israeli-racism-in-theory-and-practice

Report 

October 2009 

MEMO 

MIDDLE EAST MONITOR 

Israeli Racism in theory 

and practice

Middle East Monitor (MEMO) 

A briefing paper published in October 2009 by 

Middle East Monitor 

419-421 Crown House 

North Circular Road 

London NW10 7PN 

United Kingdom 

ISBN: 978-1-907433-03-0 

Paper written by Zulaikha Abdullah 

Tel: +44 208 838 0231 

Fax: +44 208 838 0705 

email: info@memonitor.org.uk 

website: www.memonitor.org.uk 

Front cover photo: A graffiti covered wall in Jerusalem highlighting 

the depth of anti-Arab Racism among Jews in Israel. Source: 

the Palestine Chronicle. 

Design: Golden Vision, Beirut, Lebanon

Israeli Racism in Theory and 

Practice 

Zulaikha Abdullah

TABLE OF CONTENT 

Introduction 

Racism for a reason is nonetheless racism 

Zionism 

Jewish Ideology 

Religiously inspired racism 

The fallacy of a democracy 

The Apartheid analogy 

Racism inside Israel 

Racial Cleavage among Jewish Israelis 

Anti-Black racism 

Racist Indoctrination through the Education System 

Personally Mediated [Popular] Racism 

Racist Edicts and Propaganda 

Ethnic Cleansing and the Silent Transfer of Population 

Religious Persecution 

Institutional Racism 

Racism and the Law 

Racism in the Occupied Palestinian Territories 

Colonialism 

Conclusion 

1 

3 

4 

6 

8 

10 

13 

18 

19 

23 

26 

28 

30 

31 

33 

35 

37 

40 

41 

43

Israeli Racism in Theory and Practice 

6 Middle East Monitor | A Report | October 2009

INTRODUCTION 

“Anti-Semitism is no longer the hatred of and 

discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic 

group; in the age of Zionism, we are told, anti- 

Semitism has metamorphosed into something that 

is more insidious. Today, Israel and its Western 

defenders insist genocidal anti-Semitism consists 

mainly of any attempt to take away and to refuse to 

uphold the absolute right of Israel to be a Jewish 

racist state.” 1 

At the United Nations World Conference against Racism 

held in Durban in 2001, there was significant focus 

on Israel’s discriminatory practices and treatment of 

Palestinians coupled with renewed debate analogous to 

UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 which in 1975 

equated Zionism with racism. Such focus no doubt 

reflects the growing world-wide consensus and repulsion 

at these practices. 

Humanitarians and human rights defenders the world 

over, from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Jimmy Carter and 

Noam Chomsky, in accordance with international law and 

numerous UN resolutions, condemn Israel as a military 

occupation implementing racist policies against the non- 

Jewish populations both inside its territory and those it 

occupies. Yet, meaningful public debate of this pressing 

issue remains taboo and its very existence is generally 

ignored - the US stormed out of the Durban conference 

decrying it as ‘anti-Israel’ and ‘anti-Semitic’ while the 

EU refused to pass judgment. During deliberation of the 

1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution in the UN, Israel itself 

conceded that it discriminated against Arabs, but argued 


Middle East Monitor | A Report | October 2009 

1

for the need and overriding probity of establishing a 

Jewish state for displaced Jews. 



RaCISm fOR a ReaSON IS NONeTHeLeSS 

RaCISm 

This paper explores the foundations, justifications and 

manifestations of Israeli racism within Israel and the 

Occupied Palestinian Territories. The endemic and near 

universal phenomenon of racism directed against non- 

Jews in a celebrated democratic society such as Israel 

cannot be easily explained away. From religious zealots to 

staunch secularists to the politicians who brazenly declare 

their unwavering support for Jewish Supremacism and the 

Judaization of Palestinian land, it is entrenched. Racism, 

xenophobia and discriminatory practices and policies 

in Israel stem from a variety of underpinnings - most 

significantly religious and ideological; they must both be 

explored if the world view they create and express is to be 

understood. 



3

ZIONISm 

Political Zionism as a European movement that sought 

a solution to the ‘Jewish problem’ and a self- confessed 

analogue to other European national liberation 

movements, particularly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 

postulated that Jews were a ‘people’ or a nation and 

should therefore gather together in a national homeland. 

As a national movement however, it was unique in that the 

majority of the proposed national group did not live in the 

claimed national territory and any nation state could only 

be achieved through ‘return’ or immigration. Initially, there 

was no clear notion of a specific territory and countries 

including Uganda were considered options for settlement. 

The first public claim to a Jewish state did not have the 

crucial support of Jewish Orthodoxy and many secular 

Jews rejected the idea that Jews constituted a nation. 

