An Israeli amusement park found itself in hot water after being caught segregating Jewish and Arab school groups. But instead of being an aberration, the incident is reflective of the dominant culture of segregation and discrimination that permeates Israeli society from the bottom up.
“Superland” – the Israeli amusement park exposed for segregating Arab and Jewish citizens this week – is the most fittingly tragic and ironic title for how I see the current Israeli zeitgeist. No screenwriter or playwright could have come up with a better concept for a tragic comedy about this place.
It captures the two most dominant concepts of politics and life here: that land is the most precious, contested and painful commodity around which the conflict revolves, and that there is nothing “amusing” about the situation we find ourselves in. It’s not all that “super,” despite the most earnest attempts to sell it as such by Israeli government and PR professionals.
While the Israeli government continues to try and “super-size” the land of Greater Israel beyond the pre-1967 borders, the story of segregation at Superland is a perfect indicator that no matter what your politics are, no matter your position on settlements, your notion of security, how you judge Palestinian resistance or any other issue, the political reality remains undeniably the same. Everyone living on this tiny piece of land — Arabs and Jews, Palestinians and Israelis — is in a perennial situation of state-sponsored division, segregation and separation that trickles down — not just in Hebron’s Shuhada Street, or in East Jerusalem, but everywhere.
After the Jaffa school teacher was unable to make a reservation for a class trip to Superland because they are Arab, management explained that many schools – both Arab and Jewish – request to visit the park on days when only other schools of the same ethnic group will be there. According to a statement by the park’s management, this makes sense for them considering they are interested in ensuring the safety of all visitors:
This is an amusement park and there is special importance to preserving order and preventing violent incidents in the park. As a result, Superland’s management took the requests it received into consideration, and during June 2013, set aside a few separate days for schools from different sectors.
This is the same argument that was made in pre-civil rights America about the utility of separating blacks and whites. It is the same argument that Ivy League university deans in the U.S. used to try and justify the quotas that up until the 1960s, limited the number of Jews accepted to a school; they explained that it is better for the Jews if there aren’t too many of them in any given department, since then they would surely experience greater incidents of anti-Semitism.
Instead of combatting anti-Semitism and racism at its core, this kind of backwards logic gives in to the unjust system, trying simply to manage a racist and discriminatory status quo. This is exactly the case of Superland.
It is a weird coincidence that on the same day this story broke, American author and BDS activist Alice Walker wrote an open letter to singer Alicia Keys, urging her to cancel her July concert in Israel because of the country’s segregation policies. In the letter, she specifically refers to the struggle she waged to bring an end to “apartheid America,” which she calls “less lethal than Israel’s against the Palestinian people.”
You can argue all you want that there are differences between America and Israel as far as racism goes, just as there are differences between Israel and South Africa when it comes to Apartheid. But the reality remains the same in all places: Palestinians living on the same land as Jewish Israelis are denied the dignity and equal rights they deserve because of the dominant ethnic group.
“Superland” perfectly expresses the “super segregation” we live in. Its policy isn’t a law that was handed down from above, or a specific manager who hates Arabs. It has simply become the norm.
Related:
Sailing on a wave of racism: A nautical tale
A year in review: Anti-African racism and asylum seekers in Israel
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Vadim
What I don’t know, and nobody seems to report is what would have happened if a Jewish school would have wished to come on a day designated for Arabs and how many days get designated for Arabs.
Arabs can buy tickets and come at any time so I don’t think this policy stems from Racism.
The truth of the matter is that many Arabs don’t like Jews and many Jews don’t like Arabs. Calling it Racism ignores almost 100 years of enmity between two ethnic groups. What do you think happens when you put together hundreds of hot headed teenagers from warring ethnic groups? Debates about the best way to build our future together? Conversations about the need to understand the other side? Intellectual satisfaction at meeting a different culture? Let me assure you – nothing good happens. Do I like it? Of course not. What’s the solution? Time.
You can dislike Superland’s policy, but I think it’s just a result of experience they had with Jewish and Arab teenagers being together in the park.
dan
If this happened to a jewish group somewhere else in the world, it would be called “Anti semitism”.
