Even Iran is not as bad as Immanuel, where they make Jewish girls of differing ethnic stripe wear different colored uniforms.
By Sami Michael
My nerves are tingling and my flesh is crawling as I write these lines. This is a small story about two girls attending the same school who became friends and who are now required, by racist order, to wear school uniforms of different colors.
children in Immanuel
They have been forbidden to come in contact with each other and in order to make the prohibition concrete, a fence covered with an opaque cloth has been stretched between them. They preserve their friendship by passing notes through a hole in the fence.
This story did not happen in the days of apartheid South Africa or in the dark times before the civil rights movement in the United States or in a ghetto in an insane Europe during World War II.
The two schoolgirls wearing uniforms of different colors are Jewish girls from the Israeli settlement of Immanuel in the West Bank, which is flourishing under the flag and armed protection of the Israel Defense Forces. The school also receives funding courtesy of the Israeli taxpayer.
The two schoolgirls' crime is their different ethnic origins. One is an Ashkenazi Jew, whose family's roots are in Europe, and her friend is a Mizrahi Jew, whose family comes from Middle Eastern and North African countries. Was it for this that the state of Israel forged its path through rivers of the blood of its sons and its enemies?
Even in the darkest days in Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon, they never separated Jews from Muslims and Christians in schools.
One of the initiators of the segregation in Immanuel commented: "This isn't ethnic separation, but rather religious." He was right, but only partially. Indeed, this separation is not ethnic but rather "racist," a word rarely used, even by those of courageous and honest determination.
The Supreme Court's justices, whom I see as the last bastion of democracy in Israel, used the term "discrimination."
To my regret, intellectuals whose voice resounds from time to time from here and abroad have sealed their lips. They and the vast majority of Israeli society used to think of "discrimination" as something unclean. What? Here? In our enlightened country?
Along came the righteous Supreme Court justices, headed by Edmond Levy and Hanan Melcer, who smashed the taboo and used the despised word "discrimination."
Let us imagine for a moment a school, say in Germany or Britain, which puts up a separation fence for "religious" reasons, as the Immanuel racists claimed, and compels the Jewish students to wear a uniform of a different color. What a ruckus we would be raising!
I have personally met the current head of the Jewish community in Tehran and I have conversed with many Iranian expatriates in Europe and the United States. I am also in touch with combative elements in Iran. I can attest that Jewish schoolchildren and students living in Iran today are not required to wear clothing of a different color.
How has it happened that rabbis, at least in Immanuel, are even more benighted than the ayatollahs we excoriate and abominate day and night? And why have the intellectuals here mostly disappeared?
I am glad the president has not been silent and has not shut his ears to this horror. In a meeting with young people at his official residence he said if he were their age he would go out and demonstrate against this injustice.
One can understand him. Age has its limitations. I have reached the age of 84 and now it seems to me that every single year weighs a ton. However, the color of the uniforms forced on the schoolgirls in Immanuel has also been forced on me and my children and my grandchildren, who are Ashkenazi and Mizrahi at the same time.
Let's call a spade a spade: The lords of Immanuel are racists who imperil the values of Judaism and democracy. Since my adolescence I have been fighting their sort no matter what their race, religion and heritage. This separation fence of defilement, which shady rabbis plot to plant in our souls, must be uprooted.
I will not demonstrate in Immanuel. Even though the name of the town means "God is with us," obviously he is no longer there. I will however, definitely demonstrate during the celebration of Hebrew Book Week, for a school is called "the house of the book" in Hebrew.
I will show up on my own with a modest placard at Rabin Square at the Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Publishers' booth on Wednesday, June 9, at 7:00 P.M. Every man, woman and teenager will be welcome to join me to extirpate the racist crime in Immanuel today - and should we remain silent, in all of Israel tomorrow. -02/06/2010
The writer's latest novel "Aida" was published in Hebrew by Kinneret Zmora-Bitan. He is the president of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Dear Friends The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow put up this blog in order to make the social discourse live and kicking. We would be happy for comments, critics and other ideas. Happy Readings!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
The Night of The Bulldozers (13.07)
Next Tuesday, 13/07, a big protest event will be held in Dahmash.
