Letters to Editor, Opinion

LETTER: Response to “Israel Peace Week” letter

Last week, Kristen Martin accused Israel Peace Week of trying to “distort the human rights violations committed by Israel daily.”

First of all, get your facts straight. The first event this year was hosting “Heartbeat,” a band made of very talented Israeli and Palestinian musicians.Second, while I can’t comment specifically about the story on the contraceptives (first I heard of it, I am curious to read more about it), Israel can hardly be considered a racist and apartheid state, especially BECAUSE of its treatment of Ethiopian Israelis and other African migrants.

The mere fact that African immigrants keep pouring into the country is evidence that the treatment they receive in Israel (which occasionally has its problems because it is a work in progress) is a great deal better than the treatment they could ever hope to receive in any other country in the region. In addition, how could Israel be a racist state when just yesterday, an Ethiopian-born woman, for the first time in Israel’s history, was named Miss Israel? Could you imagine anything remotely close to this happening if Israel was truly an apartheid state?

Thirdly, the issue of Israel constructing a detention center for asylum seekers can hardly be criticized. Israel is an independent country, and it is perfectly legitimate to protect its borders from illegal immigration (just like the United States strives to do at the Mexican border). The fact that Israel is building such a center is the only possible solution. Most of the illegal immigrants are coming from Eritrea and Sudan. Simply looking at a map of the region will raise one question: If they all pass through Egypt, what is Egypt’s role in the problem? All the immigrants enter Israel through the border with Egypt. Israel does not deport the Eritrean immigrants because they are deemed a ‘temporary humanitarian protection group’ by the U.N. While a similar status is not granted to the Sudanese immigrants, why doesn’t Israel at least simply deport them back to Egypt? Because the Egyptians refuse to commit not to deport them back to their country of origin. Another point to consider is that many of these people are not in fact refugees, but are simply migrant workers who are hoping to improve their wages and quality of life by getting into Israel. And so, Israel is stuck between a rock and hard place with regards to what to do with the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants that threaten its existence as a Jewish and democratic state.

With respect to your claims of racism and apartheid against Arabs, while there are some issues, all I have to say is that I have several Arab-Israeli friends living in Israel, who enjoy the same full rights and benefits of being an Israeli citizen as do Jews living there. They are among the 1.5 million Arabs in Israel (20 percent of its population) who share the same rights as any other citizen of the country.

The goal of Israel Peace Week is to focus on the exciting cultural aspects of Israel, putting aside the political differences for once.

Oren Sudai

osudai@bu.edu

BU Dental 2016

2 Comments

  1. This post is wrong on almost every account.

    Migrants from Africa are not coming to Israel because of the ‘better treatment.’ Try economic/physical desperation driving their migration to a country with the best economic outlook in the region where they are also free from political persecution.

    Your example of the Ethiopian-born woman winning Miss Israel for denouncing the claim that Israel is a racist state…is very twisted logic. Her winning the pageant means nothing and reflects absolutely nothing about government policy or popular opinion.

    It is also critical that you understand the politics behind designating someone a refugee. A ‘refugee’ has special legal status under international law, and it is not uncommon for countries, including Israel, to categorize the influx of people based on what is most viable politically. There is plenty of political incentive to blur the distinction between migrant workers, asylum seekers, refugees and illegal aliens.

    Oren, you have access to academic databases at BU. A quick search of second-class citizenry, socioeconomic discrimination (and marginalization) and distribution of wealth in Israel will hopefully lead you to reconsider the claims of your few friends (who are probably very privileged). Do you read the news? After complaints from the ultraconservative (psycho) settlers in the West Bank not wanting to share buses with Palestinians, Israel has introduced Palestinian-only buses (read: de facto segregation) that go into Israel.

    I think the biggest failure of your letter is the implicit idea that Israeli culture is monolithic and unchanging. There is a tremendous amount of debate in Israel right now over the settlement policy, the future of a two-state solution, and military service requirements for the ultra-religious. Competing forces are at work within Israeli culture that reflect very different visions for what the Jewish state represents and how accommodating and accepting their society should be of outsiders and Palestinians.

    • Official PA television—the PA’s PBS—airs programs that feature children as young as six reciting anti-Semitic and violent poems. Just months ago, for example, a little girl recited a poem that claimed, (and I quote) “[Christians and Jews] are inferior, cowardly, and despised.” Three days earlier, on a different program, another young girl insisted that (and I quote), “Our wars are for the Al Aqsa Mosque, and our enemy, Zion, is a Satan with a tail.”
      This is apparently what passes for “educational television” under the Palestinian Authority.
      From cradles to kindergarten classrooms; from the grounds of summer camps to the stands of football stadiums, messages of extremism are everywhere in Palestinian society.
      In the international community, there is no shortage of individuals to lecture Israel about what it must do for peace. Yet these same “human rights advocates” stutter, mumble and lose their voices when it comes to criticizing Palestinian incitement.
      Ignoring words and thoughts of hate does no favors to the Palestinian people. It does no favors to families who seek to build better lives for themselves and their children. And, perhaps most importantly, it does no favors to Palestinian leaders who advance the language of peace instead of the dogmas of hate.
      Laying the groundwork for a stable peace in our region will not happen overnight. But those who would like to foster better relations between Israelis and Palestinians must start by speaking out against incitement in Palestinian society. The next generation—both Israeli and Palestinian—deserve no less.