Vadim
It would have been anti-Semitism to do this *without a reason*. If the same day was scheduled for a Muslim school, or a skin head rally or a conference of supporters of BDS (AKA Bigotry and Double Standards) – it would have been reasonable to turn down the Jews on that same day, to avoid needless confrontations.
I will stress this again – if Superland generally refuses to allow Arab schools to enter, or Arabs to “enjoy” its services – then I would totally agree with you. This would be a disgusting case of racism.
I just don’t think this is the case.
rsgengland
There has been no attempt to restrict the Muslim Israelis from going to this park.
There is no restriction enshrined in law.
The policy is neither local or national; it is strictly that of this particular venue.
A lot of groups, the resort says, request different days, which may not be pleasant but is not illegal.
If you do not want this to happen, start working in peaceful ways to start making peaceful coexistence happen.
And don’t forget the strident calls for Israels existence to be terminated by Anti-Israel politicians like Zoabi, that encourages incidents like this.
The 1967 borders mentioned in the article, are nothing of the sort.
The Green Line is an Armistice line,
separating warring parties.
‘Supersizing’ the country is an oxymoron.
Israel is so small, that any change appears enormous.
Alice Walker lives in funny land, if she thinks she can ignore the fact that the ultimate aim and goal of the Palestinians, is the eradication of Israel, and the ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ of most of its Jewish population.
directrob
“There is no restriction enshrined in law.”
I think you are wrong here, there is the CERD that Israel signed. As always the reports about Israel are a joy to read. Pay attention to the text “in good faith”.
“Recalling its previous concluding observations (CERD/C/ISR/CO/13, para. 32), the Committee strongly urges the State party to review its approach and interpret its obligations under the Convention in good faith and in accordance with international law. The Committee also urges the State party to ensure that all civilians under its effective control enjoy full rights under the Convention without discrimination based on ethnicity, citizenship, or national origin.”
see:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.ISR.CO.14-16.pdf
rsgengland
The issue you are referring to is a Convention.
I referred to the fact that there is no discrimination enshrined in the law.
A convention is signed between parties, and is an agreement and may be referrenced in law, but is not law.
A law is legally binding legislation, passed by the government of a state, and legally enforceable by a that state.
Ronda Cooperstein
Please do not ignore the incredible racism in the United States, where we have de facto segregation and mass incarceration of African Americans and immigrants, who are used for cheap labor. Books like THE NEW JIM CROW by Michelle Alexander are important to understanding how institutional racism has evolved in the United States. As for amusement park entry, it is not uncommon here for African Americans to be deprived of their right to visit the park under guise of no opening, etc. If that is happening in Israel, then it is surely discrimination and needs to be challenged. Israel must open its doors to all in every area of society and no discrimination should be tolerated. Thank you to +972 for exposing all of the problems that the less powerful communities face in your country.
Kolumn9
Did they get different levels of service at Superland because they were Arabs or were they just invited to use the exact same facilities on a different day?
How is this state sponsored? Is Superland owned by the Israeli government? I was under the impression that it was a private enterprise. So, that would suggest that it isn’t state sponsored at all and you are just trying to blow up a local issue of a single business believing that it can make more money by not mixing groups of kids that are likely to fight each other into some kind of grand morality tale to fit into your twisted and misguided narrative.
Ami Kaufman
http://www.mako.co.il/news-israel/local/Article-b5f87ca0fabfe31004.htm&Partner=facebook_share
Lauren
Shame on Mabu’im!
Philos
אמי, תודה ששיתפת את זה כאן. לא הייתי יודע אחרת. אני חייב לציין שאני בורח מכאן. אני לא יכול יותר. המדינה הזאת ותרבות החברתי שלה נדפקת בצורה שאי אפשר לשפר אותה. אני מכיר רבים שכבר עזבו או בדרך לחו”ל. יש לי כרטיסי טיסה כיוון אחד לאנגליה. ושתדע אני לא סתם בן אדם אדיש. הייתי פעיל בשלום עכשיו אבל נגעלתי מהתנהגות של יריב אופנהיימר ומזכירות התנועה. מי יכול להתפטר מתפקיד כדי לרוץ לבחירות ואז אחרי שהוא מפסיד פשוט מקבל את תפקידו בחזרה בלי שום שמץ של תהליך דמוקרטי? השמאל כאן חולה או בד”כ בכלל לא שמאל. כאילו אם אומרים שלא שונאים ערבים אבל אומרים שהם חייבים להיות “שם” אז אתה נתפס כשמאלן בימינו. נמאס. נמאס ממדינת הפראים וגזענות
Ami Kaufman
מזדהה עם כל מילה.
