As the new prison for refugees and their children demonstrates, racism is a profound problem in Israel today. But it is only a component in a broader ethos, which tramples all over those who are weak and vulnerable. In Israel‘s hierarchy of sympathies, even those at the very top suffer from the devaluation of compassion itself
International Holocaust Memorial Day is a good opportunity to reiterate Noam’s important warning against comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, and to heartily endorse his policy of banning comments making this comparison.
Israel can certainly be compared to Switzerland, though. The Swiss government, during the holocaust, turned away thousands of Jewish refugees, knowing that this would lead to their murder in death camps.
Sadly, genocide has not passed away from the world. It is taking place today, in the Darfur region of Sudan, even as the world commemorates the worst genocide in human history.
Israel, the home for the people who were the target of this evil, is playing a role in Darfur’s genocide which is eerily and shamefully similar to the one played by the Swiss government during WWII. Its policy of “hot retrieval” sends Darfuri refugees back to Egypt, where – the Israeli government knows full well – they are likely to be deported and killed in Sudan.
The government is doing all it can to deter further refugees from entering its borders. A story in yesterday’s Yedioth reveals the low to which it has sunk. A new detention facility planned for refugees will allocate just five square meters (55 square feet) of space per refugee. That is almost a quarter less than the standard amount of space allocated for criminals in Israel’s correction facilities.
An unnamed official in the Housing Ministry wondered to Yedioth why the facility was so crowded, when it was built at the heart of the desert, with plenty of unused land around. A source involved in the project explained: “The instruction is to avoid indulging them, so this does not become a recreational facility. Besides, we want to spend as little money as possible. The goal is for them to have no reason to come here, not to spoil them, while maintaining a humanitarian line.”
This “anti-spa,”which will also house infants and children, will have no air-conditioning, despite the crowding, and despite being located in the middle of the desert, where temperatures in the shade can reach 45 degrees Celsius (114 Fahrenheit) in the summer. Each of the internal sections will be surrounded by a 4.5 meter (15 foot) tall barbed wire fence, and the whole compound will be sealed by another fence and watch towers. Inmates will have their own hospital, so that Israeli patients will not be in danger of catching any infectious diseases.
I thought to myself that this plan indicates just how much Israeli society has been infected by a deep hatred and ruthlessness towards every foreigner and non-Jew. Then I opened today’s newspaper (this time, Yisrael Hayom) and read the following headline on p. 21: a 160 percent rise in the number of holocaust survivors who require [financial] aid. In 2010, their number rose to 60 thousand from 23 thousand in 2005, despite the fact that 56 thousand passed away during that period.
The International Holocaust Day did not cause Netanyahu to reflect on this figure. At least (and in contrast to opposition leader Tzipi Livni) he made no remarks on the record regarding this issue. Instead, he used the occasion to attack the world’s policy regarding Iran’s nuclear program. As I read our Education Minister talking about the Europe’s “total moral collapse” during WWII, I thought about how hard survivors had to fight to get assistance in purchasing pharmaceutical drugs, and how only in the last decade, did Israeli banks start confessing how they robbed the survivors and their families. The Israeli banks did so, by the way, only after Swiss banks had done the same.
This reflection also jogged my memory, and I recalled how the Israeli establishment actually likes plenty of non-Jews, including extremist Christian evangelicals who dream of the day the Jewish people will all convert to Christianity. Or neo-fascist and extreme right wing Europeans, who are warmly embraced in this country, as long as they bash Muslims and endorse our harsh policies against them.
So I arrived at a sad conclusion. Racism is a profound problem in Israel today. But it is only a component in a broader ethos, which worships power, and tramples all over those who are weak and vulnerable. In Israel’s hierarchy of sympathies, I would find it hard to think of anyone who is higher than an elderly, poor and sick Jewish holocaust survivor. Yet the currency of sympathy itself now appears terribly devalued.
January 27, 2011
10:25 pm
National Union MK Dr Michael Ben-Ari has come up with a very good suggestion about how to handle the illegal immigrants to Israel. He is organizing rental of apartments in places like Ramat Aviv, Rehavia in Jerusalem, Herzliya Pituach and other wealthy neighborhoods in Israel and housing the immigrants there. These neighborhoods vote for progressive Leftist parties and no doubt the residents of those areas would welcome the opportunity to be an example of multi-cultural tolerance.
January 27, 2011
10:29 pm
Roi-
Let me understand your position, are you advocating throwing Israel’s borders open to everyone who wants to come here? Are you aware of any other country in the world that has such a policy? Are the countries that do restrict immigration racist?
