a Haredi walked into the company he founded in Herzliya, or into any other high tech company in Herzliya, they would not be hired regardless of qualifications.
But this bill will never pass, and even if it does, it will never be enforced. Can you see the flaming Leftist Israeli Supreme Court ruling that a secular Leftist has to go to jail for discriminating against Haredim? That would truly be Messiah's times.
Head of National Religious yeshiva decries Justice ministry malice against Haredim
Rabbi Yaakov Medan, one of the Roshei Yeshiva (heads) of the Har Etzion yeshiva, a national religious yeshiva that combines Torah study with army service (hesder) has attacked the Justice ministry for its malice against Haredim. The triggers for the attack are the Attorney General's and the Justice Minister's calls last week for criminalizing discrimination against women. This is from the first link.
Rav Medan explains that the decision to declare these areas of life
illegal is no accident, but “malice”. In his column in the weekly Makor
Rishon the rav states “I posit the attorney general would not take the
same measures against Muslims or Druse which are also careful to
maintain a standard of modesty between men and women. I believe it is
being done against the chareidim davka at this time, because he now
feels the blood of the chareidi tzibur is hefker as a result of
statements from Finance Minister Yair Lapid and his assistant, Mickey
Levi.”
“The attorney general at present permits himself to set guidelines
for people brushing against one another in a line, on a bus or
elsewhere, and this is no mistake – it is malice. Chareidim already view
themselves persecuted for their beliefs vis-à-vis the government, and
they are already entrenched in their homes, and we are now in danger of
losing the achievements, the integration seen to date in the IDF and
society at large.”
Rav Medan adds “We are the ones who should be shouting, not the
chareidim for after they are taken out of the picture we will be next in
line.”
Indeed. Too bad much of the national religious public is so mired in their seats in the government that they cannot recognize what is coming next.
Arab American groups call Coca Cola's Super Bowl ad 'racist'
I won't be staying up to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday night. With the 1:30 am start and 5:00 am finish, I am only willing to chance jet lag if my beloved Patriots are playing (which they are not this year).
But the ads that will be shown during the game are already up on YouTube, and Arab American groups are furious over this one by Coca Cola.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News). More after the video.
“Why is it that Arabs are always shown as either oil-rich sheiks,
terrorists, or belly dancers?” said Warren David, president of the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC.
Coca-Cola released an online teaser
of the commercial last week, showing the Arab walking through a desert.
He soon sees cowboys, Las Vegas showgirls and a motley crew fashioned
after the marauders of the apocalyptic “Mad Max” film race by him to
reach a gigantic bottle of Coke.
In its ad, Coke asks viewers to vote online on which characters should
win the race. The online site does not allow a vote for the Arab
character.
“The Coke commercial for the Super Ball is racist, portraying Arabs as
backward and foolish Camel Jockeys, and they have no chance to win in
the world,” Imam Ali Siddiqui, president of the Muslim Institute for
Interfaith Studies, said in an email.
“What message is Coke sending with this?” asked Abed Ayoub, ADC’s
director of legal and policy affairs. “By not including the Arab in the
race, it is clear that the Arab is held to a different standard when
compared to the other characters in the commercial,” he said.
Funny, there don't seem to be any Jews in that ad....
US Commerce Department to label Arab-Americans a 'disadvantaged minority'?
Silly me. I thought the influence of Arab Americans in the US was based upon their middle and upper class status. Apparently not. The US Commerce Department is now considering labeling Arab-Americans a 'disadvantaged minority' (Hat Tip: Joe L).
The Commerce Department is considering naming Arab Americans a socially and economically disadvantaged minority group that is eligible for special business assistance.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) petitioned Commerce earlier this year to ask that Arab Americans be made eligible for the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA), which helps minority entrepreneurs gain access to capital, contracts and trade opportunities.
The ADC petition cited “discrimination and prejudice in American society[,] resulting in conditions under which Arab-American individuals have been unable to compete in a business world.” The group claimed discrimination against Arab Americans increased after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
You have until June 27 to let the Commerce Department know how you feel about this.
I think it's pretty hard to argue that there is significant anti-Arab discrimination, at least based on the hate crime statistics. The FBI hate crime statistics for 2010 are here. See for yourselves.