עמי
Danny
I left 5 years ago, and have not looked back even for a second. Every so often I go on the internet to see what crazy new thing this sh’mateh state says or does, and my conviction for staying as far away as I can from there just grows. Good luck in your new home, I’m sure you will appreciate the peace and quiet.
Vicky
זה אירוני – אני מאנגליה וכל פעם שאני נכנסת לפלשתינה אני מפחדת שיהיה לי בעיות על הגבול והם יגרשו אותי לאנגליה. אתה יכול להישאר פה ואתה רוצה לברוח שם. אני מקווה שאתה תחבב אנגליה (איפה אתה תגור?) והעייפות שלך תיעלם שם. אם אתה תחזור…שלום עכשיו לא הארגון היחיד. בהצלחה (וסליחה, אני עושה יותר מדי טעויות בעברית).
directrob
You wrote your most personal and important post in Hebrew. It is sad that those who want to share the land need to go.
Ami Kaufman
יאללה, בלוג בעברית!
Danny
“How is this state sponsored?”
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/MK-submits-bill-to-prioritize-states-Jewishness-314571
Kolumn9
Yes, an unrelated bill that has been proposed repeatedly and has repeatedly failed to be passed. Your point?
Danny
You’re either disingenuous or blind.
Kolumn9
Another article unrelated to Superland. Yes, there is a racist in charge of a pool in a small town in the Negev.
בסופו של דבר היה מי ששמח לעזור לילדים הבדואים החולים ליהנות מעט. באוניברסיטת בן-גוריון בבאר שבע יארחו את קבוצת הילדים ליום כיף כבר בשבוע הבא
Ami Kaufman
Hehe, and you know so well it doesn’t end there. That I could make a list of dozens of events like this just over the past half year. Yeah, keep putting you r head in the sand. It’s just an isolated event. No big deal. No racism in Israel. All’s good.
The Trespasser
Oh, there is plethora of racism in Israel, as well as all regional countries. Some communities would even kill their females for dating men from other racial group.
But what is the common denominator?
Vicky
“Did they get different levels of service at Superland because they were Arabs or were they just invited to use the exact same facilities on a different day?”
So the argument is ‘separate but equal’ now? Where have we heard this before (coupled with the same justifications about tensions and fighting and it all being for the best)? The defences for this type of practice just keep getting more and more blatant with each new example that emerges.
Kolumn9
The argument is that it is a business decision made by a private company. Trying to extrapolate from that due to an ideology of a priori despising everything Israeli is stupid and disgusting.
Greg Pollock
Your argument, K9, was used to support American Jim Crow. A private enterprise should be allowed to decide how its facilities are used. The First Justice Harlan, dissenting alone in Plessy v Ferguson, pointed out that private enterprise enjoys all sorts of protections through the State, such as limited liability under law suit, and segregation of an owner’s private captial form his corporate captial, only the latter being subject to suit over business. Harlan argued that the State cannot empower private violation of equal protection, which includes equal access to offered business (like attendance at an amusement park); since the business only exists through State protection, it must conform to equal protection under law. You’re living in the 1880′s, K9; of course, in Israel, you are not alone.