This event will close the 5 days Dahmash children Summer Camp, which will begin
this Thursday
18:00
A mass Demonstration and March in the Village
20:30
The Concert begins
for further details, and transportation info: www.dahmash.wordpress.com
Abed: 054-6662919
First International Nelson Mandela Day Celebrating Nelson Mandela's Birthday: Leader in the struggle against Apartheid
On November 10, 2009, the United Nations' General Assembly announced July 18, Nelson Mandela's birthday, as "International Nelson Mandela Day", an international day of activism. This is an international day of humanitarian action that is inspired by the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. The United Nations' declaration calls each and every person in the world to realize his ability to change the world with action.
Inspired by the UN's declaration we have decided, a group of activists, academics, and musicians, to organize an event to mark International Nelson Mandela Day. The event is not affiliated with any organization, and we are committed only to Nelson Mandela's vision and legacy. All organizers and participants are volunteers. The event is a part of world wide International Mandela Day events.
The event will take place in Vox Club in south Tel Aviv, Yagea Kapayim 2, on Saturday, July 17, 2010, at 7 pm. Performances will include System Ali, Arab-Jewish hip hop ensemble from Jaffa; the rapper Kalkidan; the Afro-beat ensemble The Ambassadors (Ivory Coast/Nigeria/Brazil/Israel); the roots reggae band Zvuloon Dub System; Samira Saraya (Spoken Word) and Nadav Haber (Sax). In addition, the activists Hananya Vanda, Yael Ben Yefet, Matan Kaminer, and Rawia Abu Rabia will speak, and the artist David Reeb and video art artist Yayehe S. Mehari will display their work.
The separation between Ethiopian, white, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi students in schools, the racist selection in night clubs, the appropriation of Bedouin land in the Negev, the racist campaign against migrant workers, the non-settlement of the status of asylum seekers and their children, the house demolitions in Arab towns, the separation wall and the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the thousands of security prisoners, police brutality against Arabs and blacks, the settlement in East Jerusalem, the de-legitimatization campaign of human rights organizations – are all different faces of the racist apartheid policy in Israel. From this understanding, we ask to build bridges between different communities in Israel who struggle everyday against racism and apartheid, and to call together: no to racism, no to apartheid, yes to equality, yes to democracy.
In hard times like these, when bad winds of racism and hatred blow in Israel, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the life of Nelson Mandela, are an inspiration and a beacon of hope. The Mandela Day event asks to bring together different voices of protest, and to connect between those who want to see a different society in Israel: a tolerant society, that respects the other, that protects human rights, a society in which the dreams of children in different colors, from different cultures and religions, can be realized.
Mandela said that to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Your freedom and mine, he said, cannot be separated; no one's free until everyone's free. Like South Africa, also in Israel, justice, peace, freedom and reconciliation are possible.
# # #
For more information or to set interviews with the organizers and/or the participants, please call Adana Zohdo, 054-441-6227, Basma Fahoum, 052-649-0449, or Nirit Ben-Ari, 054-792-3082, or email: nelsonmandeladay@gmail.com. Visit us on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=132506123440102&ref=mf
Inspired by the UN's declaration we have decided, a group of activists, academics, and musicians, to organize an event to mark International Nelson Mandela Day. The event is not affiliated with any organization, and we are committed only to Nelson Mandela's vision and legacy. All organizers and participants are volunteers. The event is a part of world wide International Mandela Day events.
The event will take place in Vox Club in south Tel Aviv, Yagea Kapayim 2, on Saturday, July 17, 2010, at 7 pm. Performances will include System Ali, Arab-Jewish hip hop ensemble from Jaffa; the rapper Kalkidan; the Afro-beat ensemble The Ambassadors (Ivory Coast/Nigeria/Brazil/Israel); the roots reggae band Zvuloon Dub System; Samira Saraya (Spoken Word) and Nadav Haber (Sax). In addition, the activists Hananya Vanda, Yael Ben Yefet, Matan Kaminer, and Rawia Abu Rabia will speak, and the artist David Reeb and video art artist Yayehe S. Mehari will display their work.
