The report on the settler news site, Arutz Sheva said it all. Describing Sudanese refugees as ‘infiltrators’ we are told that ‘Many of them end up residing in the central bus station in Tel Aviv. The area looks surrealistically like an African country, in terms of population, stores and atmosphere.’
Now where have we heard this type of language before? Ah yes, circa 1933. And who was it said about? Yup, the Jews no less: ‘Poland for the Polish – Jews to Palestine’. Interesting how these things come around and how Israel has managed to replicate and worse, just about everything the anti-Semites used to do.
Israel’s only saving grace is that it hasn’t yet embarked on a systematic extermination, although there are those in the Orthodox religious sector, Lubavitch in particular, who look forward to death camps for Palestinians.
Of course some will say that anti-immigrant feeling in Israel is no different from any other country. But this isn’t true. In Europe it will generally be about refugees ‘taking’ jobs, benefits etc. Which of course is bad enough but can be fought along the lines that trade unions have traditionally done. But in Israel it is a different debate. About preserving the ‘Jewish’ nature of the state. That is the context in which this is occurring. And there is of course no court system to determine whether or not they are genuine refugees or not, because that is besides the point. What matters is that they aren’t Jewish.
Tony Greenstein
Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 12/12/2011 - 23:03
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz mysteriously removed from its website an article exposing atrocious Israeli racism against black people just hours after it was published.
The article by David Sheen – a copy of which was made by The Electronic Intifada before Haaretz deleted it – reported on a rally by Israeli Jews on Sunday in Tel Aviv against African immigrants, demanding that they be sent home because Israel is a “Jewish state.” The rally was addressed by Michael Ben-Ari, a member of the Israeli parliament from the National Union party which also favors expelling Palestinians.
We have come to expunge the darkness
The deleted article stated:
The demonstrators chanted “The people demand the expulsion of the infiltrators,” “We have come to expunge the darkness,” and “Tel Aviv is for Jews, Sudan is for Sudanese.”
Ben Ari criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu for allowing African migrants to remain in the county after they had already entered in recent years. He called Netanyahu’s cabinet “the blackest government ever for Tel Aviv.”
Shocking video of hate rally
Video taken at the rally and posted on YouTube by Sheen, shows some of the vile racism, including by Knesset member Michael Ben-Ari.
Protesters can be heard chanting such slogans as, “Sudanese to Sudan, Tel Aviv is for Jews” and “Their place is in Sudan, not here. This is a Jewish state!”
“Restrict their movements”
Ben-Ari apparently referring to some nearby counter-demonstrators said: “I can see them over there, those who want to destroy our country. I see those who are setting up a welcome tent for the millions of Africans who are on their way here and I tell them it’s no use, our response is the Jewish nation lives!”
Ben-Ari and several protesters then broke into singing the nationalist refrain, “The Jewish nation lives.”
Ben-Ari then praised the mayor of the Red Sea port city of Eilat for his alleged harsh treatment of Africans. The mayor, Ben-Ari said, “is doing a great job with the Africans there. I only wish we did the same here in Tel Aviv. He doesn’t allow them to attend schools, he restricts their movements, he knows what to do.”
Africans ‘bad for property values’
The handful of counter-demonstrators calling for an end to racism are confronted by some of the protestors and one woman shouts: “Disgusting! Why should my son go to school with 30 Sudanese in a class?”
The same woman adds, “Let’s see you take them back home to your neighborhood and then we’ll see you complain that your property values are dropping.”
Why did Haaretz delete the article?
It is very unusual for a publication to delete an article without explanation after it is published. Responding to my questions on Twitter, Sheen suggested it was because the article was no longer “newsy,” coming 24 hours after the rally.
While this may be what the Haaretz editors told Sheen, it is far from convincing. In a professional publication, such decisions are made before an article appears, not after.
Your claim that this anti-immigration protest is different from those in other countries seems untenable.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the Migration Watch website, for example, you will find that alongside their arguments about jobs and welfare they also argue the effect of immigration on society. For example, one of their concerns is that in some schools English is not the first language of most of the pupils. That concern has nothing to do with jobs or the burden on the NHS or anything else. And this is the more respectable end of the anti-immigration spectrum.
While it may be true that in Israel there is more openness about people requiring a Jewish majority it doesn't make concerns over the societal make-up unique. Moreover, you have to prove that the concern for maintaining a Jewish majority is caused by racism among Israelis and not the fear that the loss of such a majority would result in the mass murder or expulsion of Jews because of the racism of the neighbours of Israel.
I doubt even you can deny, for example, that if all Palestinians were suddenly granted Israeli citizenship in a one-state solution that a very very large number of those Palestinians would seek to kill or expel the Jews. Hamas is, after all, a deeply anti-Semitic terrorist organisation.
Anthony
ReplyDeleteSure its different, as those are JEWS protesting ......