Vicky
Where are you prepared to draw the line with the ‘private company’ argument? A privately owned grocery store deciding it would like to have separate afternoons for Jewish and Arab customers? Restaurants? Cinemas? Hairdressers? Do you not see where this goes? As for it not being state-sponsored, this is the same state that talks about the ‘Judaization’ of the Negev and the Galilee in the way that environmental groups talk about conservation, and whose planning and zoning laws are specifically and obviously designed to keep the communities in those areas apart. This is the same state that passed the Admissions Committee Law. The same state that is content to see Jewish and Arab children educated in largely separate classrooms, so that for some young Jews, the first Palestinians they ever encounter (aside from the car-washing guy) will be at the other end of a gun. In this climate, it is not surprising that certain companies should feel quite comfortable refusing tickets to a party of Arab schoolchildren, and then announcing that they have a ‘separate day for separate schools’ policy when challenged. They weren’t the ones who decided that separate schooling was a fine way to go in the first place. What are these policies but the fruit of the state’s own actions?
The really ironic thing here is that every single one of the people I have heard making the ‘separate but equal’ argument in recent days (saying as you, Vadim, and Joel have that the theme park’s policy is to prevent fights) has in the past denied that there is anything approaching apartheid in Israel. Jewish and Arab students can attend the same universities, the argument goes. They use the same hospitals. They can swim from the same beaches. Now we learn that in this not-at-all-segregated country, where people sit on their beach towels and in their lecture halls together as happy as so many clams, a theme park has got to separate the junior happy clams because of deep tensions that are sure to erupt as fights. It seems that when news of cruder and more transparent segregation policies gets out, some people will move in a heartbeat from denial of segregation’s existence to its active defence.
Joel
I had the bad luck to spend a night in a Galil youth hostel that was hosting Jewish Israeli teens and Arab Israeli teens.
Despite the teens being supervised by adults, these two groups were raucous and disrespectful.
On a positive not here was no violence, but little sleep for me.
Joel
Is this the same Alice Walker who believes that reptilian hybrids from outer space are the source of evil in the world?
http://alicewalkersgarden.com/2013/02/human-race-get-off-your-knees-i-couldnt-have-put-it-better-myself/
Danny
‘Superland’ as the ultimate title to a book/play/tv show/film about Israeli occupation as well as segregation and apartheid policies.
Life imitating art to the extreme. Perhaps the great Alice Walker can write a book about it…
Danny
“How is this state sponsored?”
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/MK-submits-bill-to-prioritize-states-Jewishness-314571
Piotr Berman
Concerning “days for different sectors”, when the Arab teachers called they were not offered any designated days but simply “no tickets available” reply.
There was also an article interviewing a hostess from an elite restaurant, and she described that she was specifically trained to refuse making reservations for Arabs. Lest the exalted reputation of the restaurant go down the drain.
My only point of reference is the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. It is visited by many school excursion, and some of them are almost purely Black (or Hispanic). It is simply beyond imagination that the Museum would try to have special days for them, or to segregate or avoid in any way.
The Trespasser
>There was also an article interviewing a hostess from an elite restaurant, and she described that she was specifically trained to refuse making reservations for Arabs. Lest the exalted reputation of the restaurant go down the drain.
Yeah, and also most higher level night clubs prefer not to let Arabs in. Wanna know why?
Simple: Arabs are bothering females and are not capable to accept “no”.
Me for example, I would never visit a place where Arabs might be with a “provocatively” looking female. No person in his sane mind would.
Aaron Gross
Not to comment about this as a symbol of Everything That’s Wrong With Israel, but just on Superland, Arabs, and Jews: I’ve been to Superland several times, and the Arabs there have always behaved differently than the Jews. The Arabs were each time (on average) rowdier, ruder, and more aggressive, the Jews (on average) better behaved. The last time I was there, an Arab kid was continuously, physically harassing my son, who was right there with me the whole time. I told him several times to leave my son alone and he kept bothering him. Finally I shouted at him and threatened to kick his ass if he didn’t leave my son alone.
No, he wasn’t “typical” of the Arab kids there. But you have to blinded by your ideology to not see what’s right in front of your face: that Arabs at Superland behave worse than the Jews; the Arabs there are on the average rowdier, more violent, and less considerate.
Anyone who doesn’t acknowledge this is lying, if not to us than to himself. If it makes you feel any better, you can remind yourself that anything bad about Arabs is all the Jews’ fault anyway.