The separation between Ethiopian, white, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi students in schools, the racist selection in night clubs, the appropriation of Bedouin land in the Negev, the racist campaign against migrant workers, the non-settlement of the status of asylum seekers and their children, the house demolitions in Arab towns, the separation wall and the occupation, the siege on Gaza, the thousands of security prisoners, police brutality against Arabs and blacks, the settlement in East Jerusalem, the de-legitimatization campaign of human rights organizations – are all different faces of the racist apartheid policy in Israel. From this understanding, we ask to build bridges between different communities in Israel who struggle everyday against racism and apartheid, and to call together: no to racism, no to apartheid, yes to equality, yes to democracy.
In hard times like these, when bad winds of racism and hatred blow in Israel, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the life of Nelson Mandela, are an inspiration and a beacon of hope. The Mandela Day event asks to bring together different voices of protest, and to connect between those who want to see a different society in Israel: a tolerant society, that respects the other, that protects human rights, a society in which the dreams of children in different colors, from different cultures and religions, can be realized.
Mandela said that to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Your freedom and mine, he said, cannot be separated; no one's free until everyone's free. Like South Africa, also in Israel, justice, peace, freedom and reconciliation are possible.
# # #
For more information or to set interviews with the organizers and/or the participants, please call Adana Zohdo, 054-441-6227, Basma Fahoum, 052-649-0449, or Nirit Ben-Ari, 054-792-3082, or email: nelsonmandeladay@gmail.com. Visit us on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=132506123440102&ref=mf
Monday, July 5, 2010
Recognition of the Black City's History in the White City of Tel Aviv
By Yael Ben-Yefet
On the evening of 30 March, a Tel Aviv municipal council meeting was held, the fifth one in which I suggested a topic for the agenda on my behalf and on behalf of Ahron Madual, Chairperson of the Ir Lekulano (“A City for All of Us”) Party.
It is a little over three months since the municipal elections. When I requested during one of the budget meetings to examine the municipality’s culture budgets and their homogeneous division, the municipality’s general director said to me that “we have a certain state with certain values—what do you want here, Umm Khalthum?”
Yesterday evening, when City Council Member Pe’er Visner of the Green Party asked who is the white hegemony about which I speak, I told him that it is him, and he shouted at me that I am a racist. At the conclusion of the speech, Mayor Ron Huldai rose to say that these are lies, that there is importance to symbols and that there are many academic schools in south Tel Aviv. No word about Mizrahi culture and certainly not about Arab culture.
Three months may appear a long time, but apparently it is insufficient to successfully explain what an academic school is, certainly not if you are not a pilot [Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai is a former pilot in the Israeli Air Force, AIC].
Suggested Item for the Agenda—Correction of an Historical Injustice Toward the Centennial Celebration of the Establishment of the Ahuzat Bayit Neighbourhood in Tel Aviv
Toward the centennial celebration of the city of Tel Aviv Jaffa, with all its splendor and opulence, we request to direct your attention to the never-ending municipal injustices, the beginnings o which were the attempt to distort historical facts by determining that the beginning of the Jewish settlement in the municipal area occurred the moment the Ahuzat Bayit neighborhood was established in 1909.
We are not demanding the honor of those who left the walls of Jaffa in 1887 to establish the neighborhood of Neve Tzedek, or of the residents of the neighborhoods of Neve Shalom, Mahane Yehuda, Mahane Yosef, Shaarei Ahva and Ohel Moshe. And not even that of the Mahane Israel neighborhood, later Kerem Hatemanim, the neighborhood that was established in 1904, some five years prior to Ahuzat Bayit and was essentially the first neighborhood that was truly separated from Jaffa.*
We are not demanding their honor as honor is not our business.