No anonymous, it's some RACIST Jews and they're not protesting but engaging in a pre-pogrom that Zionists love so well
ReplyDeleteSo, according to the brilliant zionut Anthony, there is a difference between "racism" and "concern for what a lot of black people will do to our society"?
ReplyDeleteWell, first, a lot of black people would make Israeli society a lot better. And the people who don't understand that are, hmmm, racists.
The idea that "a very very large number of those Palestinians would seek to kill or expel the Jews" is an example of racist zionuttery, not to mention projection. Take a hint Anthony, Palestinians are not like Zionists, had they been like Zionists, Israel would have never been created.
Yes Migration Watch and out ex-ambassador Sir Andrew Green are certainly concerned about jobs etc. Or rather the old attempt to blame society's ills on an identifiable minority.
ReplyDeleteBut even Green and co. don't talk of the racial/biological make-up of British society anymore. It's cultural, language and yes resources.
But in Israel Black people are considered the lowest of the low, including the Falashas (not really Jews apparently).
No I don't accept that with the right of return would come a massacre of Israeli Jews. That is a settler fantasy. I'm more concerned with the present day massacres.
Ha Ha
ReplyDelete"No I don't accept that with the right of return would come a massacre of Israeli Jews."
That's your biggest problem........
That's AntiJewish Greenstein.
ReplyDeleteHe cares about Blacks and Palestinians.
For him killing jews, is not an issue.......
Erm Evildoer - you're reading what you want to read rather than what I wrote. I simply pointed out that Tony's claim that anti-immigration sentiments in Europe are only about jobs etc is untrue. The proof is that Migration Watch (which is at the more respectable end of the anti-immigration spectrum) is concerned with the impact on society as well as about jobs etc.
ReplyDelete”Of course some will say that anti-immigrant feeling in Israel is no different from any other country. But this isn’t true. In Europe it will generally be about refugees ‘taking’ jobs, benefits etc. Which of course is bad enough but can be fought along the lines that trade unions have traditionally done. But in Israel it is a different debate. About preserving the ‘Jewish’ nature of the state. That is the context in which this is occurring. And there is of course no court system to determine whether or not they are genuine refugees or not, because that is besides the point. What matters is that they aren’t Jewish.”
ReplyDeleteI think that is only half true. Anti-immigrant nutters the world over very often refer to ‘identity threats’ (‘Britain for the British’, ‘Own People First’ (Vlaams Blok - now Vlaams Belang), the US’s ‘we’re a Christian Nation’ (under threat from non-believing Moooooslim terrrists), Anders Breivik ‘Islamisation of Europe’, etc etc) See also the plight of the Mahgreb immigrants to France during the Algerian debacle and much later too.
Even the ‘white Flight’ argument of ‘they make our property prices plummet’ is often heard in British racist circles too.
This kind of racism, shocking as it is in its naked horribleness, isn’t particularly Zionist IMHO, rather it’s shared by all ‘Blood and Soil’ forms of nationalism and the inevitable racist exclusivism that flows from it.
I don't see why it's my problem Mr Anon that there will be no massacre when Palestine reverts to its rightful owners. It's your present problem - I agree.
ReplyDeleteI don't care about Jews, only Blacks and Palestinians. Now where did I hear this before. Oh yes, except it was 'whites' rather than Jews and it was the NF rather than a Zionist twit.
But no I don't care about Jewish settlers.
Gert, yes indeed. Among racist circles identity threats are indeed a live issue. But governments do not generally formulate immigration policy openly on the basis of the need to maintain our kith and kin. Now they may be hypocritical, dress it up in different ways, but in Israel Zionism is state policy and Zionism means no non-Jews if at all possible.
Whereas here in the UK the debate is about 'genuine' asylum seekers in israel it is always about the Jewish race.
Greenstein says.
ReplyDelete"But no I don't care about Jewish settlers"
That's extreme antijewish dialectic you here from the lowest JewHaters.
For you all the JEWS in Israel are settlers, that means that for you if All Jews in Israel will be killed, you don't care.....
Tony:
ReplyDelete"Now they may be hypocritical, dress it up in different ways, but in Israel Zionism is state policy and Zionism means no non-Jews if at all possible. "
Agreed of course. I'm just not so sure that this particular bunch of dimwits really needed prompting by G'ment policy: they seem garden variety racists to me. There were also counter-demonstrators.
To demonstrate Zionist racism there are arguably much better examples and many too...
My concern is not with Jewish settlers in Israel. They are the oppressor and my concern is with the oppressed. It is only in the rabid mind of a Zionist racist that that translates into a massacre of Jews.
ReplyDeleteThe massacres that are occurring to this day are those of Palestinians, not Israeli Jews. Therefore I wish to be rid of the State that actively participates and engineers the killing of Palestinians and their daily humiliation and ordeals by the settlers of the West Bank, in addition of course to the systematic discrimination against Israeli Arabs.