Ami Kaufman
Yesterday I took my girls to a park here in Bat Yam. While one of my girls was swinging, a small Arab child asked her politely if he could get on the swing. She let him on. When she went to the slide, she almost broke her neck because a Jewish kid pushed her. Therefore, all Jews are violent, and all Arabs are polite. According to your (extremely twisted and racist) logic.
Aaron Gross
Ami, why didn’t you read my comment? I said “on the average.” I even said it twice, so that readers like you would have no excuse for missing it, despite the fact that “on the average” is so obvious it should go without saying at all. Then you say my logic is that “all Jews are…and all Arabs are.”
So I’ll spell it out to you: I was generalizing about average differences between Arabs and Jews who go to Superland. I wasn’t suggesting it applied to all Arabs or all Jews, not even to all those at Superland, by any means. Similarly, if I say that Israelis seem ruder than Americans, that’s not a categorical statement about all Israelis and all Americans.
And it was not based on one single incident by any means, as you suggest with your analogy. It’s a very definite pattern. Of course there are plenty of exceptions. To give one memorable example: On one ride, some Arab ‘tween girls were seated with us, and before it started they asked me if we would mind if they screamed during the ride. You can’t get much more polite or charming than that.
Ami Kaufman
So wait, are you saying that “on average” Arabs are less polite than Jews? Also, may I ask where you got your data about the behavioral patterns of Arabs and Jews who go to Superland? Or are you just extrapolating behavior “on average” of whole ethnic groups based on your one visit to Superland? Or did you conduct some sort of study of this over the years? Yeah, go ahead and use the “readers like you” sentence. You spelled it out just fine for me, Aaron. Just fine.
How bout this, I’ll say this twice, so YOU don’t “miss it”: You’re a racist. You’re a racist.
“Hi, my name is Aaron Gross. I went to Superland last year. I saw some impolite Arabs. Therefore, on average, Arabs who visit Superland are less polite.”
Wow…
Vicky
I normally enjoy reading your comments and find them thoughtful. However, when you write about discrimination experienced by Palestinians within the Green Line as opposed to in the Territories (or whenever there is the slightest hint that the A-word might crop up in the conversation) your comments change remarkably in terms of both the tone and the reasoning used. Sometimes they look as though they could have been written by two separate people. It seems that you have a sore nerve here.
The Trespasser
There is not even one single Palestinian within the green line, leave alone tourists and convicts.
Aaron Gross
Vicky, I don’t know about sore nerves (except for that one incident I described), but I think my politics tend to go in the opposite direction. Arab citizens of Israel are supposed to have equal rights, whatever that means, whereas Arabs in the territories are not supposed to have equal rights. Plus, they are at war with us. So I’m much more sympathetic to Israeli citizens than to foreigners.
Maybe it seems the opposite because foreigners suffer a lot more than Arab Israelis do. I’m more sympathetic to a non-Israeli Arab who gets wrongly or accidentally killed than I am to an Israeli citizen who can’t go to Superland when he wants to. But in general, I have a much higher duty to an Arab Israeli than to an Arab in the territories.
argentina
This is tragic, shaming humanity (or the lack of it…)
Mikesailor
The comments would almost be comical as a depiction of Jewish hypocrisy, if they weren’t serious manifestations of a cognitive dissonance bordering on the psychotic. Strange how these supporters of segregation and discrimination see no problem when Arabs are the victims yet would be the first to scream if there ethnic group was victimized the same way. Yet, when their racism is pointed out, they refuse to accept responsibility for their own actions, istead using stereotypical racist reasoning to buttress the ‘Israeli’ position. It seems racists use the same reasoning whether they are Nazis’s, old Afrikaaners, or present day Zionists. Only the victims’ names change.
The Trespasser
>see no problem when Arabs are the victims
Because Arabs are not victims.
If Arabs were denied access to that place completely, than it would be possible to say that they are victims indeed.
However, it is obvious that in this case Arabs are about as much victims as Jews – both groups are allowed to use the facility only at certain days.
Aaron Gross
Could you say more specifically who you think are the hypocrites?
If I knew there’d be lots of Arabs at Superland on a given day, I probably wouldn’t go that day. My feelings wouldn’t be hurt if someone else made a similar decision about Jews. You want to have fun somewhere without Jews around, go for it.