We wish to highlight the chronicle of alienation, of oppression and of discrimination which transforms the descendents of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods to sons of the “black city”—the back yard of Tel Aviv.
Historical fact points out that the city of Tel Aviv developed from Jaffa, which was established some 3000 years ago, and the first neighborhood outside of Tel Aviv was founded 105 years ago.
Actually, the celebratory recognition of 100 years is a correct act in accordance with the logic of the “white city,” the logic of oppression and discrimination that characterized the planning of the city at all levels and at all times. For a simple example from recent days, it is sufficient to note the struggle of the Shapira neighborhood to receive money to hold a neighborhood festival as part of the current centennial celebrations.
The determination of the starting point of Tel Aviv in 1909 is simply the first, but most symbolic article in the failed conduct of the authorities vis-à-vis residents of the city’s neighborhoods. That it writes names of paths and roads on the one hand, while ignoring alleys and “forgotten” paths on the other, is an additional symbolic layer in the process of historical revisionism by the white hegemony in the white city that justifies to itself its absolute sovereignty as legitimate in the face of the people deprived of their rights. White on black. These symbolic acts have serious practical implications in creating the consciousness of the young generation and reproducing this inequality in thought and action.
On this background, it is possible to explain the erasure of the contribution of the Yemenite Jews in the foundation of the city of Tel Aviv and within the ethos currently celebrated.
This is a mandatory step in accordance with the logic of the “white city,” which turns its back on the “Middle East.”
A city in which the majority of its Mizrahi and Palestinian residents reside in defined areas and whose cultural institutions are a prison, the forensic medicine center and a huge ecological disaster known as the “new central bus station,” which is cynically used as both a bomb shelter and huge shopping center. However, in these areas there is not one non-vocational high school.
We ask at this pre-celebratory moment to turn another page in the unofficial booklet of the centennial celebration and point to the demolished homes of those vacated from Kfar Shalem and the residents of Jaffa who are forced into illegal buildings due to the draconian policy of “burn out and throw away,” to which the legal system and law enforcement agencies are particularly devoted.
We wish to point out again that the logic which transformed the ideological starting point is further reflected in the ever unequal distribution of education and culture budgets, and the lack of a museum or cultural center representing the history of south Tel Aviv neighborhoods from the perspective of their residents. We ask to allow residents of the black city an equal status as residents of the city.
When declaring Um Khaltuum as a persona non grata in the city, the municipality’s general director is essentially replicating the same approach of maligning cultures of the city’s residents. He continues the same racist approach that categorizes cultures in a manner characterizing the most oppressive regimes.
This is so also when they declare a municipal action plan to bring what are dubbed “strong populations” to the neighborhoods, a plan founded on a racist and essentialist idea; an idea the basis of which is the assumption that only Ashkenazi populations can improve the situation of the neighborhoods, as if the situation of the neighborhoods was created out of nothing and its political and social roots are found in the residents themselves. This distorted perception denies the institutional responsibility which organizes resources in accordance with hidden ethnic hierarchies and hangs the desired change on the cultural power of these new populations. All this, instead of investing in the local population.
They call this gentrification and it is impossible to disassociate these remarks from the wider racist ideology which is the official line of the national camp. When the homes of Mizrahis in Kfar Shalem are destroyed, the racist ideology is there, when Arab residents are kicked out of their homes, the racist ideology is there, when the life opportunities of children in the discriminatory education system are manipulated, it is also there.
The change is consciousness is not simple and is not immediate, but the centennial is a wonderful opportunity for correction. A correction that will finally allow life in a truly multicultural city, as white is the color you see when you don’t manage to notice the other colors.”
The desired change will mean that school children in the city can learn history that is closer to the truth. Children from south Tel Aviv can again be proud of their roots and not feel inferior vis-à-vis the story whose heroes are always foreign with European family names and who live and lived in different neighborhoods from their own.
Children of the south will be able to choose schools in their neighborhoods and not go to the north for education, with or without school transportation. This will strengthen the community and will prevent the cynical threat to cancel school transportation, which hangs over the heads of children at the beginning of every school year.