Hence why I support a democratic, secular state where privilege doesn't attach to those of a particular racial religious definition.
I hope that is clear, even to our anonymous Zionist dimwit.
you can write what ever you want.
ReplyDeleteFor you All of Israel is a settler state.
Meaning You don't care if they are killed.
This is not just clear logic, this is what you say.
So this is another pearl that makes it clear what you are.
A Jewish Hater, nothing else.
IT IS KNOWN ALREADY, YOU JUST MADE IT CLEAR.
'you can write what ever you want.'
ReplyDeleteThank you. Yes Israel is a settler state. My concern is therefore with the oppressed not the oppressor. Admittedly a difficult concept for a frothing at the mouth rabid Zionist dog, but there you go.
I am therefore more concerned with the deaths of those who are innocents than those who came to settle the land. But killing settlers is no strategy though obviously it would be well deserved given the thousands of Palestinians killed by them.
I also contextualised my comments so even an anonymous idiot could understand them. And being ironical the idiot probably had even less comprehension than normal. i stated that :
'I don't care about Jews, only Blacks and Palestinians. Now where did I hear this before. Oh yes, except it was 'whites' rather than Jews and it was the NF rather than a Zionist twit.'
This is the standard argument of supporters of colonisation. That we don't care about the murderer, only the victim. And to that I plead guilty. Do I advocate a tit for tat wiping out of the coloniser? No, because what is necessary is the removal of the privileges that tie the coloniser to the state.
And just to emphasise - no I don't care about Jewish settlers. White South African or the German Volksdeutche in Poland either.
No I don't hate Jews. Just Zionist scum who don't have the courage to attach their names to their poisonous screeds.
However if you don't use a verifiable name any response won't be published!
being ‘of Jewish descent’ does not make one ‘a Jew’. I think you are a political game-player of some sort exploiting a spurious ‘Jewish identity’ that has no content.
ReplyDeleteAs from what I read I don't see where or how you are a Jew, you say you are an Atheist, you don't believe in Judaism as a Nation.
So you don't have a connection to the religious part and not to the Nation/Ethnic part.
So what makes you a Jew.
Using it for Political reasons is the lowest, as I get your issue as Being a Anti Zionist Jew, makes you feel you are a STRONGER and Special AntiZionist that any other one.
Which I think is rubbish, as What makes you a stronger or more significant AntiZionist in your view, then any other one.
I guess the Palestinians understand it already and are stepping away from AntiZionist Jews as they got the Political game here.
Ramzi,
ReplyDeleteyou are not only a reactionary fool but an ignorant one too. Indeed you sound much like a Zionist pretending to be an Arab. Maybe you combine both.
Any fool, yourself excepted, knows that being of Jewish descent can indeed make one Jewish. That was the Hitler definition as encapsulated in the Nuremburg Laws 1935 and also Israel's Law of Return, which is likewise based on descent.
I speak very little about Jewish identity. It bores me. The racist Gilad Atzmon is more concerned with this than me. Identity, Jewish included, changes as the Jews or whoever change what they do. It really is that simple.
Again your ignorance shows when you say that 'I don't see where or how you are a Jew, you say you are an Atheist, you don't believe in Judaism as a Nation.'
The definition of someone who is Jewish has nothing to do with religious adherence or content. It is defined by whether one's mother is Jewish. Of course it can be more than that but there is a Jewish tradition of non-conformism. Hannah Arendt's 'Jew as a pariah' (outsider). Being Jewish has been not only a religious definition, whatever Zionists say. Cultural, linguistic, territorial - and I'm talking of the Bund in Europe, not Zionism.
No Judaism is not a nation. Well done.
You say 'Using it [Jewish identity] for Political reasons is the lowest'
It seems your speciality is to get everything wrong. Zionism uses being Jewish to legitimise the repression of the Palestinians and their dispossession. They claim to act on behalf of all Jews so I and others stand up as Jews and say we disagree.
Only a Zionist scumbag would consider this to be 'the lowest' because they don't like their assumptions being challenged.
And having dug yourself deeper into the whole you then complete the task. You write, just like either a racist Zionist or a racist Atzmon supporter that:
'as I get your issue as Being a Anti Zionist Jew, makes you feel you are a STRONGER and Special AntiZionist that any other one.'
No idiot. It doesn't make us special. On the contrary Jewish anti-Zionists have family and other problems to contend with, so it is more difficult for someone to 'come out' as a Jewish anti-Zionist.
And the reason? Because when Zionists claim that support for Palestinians is anti-Semitic, as they did at my Union conference (Unison) people like me can stand up and show that this is a lie. That is why Palestinians who are active in BDS welcome the support of Jews. That is also why racist Zionist creeps like you don't.
You should get back to your Atzmon cesspool where there is a welcome for this kind of rubbish.