Nevertheless, by the time of the Balfour Declaration 

(1917), political Zionism evolved into a burgeoning 

nationalist movement claiming to speak on behalf of the 

Jewish people and laying exclusive claim to Palestine 

on the grounds that it was the historic Jewish national 

homeland. 

Religious Zionism retrospectively traces its beginnings 

back to the 19 th century, yet as late as the 1930s Zionism 

was regarded as blasphemous; a disbelief in God’s 

salvation and power and thus a rebellion against Him. 

Conversely, the first chief rabbi of British mandatory 

Palestine, Rabbi Abraham Kook re-interpreted the 

scripture to suit his political agenda, fusing the religious 

and secular and thus creating a nationalism based on 

divine imperative and sanctifying Zionism. Successes 



in the 1967 war cemented the alliance and silenced 

dissent as the capture of land was hailed as a miracle and 

proof of God’s backing. The result was a messianic and 

militaristic upsurge; a conviction that the beginning of the 

redemption was being witnessed and thus it would now 

be a sin to return any of the land 2 . Radical, fundamentalist 

groups such as Gush Emunim and followers of Meir 

Kahane later emerged and went on to form the National 

Religious Party – a potent political force in Israel. 

The protean creed of the Zionist movement has continued 

to constantly evolve, transform and reconstitute itself 

from a mish mash of influences; prevailing European 

and North American social cultural and political trends 

of the 19 th and early 20 th centuries such as nationalism, 

colonialism, socialism and bolshevism, as well as 

Judaism and changing Jewish ideological influences and 

considerations. 



5

JewISH IDeOLOgy 

Israel’s grand strategy and much of its politics is largely 

incomprehensible to foreign observers. This is due in no 

small part to its secular veneer belying the ideological 

motivations behind policies such as its aggressive 

expansionism, prolonged occupation, settling Jews on 

Palestinian land, its apartheid character and its attitude 

toward affording the most basic human rights to those 

under its effective control. Not to mention religiously 

based chauvinistic, exclusivist concepts such as the 

redemption of land, routinely taught in schools, and 

applicable to the whole land of Israel whereby land is 

‘purified’ or ‘returned to Judaism’ by virtue of its passing 

from non-Jewish to Jewish ownership and control. This, 

rather than security considerations, is what dictates the 

expropriation of land and official Judaisation plans 3 . 

That is not to say that Israeli politics is not guided by 

imperial strategic considerations based on presumed 

interest. However, the more the Jewish character of 

Israel is being reinforced, the more its policies become 

guided by Jewish ideological considerations firmly 

rooted in religious beliefs and less by ‘rational’ ones. The 

parochialism, racism and hatred of non-Jews as depicted 

in some Biblical texts undoubtedly influences many Jews 

consciously or sub-consciously and finds expression and 

continuity in the way Israel treats non-Jews. In the case of 

secular Jews, ‘historical rights’ take the place of ideology 

but which are themselves derived from religion and retain 

its dogmatic character. 

The pervasive influence of religion may be illustrated by 

the self-proclaimed atheist David Ben Gurion who, in a 



seemingly bizarre announcement to the Knesset in 1956, 

stated that the real reason for the Suez War was the 

restoration of the Kingdom of David and Solomon to its 

Biblical borders. A concept based on the notion that any 

land ruled by a Jewish ruler in ancient times or promised 

to the Jews by the Bible should belong to the Jewish 

state by right. The most extreme interpretations of those 

borders include all of Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, 

Cyprus and large parts of both Turkey and Saudi Arabia. 

Far right national-religious groups such as the influential 

Gush Emunim consider the conquest of these lands a 

divinely commanded act. The validity of the concept, in 

principle, is almost universally accepted and objections to 

conquest by war are only on pragmatic grounds. In 1993, 

Ariel Sharon formally proposed that the ‘Biblical borders’ 

concept be adopted as official policy. 4 

The outcome of Israeli policies sanctified by religion, 

secularised religious principles or religious ideology 

are the same as with any other ideologically motivated 

regime – Israel is not unique in this regard. The 

resultant chauvinism, racism and xenophobia should be 

approached in the same way as any other. However, the 

smokescreen which surrounds it, created by propaganda, 

deception, the unwillingness of so many to confront the 

truth and through the thwarting of open discussion and 

critique, the prevailing totalitarian mindset among many 

Israelis and their western supporters alike is nurtured. 



7

ReLIgIOUSLy INSpIReD RaCISm 

“A non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic 

spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness” 5 

Currently, Israel’s definition of racism excludes what 

appears to be the most virulent form of all – religiously 

inspired racism. The strong political and social influence 

of religion and religious groups within Israeli society 

and on Israeli politics, as evidenced by the space given 

to religious discourse by the Hebrew press, cannot be 

overstated. As such, an understanding of the Halachic 

and Talmudic tradition governing the relationship and 

difference between Jews and non-Jews is paramount 

to understanding the anti-Arab racism plaguing Israeli 

society. 