Our proposal includes historical recognition and operative action for equality and distributive justice on the cultural, education and budgetary levels.
1. Recognition in the history books on the city and national levels in honor of the centennial celebrations.
2. Recognition of the southern neighborhoods at a cultural and educational center.
3. Establishment of a non-vocational, academic school that will bring students to full matriculation exams that result in the possibility of academic studies.
4. Establishment of a museum and cultural center in the first neighborhoods of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
5. Allocation of resources for events in the first neighborhoods of the city.
6. In order not to oppress the desire to hold parties in the city, to hold a big performance with classical Mizrahi music in the south park to commemorate the history of the first neighborhoods of Tel Aviv.
7. Finally, to establish a team to examine the municipal budget with the goal of creating distributive justice with an emphasis on budgets for education, culture and infrastructures.
Given its public importance and the urgency of the subject, I request to hold a serious discussion in the Municipal Council.
On the evening of 30 March, a Tel Aviv municipal council meeting was held, the fifth one in which I suggested a topic for the agenda on my behalf and on behalf of Ahron Madual, Chairperson of the Ir Lekulano (“A City for All of Us”) Party.
It is a little over three months since the municipal elections. When I requested during one of the budget meetings to examine the municipality’s culture budgets and their homogeneous division, the municipality’s general director said to me that “we have a certain state with certain values—what do you want here, Umm Khalthum?”
Yesterday evening, when City Council Member Pe’er Visner of the Green Party asked who is the white hegemony about which I speak, I told him that it is him, and he shouted at me that I am a racist. At the conclusion of the speech, Mayor Ron Huldai rose to say that these are lies, that there is importance to symbols and that there are many academic schools in south Tel Aviv. No word about Mizrahi culture and certainly not about Arab culture.
Three months may appear a long time, but apparently it is insufficient to successfully explain what an academic school is, certainly not if you are not a pilot [Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai is a former pilot in the Israeli Air Force, AIC].
Suggested Item for the Agenda—Correction of an Historical Injustice Toward the Centennial Celebration of the Establishment of the Ahuzat Bayit Neighbourhood in Tel Aviv
Toward the centennial celebration of the city of Tel Aviv Jaffa, with all its splendor and opulence, we request to direct your attention to the never-ending municipal injustices, the beginnings o which were the attempt to distort historical facts by determining that the beginning of the Jewish settlement in the municipal area occurred the moment the Ahuzat Bayit neighborhood was established in 1909.
We are not demanding the honor of those who left the walls of Jaffa in 1887 to establish the neighborhood of Neve Tzedek, or of the residents of the neighborhoods of Neve Shalom, Mahane Yehuda, Mahane Yosef, Shaarei Ahva and Ohel Moshe. And not even that of the Mahane Israel neighborhood, later Kerem Hatemanim, the neighborhood that was established in 1904, some five years prior to Ahuzat Bayit and was essentially the first neighborhood that was truly separated from Jaffa.*
We are not demanding their honor as honor is not our business.
We wish to highlight the chronicle of alienation, of oppression and of discrimination which transforms the descendents of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods to sons of the “black city”—the back yard of Tel Aviv.
Historical fact points out that the city of Tel Aviv developed from Jaffa, which was established some 3000 years ago, and the first neighborhood outside of Tel Aviv was founded 105 years ago.
Actually, the celebratory recognition of 100 years is a correct act in accordance with the logic of the “white city,” the logic of oppression and discrimination that characterized the planning of the city at all levels and at all times. For a simple example from recent days, it is sufficient to note the struggle of the Shapira neighborhood to receive money to hold a neighborhood festival as part of the current centennial celebrations.
The determination of the starting point of Tel Aviv in 1909 is simply the first, but most symbolic article in the failed conduct of the authorities vis-à-vis residents of the city’s neighborhoods. That it writes names of paths and roads on the one hand, while ignoring alleys and “forgotten” paths on the other, is an additional symbolic layer in the process of historical revisionism by the white hegemony in the white city that justifies to itself its absolute sovereignty as legitimate in the face of the people deprived of their rights. White on black. These symbolic acts have serious practical implications in creating the consciousness of the young generation and reproducing this inequality in thought and action.