Confirmed: CNN fired 4 Jewish Israeli journalists... but 'only' because they can't travel to certain countries in the region
An investigation by the Algemeiner Journal more or less confirms what I posted when this story first broke: CNN has fired four Jewish Israeli journalists (it retained two others but each of them only works one 8-hour shift per week). But CNN claims this isn't discrimination. They claim that the journalists were fired because they cannot travel to certain countries in the region.
CNN’s decision to fire four Jewish Israeli journalists from the cable network’s Jerusalem bureau earlier this month was due in part to their religion and nationality, and to their perceived inability to operate freely throughout the Middle East, the Algemeiner has learned.
“The fact is, just Jewish Israelis were fired from CNN,” said a source who was directly involved in the layoffs and who requested anonymity. While reports said CNN had fired all its Jewish workers from the bureau, the source told the Algemeiner that “they left 2 Jewish Israeli journalists but here’s the catch, they’re each working one shift a week for 8 hours.”
According to the person involved in this matter, CNN’s belief, including that of bureau chief Kevin Flower, was that Jewish Israelis would not be allowed or welcomed into Gaza, the West Bank and other countries in the region, so it made the most sense to cut those who might become a problem.
The source charged that CNN is considering replacing the fired staff members with hires in other countries in the region. The person said “I understand they are planning on changing their coverage, it might be that the staff won’t be based in Israel even, and if a story happens in Israel, they will take the first flight and cover it, and so an Israeli is a pain in the neck for them.”
On February 15th, Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of CNN, posted a job listing, with the following description:
The Jerusalem photojournalist is responsible for recording images and sound to illustrate CNN news events and stories as well as editing and feeding video.
The location for the position is posted as “United Arab Emirates – Abu Dhabi.”
CNN's excuse reminds me of law firms in my New York days who wouldn't give Orthodox Jews certain work assignments - which just happened to be the same assignments that were most likely to help you advance on the partnership track - because you couldn't be available to go to the financial printer on Friday night. But Orthodox Jews aren't a suspect class under US Supreme Court tests and therefore we could never challenge it even if we had wanted to.
Jews as a whole are a suspect class and what CNN has done is definitely discrimination.
This is from an article about 'Israeli Arab' reaction to the events of the last few weeks in Egypt.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post days after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11th after three decades in power, Jafer Farah, director of the Mossawa Center – The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens, described the elation and hope that the historic moment presented for Arab citizens of Israel.
“What happened in Egypt is very encouraging and it’s important that Arabs in Israel see the importance of freedom for people in the Arab states,” Farah said, adding “we think the time has come for the Arab people to have freedom and to enjoy the wealth of their countries, whether it be from oil, tourism, anything. They don’t need to live in poverty anymore.”
Farah said that while the repression of the Egyptian people under Mubarak was far more severe than that suffered by Arab citizens in Israel, there are similarities nonetheless.
“Repression was far more intense and deep in Egypt but we have a feeling that what we have here are limits on our freedom, and we [Arabs in Israel] have very limited representation here. We don’t feel like full partners in the Israeli democracy.
The Arabs are partners when it comes to paying taxes, but not in the leadership of the country.”
Farah clarified that the revolution in Egypt was encouraging for Palestinians for three reasons.
“It showed that also in the Arab world the people have power and that those who think they can rule them forever will be disappointed. Second, it changes the balance of power in the region, and shows that if Israel wants real peace with the people of the region, it must deal with the people, not just the dictators ruling them.” Finally, Farah said, the revolution will make the world begin to view the Arab people with more respect and not just as a source of oil that must be corralled and ruled over with an iron fist.
Farah said that he didn’t think Palestinian people would look at the events in Egypt and try to emulate them against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, saying that if people were to rise up against the PA it would be over their handling of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, not over issues of democracy.
Like Farah, Arab citizens of Israel who spoke to the Post this week described the events in Egypt as cause for celebration, and reason to believe that a new democratic wave may be sweeping the region.
Again and again they said democratization brings with it the promise of an improvement in the quality of life for the region’s residents and greater justice for the Arab people, including the Palestinians.
I'll be straight with you. There is a lot of discrimination against 'Israeli Arabs' in employment, and yes, there are government positions they will never be allowed to hold (including membership in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for the Arab parties.
Most Israelis view the 'Israeli Arabs' as a fifth column and justifiably so. The minute they change their rhetoric to talking about improving their own status in Israeli society, rather than talking about the 'Palestinians,' the more Israelis will get a sense that they want to be part of our society and they will be treated accordingly.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
