The Unseen Descrimination

Image by nedrichards via Flickr

All foreigners that have entered the US at one point or another over the last 8 years have their own horror stories to tell. The long lines, the disbelief of the immigration officers, the pitying looks of our fellow American travelers, and the feeling of helplessness, knowing that I can do nothing at this point, and the more I express my frustration the slimmer my chances are to eventually enter the States. Criminals until proven otherwise.

I am used to telling my wife that this is nothing. It is the price we pay for being foreigners. That as soon as we pass immigration, no-one can tell between us and a 10 generation American.
But imagine life like that, not only in airports in immigration lines, but always, anywhere, in your own country, where you are host, not the guest.

This post is about everyday lives of Arab Israelis. It will be short, and personal, and no blame or guilt. Only much sorrow. Just to fill in some of you - Israel has about 80% (or 6 million) Jews, and about 20% (or 1.5 million) Arabs. Usually they are called either Arab Israelis or Palestinian Israelis. 90% of them are Muslim, most others are Christians, and few other sects and religions. They are citizens of Israel, not of Palestine.
De jure, they are equal citizens. De facto, they are way below that.

It all started when I was invited to teach this summer a class at Haifa University. Like most other Universities, Haifa U is pretty progressive. Actually, it is one of the most diverse and culturally-integrated universities, with a large Arab minority. A couple of days ago I received the forms I have to fill. They ask for copies of my academic certificates (of course), and... my military service certificate.

Excuse me? Why? They also ask for my rank and recruitment and release dates from the army. EXCUSE ME???

All Jews in Israel must serve in the army (3 years for boys, 2 years for girls). Arabs are not allowed to serve, and are not being offered a civil-service alternative.
The forms I received from Haifa U have no obvious discrimination. Nowhere I was asked to state my religion or nationality. Still, by nature they are discriminatory. Only jews can bring these certificates. Arab citizens are reminded, every minute of their time, that they are second class citizens.

Btw, these details are needed since my military service counts towards my seniority. I am not sure how being in the Israeli army prepares me for my job as a university professor, but apparently this is another mean to pay jews more than arabs who hold corresponding jobs.

Needless to say, after asking the good people in New Profile, I refuse to give these details, and will return the forms next week without them.


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But this was really only one example out of many. Another example - a good friend of ours, a Palestinian Israeli (or Arab Israeli, they both mean more or less the same) married a German guy. He is a Palestinian descendant, since his parents come from Gaza. He was born and raised in Germany.
When they wanted to come to Israel to visit her parents, he was denied entrance. So he cannot meet his in-laws. It is a good excuse to avoid these huge family dinners, I admit, but who is the country to decide that? Just to be clear - if she were Jewish, he would have been given citizenship...

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There are so many other examples, I don’t even want to begin. Somehow, everything is legal, everything adheres to “democratic” principles, with no legal discrimination. Everything is Kosher...

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My uncle in-law bought an apartment in a new house. They wanted no Arabs in the building. So they defined it as an ‘observant building’ (in Hebrew it sounds even more ridiculous). Everyone in this building should observe Shabbat (or Sabbath; needless to say, my uncle in-law has no intentions of doing so). But now Arabs cannot move in there.

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In general allocating property and land is tricky. How can you do that without discrimination? Easily. Much of the land in Israel does not belong to the state - it belongs to a company, the Jewish National Fund. To be clear, it is a private company, and thus can do whatever it wishes with the lands. In simple words, it can discriminate based on religious (and its charter says that its mission is to give land to Jews only). At the same time, it controls public lands, and 80% of its budget come from the Israeli government. Furthermore, one of its affiliated companies buys properties for Jews outside the green line (in the Palestinian area), even though this area was never annexed to Israel by the Israeli government... Dirty business.
The supreme court has ruled this to be illegal several times, so the JNF has to update its mechanisms. But the goal remains.
To further disguise the discrimination, the Hebrew name of the company lacks the word ‘jewish’, and it translates literally to something like “the fund for Israel”...

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This approach, to maintain the discrimination of Arabs by separation, exists everywhere. In the States of Israel, Jews and Arabs do not go to the same schools, cannot marry each other, and cannot even be carried next to each other. Jews and Arabs do not see each other in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. In fact, I have interacted with more Arab Israelis in the States over the last 6 years than in Israel throughout my life.

Imagine if the US government will prevent inter-faith marriages, claiming that there is nothing discriminatory here, since no religion can marry no other religion. Imagine the way Jews would react here.
How come this still goes on in Israel?

I have no idea.

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If you read Hebrew, you will enjoy this.

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Not to mention bigger issues, such as the attempt of the Israeli parliament to disqualify Arab parties from participating in the general elections - not in spite of being a democracy, but in the name of democracy... Luckily, also here the supreme court intervened. Sometimes I feel that there are two Israel's - one for 9 supreme court judges and myself, and one for all the rest...

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Meanwhile I have to return the forms to Haifa University. I just found out that Arab Israelis hold approximately 60 to 70 of the Israel’s 5,000 university faculty positions. That is about 5% of their per-capita number. At least Haifa U has the Jewish-Arab Center, whose goal is to promote Jewish-Arab cooperation.

So now what. I think I will write in the forms that my service in the occupation army did not prepare me for the roles I intend to fulfill as an educator.