Racism in Israel
By Philip Brown.
Why do some people fail to learn from their own bitter experience?
Having suffered racism at the hands of Nazi Germany, racism now exists on the part of some Israeli Jews against Muslim Arabs in Israel. This is reflected in institutional policies, personal attitudes, the media, education, immigration rights, housing, social life and legal policies, as described in this Wikipedia article.
Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin announced to a meeting of academics in 2014 that it is time for Israel to live up to its promise as a land of equality and cure the epidemic of racism. “Israeli society is sick, and it is our duty to treat this disease,” he said.
Yet such prejudice still continues. A party of ultranationalist extremists called Otzma Yehudit or Jewish Power has been called “racist and reprehensible” by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, but it won a seat in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) in 2021.
Can racial prejudice against Jews lasting centuries justify the racial prejudice by some of then now against others?
If our positions were reversed would we see the world as Jewish Power sees it?
I hope not.