I do agree with you, though, Jews are way too eager to play the oh-poor-me victim. But so are Arabs.
Mikesailor
Are you really that dense, Tresspasser, that you don’t understand the racism engendered in your answer? In the first place, it is the Jews who are enforcing the segregation, not the Arabs? And, if you’ll notice, the amusement park didn’t even find it necessary to give examples of past problems to attempt to excuse their conduct. You on the other hand, attempt to find some ‘equality’ in this obvious discrimination. That the powerless can be freely discriminated against because the empowered will “sacrifice” so that they don’t have to be in contact with the “untermenschen”. Apparently the wish for a ‘Jewish’ State is so the Jews living there can freely hate and victimize those not Jewish. Or is it your position that Jews in other places in the world should be treated as non-Jews are in Israel?
The Trespasser
>Are you really that dense, Tresspasser, that you don’t understand the racism engendered in your answer?
There is no racism. Arabs do not represent a certain race, neither Jews do so.
>In the first place, it is the Jews who are enforcing the segregation, not the Arabs?
This issue hardly conforms with segregation definitions.
“the act by which a (natural or legal) person separates other persons on the basis of one of the enumerated grounds without an objective and reasonable justification, in conformity with the proposed definition of discrimination.”
There is an objective and reasonable justification: Arab animosity towards Jews.
>And, if you’ll notice, the amusement park didn’t even find it necessary to give examples of past problems to attempt to excuse their conduct.
Is in necessary that problems should be in that specific park? No.
>You on the other hand, attempt to find some ‘equality’ in this obvious discrimination.
Discrimination there would be if Arabs where denied access to that part at all.
>That the powerless can be freely discriminated against because the empowered will “sacrifice” so that they don’t have to be in contact with the “untermenschen”.
Again, there is no discrimination, although you really wishes it took place.
>Apparently the wish for a ‘Jewish’ State is so the Jews living there can freely hate and victimize those not Jewish.
Probably you are not aware that there are more non-Jews to Israel than Arabs.
I strongly suggest that you go and speak to a psychologist – your fixation of Jews’ victimization of non-Jews is a bit unhealthy.
>Or is it your position that Jews in other places in the world should be treated as non-Jews are in Israel?
You really should come to Israel and see how Jews are treating non-Jews – but that only after you finish you psychological treatment, otherwise you might suffer even from more severe problems.
directrob
You might be a Mensch but Just like Israeli law you have a restricted definition of racism and an overly strict approach to proving the intentional element of such crimes.
As for your use of this forum, the prohibition of the dissemination of all ideas based upon racial superiority or hatred is compatible with the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
The Trespasser
>You might be a Mensch but Just like Israeli law you have a restricted definition of racism and an overly strict approach to proving the intentional element of such crimes.
Oh, my definitions of racism are just fine.
It is you, my semiliterate leftist friends, who are keep forgetting that Jew is not a racial term – any person of any race could become a Jew and any Jew could stop being Jew.
It is not possible to speak of racial segregation in this particular case, but only of religious (Jews vs. Muslims/Christians) or cultural (Western type of society vs. medieval society, who still kill their women for dating outsiders)
>As for your use of this forum, the prohibition of the dissemination of all ideas based upon racial superiority or hatred
I dare you to quote my dissemination of anything based on racial superiority or hatred.
>is compatible with the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
If I’m to throw a stone (figural one, of course) here at anyone, I’ll be banned permanently, or, if I’ll throw stones at people at Hyde Park I’ll be banned from there as well, which means that “freedom of speech” is good only as long as those speaking are not throw stones, and rightly so.
However, since Arabs claim to have an inherent right to throw stones at Jews, we obviously have a problem here: at one hand, freedom of speech (or expression, if you will) should be respected, while at other hand, such right from Arabs’ point of view includes an inherent right to throw stones at Jews, which is not quite acceptable in modern terms.
Houston, we’ve got a problem.
directrob
“Arab” is an ethnicity (your words, you wrote so many), so discrimination of “arabs” is racial discrimination according to the CERD.
