INTOLERANCE OF AFRICANS, ORTHODOX AND ARABS GROWING IN ISRAEL

A tsunami of intolerance and discrimination against Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews and African refugees has washed over Israel in recent weeks, causing concern among many that it may be undermining

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August 17, 2022

A tsunami of intolerance and discrimination against Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews and African refugees has washed over Israel in recent weeks, causing concern among many that it may be undermining Israel’s ‘democratic character’. The past week has seen an explosion of street protests calling to deport Africans who have congregated in neighbourhoods in south Tel Aviv and against Israeli Arabs moving to the cities. A group of municipal rabbis signed a letter earlier this month declaring that it was forbidden by religious law to rent or sell homes to non-Jews. “We see it as a racist call,” Ron Gerlitz, the co-executive director of Sikkuy – the Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality in Israel, told reporters. “If someone says we should not rent to some people just because of their nationality then this is racism.” There are an estimated quarter of a million foreign workers in Israel. This doesn’t include the estimated 30,000 Africans who have come to the country, mostly from Eritrea, and Sudan. While these numbers are small compared to more than seven million Israelis, the foreigners tend to live in a limited number of neighbourhoods where their presence is felt especially strongly. Gerlitz said the attacks on Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up some 20 per cent of the population, was an “attack against democracy, because there is no democracy without uncompromising protection of the rights of the minority.”