January 27, 2011
11:06 pm
@Ben – Hate to spoil Ben Ari’s sarcasm, but refugees are already housed in Ramat Aviv. Ah, those facts have a nasty habit of getting in the way of cheap demagoguery…
This is another example of trying to set one discriminated group against another. The fact is that the entry of refugees into a neighborhood decreases the crime rate. If given a chance, refugees, who are young and resourceful, can invigorate the local economy, opening businesses and creating new employment opportunities.
As to throwing the borders open – that is not the only option available except for horribly abusing them, or sending people to their death. In fact, Israel has one of the most restrictive immigration policies in the world for non-Jews, and the most permissive immigration policy in the world, toward Jews.
It also has policies against refugees, which are not acceptable in most of the Western world, such as sending them back to places where genocide is taking place, or refusing to grant them recognition as refugees.
Alongside the brutal policy towards refugees, Israel is actually quite permissive in regards to work migrants. 120,000 work here legally, a number which has sharply increased in recent years. None of these people face persecution or death in their countries.
Why allow them in, while sending other people to their death? The answer is simple: work migrants benefit the contractors which bring them here, and they are a powerful lobby. Also, refugees – if accorded protected status – are harder to expel than work migrants. Therefore, they might insist on having some rights, or complain in case of abuse.
January 27, 2011
11:15 pm
BTW, I’ve looked up the great Mk’s legislative record, and failed to find any activity towards improving the situation of impoverished neighborhoods in Israel. Maybe he is too busy making inciting speeches…
January 28, 2011
1:17 am
(1) “Sending people to their deaths”. Really? Has that indeed happened? Africa is a real mess, and it is quite understandable that people there want to migrate away. But Israel is neither responsible for the situation there nor can do anything about it. What about the former colonial powers who have at least some responsibility for the situation there…Britian, France, Belgium? What are they doing about it? Do they allow unrestricted immigration from those countries? Of course not.
(2) I am glad to here of anecdotal cases of some illegal migrants living in Ramat Aviv. But a few days ago there was a demonstration of people from south Tel Aviv complaining about all the problems these illegal migrants are causing there (and I am the first to admit that most probably are law abiding but there are too many who aren’t) so most are found there and the local residents are suffering from it. I seriously doubt there are many 4 room apartments filled with 20 illegal migrants in the well-to-do neighborhoods I mentioned.
(3) You say “Israel allows easy access for Jews to Israel but restricts non-Jews”. Yes. So what? Zionism set up a Jewish state, because Jews are a small minority in the world, and were actually an endangered minority not so long ago. Also many Jews are worried about inter-marriage. I know that sounds so provincial and parochial to “Progressives”, but it is a matter of great concern to many Jews, whether “Progressives” like it or not. Most Israelis are NOT ‘progressives’ so ‘progressives’ do not have a monopoly on making state policy. That is what the parliament does in a parliamentary democracy like Israel.
January 28, 2011
1:28 am
(1) Yes, it has. As much as several hundreds, actually. The vast majority of refugees are coming from Ivory Coast and Darfur, where people are dying, not just suffering from economic hardship. Frace, Canada, Germany and Greece all have a much better record on refugee policy than Israel: http://hotline.org.il/hebrew/pdf/Anti_Infiltration_Proposed_Law_Lies_and_Reality_Heb.pdf (p. 4)
(2) The immigrants who live in Ramat Aviv live in the same density as everywhere else. As to the protest of residents, it is obviously motivated by their hardship. The refugees are being cynically put up as scapegoats. Residents of these neighborhoods have been protesting since the 1950s. Their claims are just, but the harsh policy against the refugees is a means to ignore those claims, rather than address them.
(3) I certainly hope that if a Jew flees mortal danger from one country (that does not border Israel) to another, no one is going to deport him back to death, on the basis of a similar logic.
January 28, 2011
8:48 am
I never thought I would live to see the day that Israel would have those who would set up their own Infamous Decrees. I live for the day not of the Messiah for I know not whom he will save from whom,but I pray to the G-d of Abraham for a LOUIE XVIII with every breath I take.
February 9, 2011
4:23 am
please the israel authorities should note that no condition in the world could be permanent and what was happening in the illegal iigrants countries which led their flee to their contries could happen to israel too and i dont think they would be happy to hear that it happens to their friends or citizens.Hence if nothing at all the should regulalize their stay and allow them to work afterall no country could be well developed without the help of foreiners or make sure they give depotee some appreciable amount of money if deporting them is the only option left just as UK.did some years back for all illegal immigrants ho wantwd to be deported.Israel should try to be human and have a fill for other human beings who are in need.
January 23, 2012
12:39 pm
im asking the israeli,s govermet to forgive and get pity of refugee . the risk for them life and come to israel , so israeli’s must save them life . and god will pay them back