So, when it comes to closeted ethnocentrism (and not-so-closeted ethnocentrism), Israel sounds an awful lot like the million Fergusons that comprise the Evil, White, Racist U.S.A.:
The story of the immigration and absorption of Ethiopian Jews in Israel epitomises the best and the worst of Israeli society.
True to its Zionist dream of being a haven for Jews, the Jewish state embarked on risky and expensive rescue operations in the 1980s and 1990s.
These brought tens of thousands of Jews from remote parts of Ethiopia, who had suffered from religious persecution, famine and civil wars.
Yet, when they arrived in Israel, these distinctive people faced appalling discrimination, racism and a lack of empathy for their hardships in Ethiopia and during their journey to Israel.
Moreover, this was exacerbated by a mixture of bureaucratic insensitivity and incompetence.
The uncharacteristic violence, seen recently during demonstrations by members of the Ethiopian community in Israel, was a direct result of years of accumulated frustration against the state and especially the police.
The unprovoked beating up by policemen of Demas Fekadeh, an Ethiopian Israeli soldier in uniform, could well serve as a much necessary wake-up call for Israeli society to change, quickly and radically, its treatment of the 130,000 Israeli citizens and their descendants who immigrated from Ethiopia.
Only a professor could write tripe like this. The piece is written by Yossi Mekelberg, professor of international relations at Regent’s University London and associate fellow, Middle East and North Africa programme, at Chatham House.
Only 30 years after the arrival of the first Ethiopian Jews to Israel, and following recent violent clashes with the police, there is a broad acknowledgement that the state failed appallingly in absorbing the Jewish Ethiopian community…
‘Absorbing’, I love that term.
They were welcomed and granted the basic needs of accommodation, healthcare, education and general welfare.
… Which is quite a substantial thing.
However, this was done without sensitivity to their specific conditions and from the outset they faced discrimination and racism from the Israeli establishment.
Just like in the racist U.S.A!
Further proof of Israeli racism is the educational failure of Ethiopians:
For instance, while Ethiopian Israeli schoolchildren comprise only 2% of Israeli pupils, most of them study at schools that are predominantly Ethiopian.
Worse still, their attainment in school is much poorer than the general population, which blocks their path to academic success.
Again, just like in the racist U.S.A!
Many of the Ethiopian Israelis live in the periphery of society that already grapples with issues of unemployment and scarce public resources.
This makes it more difficult for them to integrate and causes friction with the more veteran population.
Ethiopian Jews suffer from the highest poverty rate among the Jews in Israel, and suffer much higher levels of police stop-search, arrests and incarceration.
Whoa! There’s much higher levels of police stop-search, arrests and incarceration?!
That’s just like in the racist U.S.A!
It was the cycle of discrimination, racism, poverty, hopelessness and higher levels of law breaking that led to the recent clashes in the streets of Israeli cities, between Ethiopian Israelis and the police.
It’s funny how, wherever they go, African blacks f*ck sh*t up and wreak havoc suffer from institutional racism.