” In this Convention, the term “racial discrimination” shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life”
Your definition of racism might be “just fine”, it is just not what the UN uses as the definition of racism.
As far for your dare, repeating your words just helps your framing efforts. The whole purpose of your writings is to connect the terms Palestinian and Arab with negative images and to reduce the impact of articles like these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPXpL-Nydx4
The Trespasser
>race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin
I see. So if I discriminate against certain people because they are of different culture or speak different language, it is not considered discrimination, right?
directrob
If you discriminate it is discrimination.
JG
The racist Trespasser has said often enough here that he thinks white are superiour to other colors.
Just another barinless jewish redneck
The Trespasser
I never claimed that whites are superior, merely than the whole modern civilization is, purely accidentally of course, created by “whites”
The Trespasser
“it is not considered *racial* discrimination, right?”
By the way, is it OK do discriminate by education?
directrob
By the way trespasser, if in real life you are able to see palestinians as individuals and do good, why not in this forum? Are not all people unique and ill served by condemning them for what others do.
The Trespasser
>Are not all people unique
Brainwashed people are surprisingly similar, and Palestinian Arabs are probably the most brainwashed of all.
From a conversation with a Palestinian Arab friend:
“Israel is a country of terrorism and occupation…..it will fade soon”
Peace? Hell, no. Carpet bombings, rather.
>and ill served by condemning them for what others do.
But is it not what BDS is about?
directrob
Discrimination by culture is by definition of ethnic group and by definition of racial discrimination “racial discrimination”.
“Ethnicity, or ethnic identity, refers to membership in a particular cultural group. It is defined by shared cultural practises, including but not limited to holidays, food, language, and customs.”
The Trespasser
“Ethnicity, or ethnic identity, refers to membership in a particular cultural group. It is defined by shared cultural practises, including but not limited to holidays, food, language, and customs.”
Pure nonsense.
By this logic an Arab who moves to Salt Lake City and converts to Mormonism stops being Arab and becomes a Whine Anglo-Saxon.
Damn, I always thought that UN is employing idiots, now I know this for fact.
directrob
Race and ethnic group do not really exist, but people are discriminated for belonging to a race or ethnic group. In that light the UN definition makes utmost sense.
The Trespasser
>Race and ethnic group do not really exist
Yeah, I’ve head about this pseudo-scientific theory. Such a shame that there is no scientific data to approve it.
>In that light the UN definition makes utmost sense.
And again – if an Arab moves to Salt Lake City, converts to Mormonism and adopts all Mormon traditions, he would not stop being Arab.
directrob
Your ideas are not inline with mainstream science.
”
Races, in the sense of genetically homogeneous populations, do not exist in the human species today, nor is there any evidence that they have ever existed in the past.
The biologic concept of race is untenable and has no legitimate place in biologic science.
Studies using new technologies for understanding, measuring, and conceptualizing the sources of human variation reveal that approximately 85% of all variation in gene frequencies occurs within populations or races and only 15% variation occurs between such populations; there is no genetic basis for racial classification.
”
see:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0142(19980101)82:1%3C219::AID-CNCR27%3E3.0.CO;2-4/full
The Trespasser
>Studies using new technologies for understanding, measuring, and conceptualizing the sources of human variation reveal that approximately 85% of all variation in gene frequencies occurs within populations or races and only 15% variation occurs between such populations
Said does not imply that “there is no genetic basis for racial classification.”
Author is simply dismissing whichever contradictory facts, such as different muscle structure amongst Africans or probability of genetic disorders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_health#Single_gene_disorders
p.s. by the way, one the same ridiculous basis one could claim that whichever different species have the same count of chromosomes, basically are the same species. Ex. dogs are the same as wolves are the same as jackals are the same as coyotes.
directrob
You not inline with mainstream science. Of course people of the same community tend to share genes. The point is that people within a “race” or “ethnic group” are diverse, almost as diverse as the world population. That is specially true for people in Africa, the place with most genetic diversity.
It is quite sad to treat all people of an “ethnic group” as though they are semi clones.
The Trespasser
1 – It is not “mainstream” science just yet.
2 – Who said that “mainstream” science is necessarily right?