The late Lubovitcher Rebbi, Manachem Mendel 

Schneerson of the popular Chabbad religious movement, 

taught that given that God has chosen the Jews, “the 

body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality 

from the body of [members] of all nations of the world” 

though it may outwardly appear to be of the same 

substance. The difference being that “their bodies are in 

vain.” An even greater difference exists in regard to souls. 

“A non-Jewish soul comes from three satanic spheres, 

while the Jewish soul stems from holiness”. In summary, 

the difference appears to be “A Jew was not created 

as a means for some [other] purpose; he himself is the 

purpose, since the substance of all [divine] emanation 

was created only to serve the Jews. “In the beginning 

God created the Heavens and the earth” [Genesis 1:1] 

means that the heavens and the earth were created for 

the sake of the Jews, who are called “the beginning.” 



This means everything, all developments, all discoveries, 

the creation, including the “heavens and the earth – are 

vanity compared to the Jews. The important things are the 

Jews, because they do not exist for any [other] aim; they 

themselves are [the divine] aim.” 6 

More recently, the Rabbi Manis Friedman, who reputedly 

helped Bob Dylan into a relationship with the Chabbad, 

when asked how he thought Jews should treat their Arab 

neighbours wrote: “The only way to fight a moral war is 

the Jewish way: Destroy their holy sites. Kill men, women 

and children (and cattle),” He argued that if Israel followed 

this wisdom, there would be “no civilian casualties, no 

children in the line of fire, no false sense of righteousness, 

in fact, no war.” He goes on to say “I don’t believe in 

Western morality,” he wrote. “Living by Torah values 

will make us a light unto the nations who suffer defeat 

because of a disastrous morality of human invention.” 7 

Religious rulings pertaining to non-Jews in matters such 

as murder, genocide, the saving of life, hostility and 

violence, abuse and religious intolerance, the boycotting 

of Arab labour, ceding Jerusalem to Arabs, the social 

status afforded non-Jews under Jewish control, attitudes 

toward non-Jews living in the Land of Israel and much 

besides are all profoundly racist. 8 



9

THe faLLaCy Of a DemOCRaCy 

“There should be one law for the Jew and another for 

the Arab” [Chaim Weizmann] 9 

The two overarching principles that define any democracy 

are equality and freedom expressed by all citizens being 

equal before the law, having equal access to power and 

being able to enjoy freedoms and liberties protected by 

a constitution. While respecting the will of the majority, 

one of its prime functions is the zealous protection of the 

fundamental rights of individuals and minority groups. 

Inscribed in the Basic Law of Israel, which functions 

as its unwritten constitution, and at the very core of 

the Zionist creed lies an immutable commitment to the 

Jewish character of the state and to the safeguard and 

propagation of the mechanisms by which it seeks to 

ensure its enduring Jewish character. No political party 

that opposes this principle or proposes to change it can 

be elected to the Knesset. The ramifications of this for 

non-Jews are immense as it ensures they will never be 

equal before the law. The state establishes who a Jew is 

for purposes of law and grants preferential legal status, 

rights and privileges including financial benefits to all Jews 

all over the world over and above its non-Jewish citizens. 

Israel officially ‘belongs’ exclusively to persons defined by 

law as being Jewish. 

The 1952 Citizenship Law grants automatic citizenship to 

all those wishing to immigrate to Israel and the Occupied 

Territories in accordance with the Law of Return which 

limits immigration strictly to those defined legally as 

Jewish while at the same time creating impossible 



Computer Engineer Ahmed, 42, standing in front of his home in Gaza, 

demolished by Israeli bulldozers. Source: Save the Children 

obstacles to the return of Palestinian refugees. This 

clearly reflects Zionism’s belief in an inherently superior 

right of the Jew to the land which no other group 

possesses along with a right to exclude other groups from 

it based on ethnicity. This attribution of a superior status 

to a Jew and an inferior one to a non-Jew inexorably 

leads to discrimination. While all citizens of the state 

have the right to vote in elections, certain other rights 

termed nationality rights are reserved exclusively for those 

defined as Jews. 

Israel firmly separates itself from other countries 

that practice racial discrimination in that its racism is 

constitutional and an organic part of its legal framework. 

The plethora of discriminatory laws enacted by Israel 

since its inception pervade every aspect of the lives of 

non-Jews living under Jewish control. Citizens of the 

state and Palestinians in the Occupied Territories alike 



11

given that the effects of Israeli law inevitably extend extra 

territorially manifesting themselves in such ways as the 

privilege shown to Jewish settlers. 

