Comments on: Looking for a safe space to call home in Jerusalem

By: Lelaina

Lelaina — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:47:14 +0000

@ Ben Israel “..if the world can learn to live with racism in the Arab world, which is still worse than that in Israel, it can overlook it in Israel as well.”
You can not be serious suggesting that just because there is racism ALL OVER THE WORLD that it should in any way make it acceptable or that it should be overlooked by anyone for any matter anywhere.
And FYI, those constantly living with prejudice and racism interfering with their lives are not as you suggest “learning to live with it” they are suffering under it.

“Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you” How about you, being “son of Israel” remember that.

By: Moriel Rothman

Moriel Rothman — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:59:42 +0000

@Mya. Word to your post. I also was yelled at by a potential landlord saying that my leftist employers are destroying Israel.

@Everyone else- You are all discussing the topic of racism with inappropriate shallowness. Racism is a complex topic. Do it justice.

@Mesho- There is a lot of racism here, but it is silly to say that Israelis are far more racist than Palestinians. I assume that you have not spent much time in Palestine, and do not know Arabic, but it is extremely common for Palestinians to talk about ‘al-yehud’ (the Jews) as a collective, in a very similar way that Israeli Jews talk about ‘ha-aravim’ (the Arabs).

But on the other side of the same coin, @Ben Israel, your argument is ridiculous as well. I don’t think Mya was saying that Israel is more racist than Saudi Arabia, per se. She was simply pointing out that there is a lot of racism in Israel, the country which she and I (and perhaps you as well) live in. And in terms of all the racist things you listed in Arab countries- great. Whatever. Israel (within its 1967 borders) is, at least in name if not always in practice, a Western Democracy and thus should be held to the standard of a Western Democracy by other Western Democracies. Is it more racist than America? Not sure. The Occupation is pretty terrible. Is it legitimate to publicly criticize the racism in both, even though people in North Korea and Hong Kong and Malta and Whateverland may have similar or even more racist ideas? Obviously.

By: Asaf

Asaf — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:03:21 +0000

I have a friend who just published a looking-for-flatmate add on Facebook, and I quote: “wanted: female, non smoker, over 26, and lefty”. How do you call that? I can hook you up BTW, it’s in J.

By: Ben Israel

Ben Israel — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:44:15 +0000

Sinjim-
Thank you for your honesty. However, if the world can learn to live with racism in the Arab world, which is still worse than that in Israel, it can overlook it in Israel as well.

By: Sinjim

Sinjim — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:30:32 +0000

Not all Jews in the Arab world left at the same time, nor did they for the same reasons. The Jews of Lebanon, for example, left not because of anti-Semitism but because of the civil war, which also saw the flight of Christians and Muslims as well. Morocco had a large Jewish population well into the 60s and 70s.
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As for Arab Christians, yes, there’s prejudice against them. I know because my family experiences it. The idea that this is the prime cause of the emigration of these communities is wholeheartedly untrue. The truth of the matter is that people are sick of the rut the region is in. They are looking for stability elsewhere. Arab Christians find the West appealing, so they go there. Arab Muslims look to more prosperous and stable Muslim states, rather than the West, so they go there.
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One doesn’t have to deny racism or prejudice in Arab countries to see perfectly clearly that Israel is racist. And it’s not so difficult to see the uniqueness of this racism when it is manifested primarily in a military occupation that has gone on for almost half a century.
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This “they do it, too” excuse isn’t fit for a kindergarten playground. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong everywhere, and those who make excuses are a part of the problem.

By: Ben Israel

Ben Israel — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:58:57 +0000

Racism in Israel, huh?
(1) All Jews banned from entering Saudi Arabia.
(2) All non-Muslims banned from entering Mecca.
(3) Virtually all Jews expelled from Egypt in 1956, along with almost all Christians who had foreign citizenship.
(4) The almost complete flight of Jews from Arab countries since World War II
(5) The precipitous decline in Christian populations from the same Arab countries in the same period.
(6) The complete prohibition of Jews entering their holy places which were under Muslim control on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron before 1967 and the continuing prohibition of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, even though it is Judaism holiest site.
(7) The mob assualts on two non-Jewish reporters in Cairo including the sexual assault on the women reporter, with both mobs screaming that the victims were Jews.
(8) The Egyptian media blaming the Jews for all the major problems of the country even though there are practically no Jews in the country (reported on numerous times by former Cairo correspondent of the New York Times Michael Slackman).

Shall I go on?

By: RichardNYC

RichardNYC — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:29:19 +0000

@MESHO
I meant that racism (and self-segregation) goes both ways, my hysterical friend.

By: Mitchell Cohen

Mitchell Cohen — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:06:59 +0000

“That Jews self-segregate and keep to the Jewish quarter and West Jerusalem” [End of Mesho] ROTFL It is the “progressives” that have a fit if the Jews wonder into the Muslim Quarter or East Jerusalem (unless they are holding a sign that says “Stop the Occupation”) and consider it a “provocation”.

By: hobbs77

hobbs77 — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:44:07 +0000

same kind of things happens everywhere…

By: Mesho

Mesho — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:23:08 +0000

@Richard

Lol to say that there is apartheid and racism in Jerusalem= contempt for Jews

Hahahaha

Who can take you seriously?

Anyone who identifies as a human being and has emotion will agree with the fact that racism and apartheid are evident to the observer in Jerusalem:
The fact that Jerusalem is a traditional Palestinian metropolis, but you are unable to see even the Palestinian flag in East Jerusalem (it’s against the law). That Jews self-segregate and keep to the Jewish quarter and West Jerusalem, even Americans studying abroad at Israeli institutions. The list goes on. The racism and apartheid is against the Palestinians in their own homeland. No, Richard, extra privilege and status for Jews just because they are Jews is not okay. It will never be okay, especially if the result is the whole-scale oppression of the Palestinian people.

972 readers: Richard NYC thinks I harbor contempt towards the Jewish people because I reject Jewish superiority over Palestinians.

Suh-weet.