On this background, it is possible to explain the erasure of the contribution of the Yemenite Jews in the foundation of the city of Tel Aviv and within the ethos currently celebrated.
This is a mandatory step in accordance with the logic of the “white city,” which turns its back on the “Middle East.”
A city in which the majority of its Mizrahi and Palestinian residents reside in defined areas and whose cultural institutions are a prison, the forensic medicine center and a huge ecological disaster known as the “new central bus station,” which is cynically used as both a bomb shelter and huge shopping center. However, in these areas there is not one non-vocational high school.
We ask at this pre-celebratory moment to turn another page in the unofficial booklet of the centennial celebration and point to the demolished homes of those vacated from Kfar Shalem and the residents of Jaffa who are forced into illegal buildings due to the draconian policy of “burn out and throw away,” to which the legal system and law enforcement agencies are particularly devoted.
We wish to point out again that the logic which transformed the ideological starting point is further reflected in the ever unequal distribution of education and culture budgets, and the lack of a museum or cultural center representing the history of south Tel Aviv neighborhoods from the perspective of their residents. We ask to allow residents of the black city an equal status as residents of the city.
When declaring Um Khaltuum as a persona non grata in the city, the municipality’s general director is essentially replicating the same approach of maligning cultures of the city’s residents. He continues the same racist approach that categorizes cultures in a manner characterizing the most oppressive regimes.
This is so also when they declare a municipal action plan to bring what are dubbed “strong populations” to the neighborhoods, a plan founded on a racist and essentialist idea; an idea the basis of which is the assumption that only Ashkenazi populations can improve the situation of the neighborhoods, as if the situation of the neighborhoods was created out of nothing and its political and social roots are found in the residents themselves. This distorted perception denies the institutional responsibility which organizes resources in accordance with hidden ethnic hierarchies and hangs the desired change on the cultural power of these new populations. All this, instead of investing in the local population.
They call this gentrification and it is impossible to disassociate these remarks from the wider racist ideology which is the official line of the national camp. When the homes of Mizrahis in Kfar Shalem are destroyed, the racist ideology is there, when Arab residents are kicked out of their homes, the racist ideology is there, when the life opportunities of children in the discriminatory education system are manipulated, it is also there.
The change is consciousness is not simple and is not immediate, but the centennial is a wonderful opportunity for correction. A correction that will finally allow life in a truly multicultural city, as white is the color you see when you don’t manage to notice the other colors.”
The desired change will mean that school children in the city can learn history that is closer to the truth. Children from south Tel Aviv can again be proud of their roots and not feel inferior vis-à-vis the story whose heroes are always foreign with European family names and who live and lived in different neighborhoods from their own.
Children of the south will be able to choose schools in their neighborhoods and not go to the north for education, with or without school transportation. This will strengthen the community and will prevent the cynical threat to cancel school transportation, which hangs over the heads of children at the beginning of every school year.
Our proposal includes historical recognition and operative action for equality and distributive justice on the cultural, education and budgetary levels.
1. Recognition in the history books on the city and national levels in honor of the centennial celebrations.
2. Recognition of the southern neighborhoods at a cultural and educational center.
3. Establishment of a non-vocational, academic school that will bring students to full matriculation exams that result in the possibility of academic studies.
4. Establishment of a museum and cultural center in the first neighborhoods of Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
5. Allocation of resources for events in the first neighborhoods of the city.
6. In order not to oppress the desire to hold parties in the city, to hold a big performance with classical Mizrahi music in the south park to commemorate the history of the first neighborhoods of Tel Aviv.
7. Finally, to establish a team to examine the municipal budget with the goal of creating distributive justice with an emphasis on budgets for education, culture and infrastructures.
Given its public importance and the urgency of the subject, I request to hold a serious discussion in the Municipal Council.
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