Against the backdrop of a purportedly ethnic blind 

democracy, the Jewish identity of Israel is legally and 

politically indefensible and flies in the face of the most 

basic principles it claims to represent and uphold. 

By definition, a democracy cannot exist for only one 

community within a multi-national, multi-religious state. 



THe apaRTHeID aNaLOgy 

“Passionately desiring to keep the occupied 

territories, we developed two judicial systems: 

one progressive, liberal in Israel; the other cruel— 

injurious- in the occupied territories. In effect we 

established an apartheid regime in the occupied 

territories immediately following their capture. That 

oppressive regime exists to this day. This is the harsh 

reality that is causing us to lose the moral base of 

our existence as a free, just society and to jeopardize 

Israel’s long-term survival.” 10 

From George Jabbour’s ‘Settler Colonialism in South 

Africa and the Middle East’ published in1970 to Amneh 

Badran’s ‘Zionist Israel and Apartheid South Africa’ 

published in 2009, scholarly parallels have long been 

drawn between Zionist Israeli practices in Palestine and 

South African apartheid. 

If Israel, like the Dutch Afrikaners in South Africa, is 

viewed essentially as an occupation – as a settler-invader 

society with a colonial mentality, it follows naturally that 

it would be inherently discriminatory as the genesis of 

any occupation is the abrogation of the rights of those 

it occupies. Apartheid is distinguished from other forms 

of discrimination by its systematic, institutionalised and 

oppressive character and the purpose of the domination 

entailed. It is where policies and practices of racial 

segregation and discrimination “combine to form an 

institutionalized system of racial discrimination that has 

not only the effect but the purpose of maintaining racial 

domination by one racial group over the other” 11 similar 

to those practiced in South Africa. Israel’s designation 



13

The West Bank Wall. Source: Palestine Solidarity Society, the University of York. 

as a state for Jews which privileges them by law and 

regulates this racism through acts of parliament and other 



Palestinian children behind bars at an Israeli checkpoint. Source: tadamonpalestinianchildren.com 

means, while relegating non-Jews to fourth class citizens 

clearly satisfies this within the state. Within the Occupied 

Territories, Israeli practices exceed by far the brutality of 

those seen in South Africa. Apartheid’s prohibition and 

criminality is enshrined in customary international law. 

The Apartheid Convention cites the following six 

categories of ‘inhuman acts’ as comprising the crime of 

Apartheid; 

1. 

Denial of the right to life and liberty 

2. The deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups 

of living conditions calculated to cause the physical 

destruction in whole or part 

3. Measures calculated to prevent a racial group from 

participation in the political, social, economic and 

cultural life of the country and to prevent the full 



15

4. 

5. 

development of a group through the denial of basic 

human rights and freedoms 

Division of the population along racial lines 

Exploitation of labour 

6. Arrest, imprisonment, travel bans and targeting of 

parliamentarians, national political leaders and human 

rights defenders as well as closing down of related 

organizations. 

Within Israel itself, the citizenship and entry into 

Israel laws; differences in political rights, voting and 

representation of the Palestinian population; differentiated 

national identification cards; differences regarding 

ownership of land, property and business; inferior access 

to education, work, accommodation, health, social, 

sporting and cultural amenities and pensions; differences 

in infrastructure and transport, travel and movement 

between Israelis and Palestinians and a virtual monopoly 

on military and security forces 12 all highlight a limitation 

in the citizenship rights of non-Jews and underscore the 

unabashed systematic and institutionalised nature of 

the discrimination that reduces non-Jews to fourth class 

citizens. 

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), all but 

two of the categories are satisfied and it is clear “Israel 

appears to be implementing and sustaining policies 

intended to maintain its domination over Palestinians 

in the OPT and to suppress opposition of any form to 

those policies” 13 “…a system of control including separate 

roads, inequities in infrastructure, legal rights and access 

to land and resources between Palestinians and Israelis 

constitutes a system of apartheid.” 14 Other practices 

include the creation ghettoised prisons, ethnic cleansing, 

bulldozing of homes, targeted assassinations, massacres, 



imprisonment and torture of opponents, use of excessive 

force against civilians and collective punishment. John 

Dugard, a South African professor of international law and 

Special Rapporteur to the United Nations on the human 

rights situation in the Palestinian territories asserts, “Can 

it be seriously denied that the purpose […] is to establish 

and maintain domination by one racial group (Jews) over 

another racial group (Palestinians) and systematically 

oppress them? Israel denies that this is its intention or 

purpose. But such an intention or purpose may be inferred 

from the actions described…” 15 

Other similarities between Zionism and Apartheid 

include the use of biblical narrative as its justification, 

the utilisation of the colonialist racist claims that the land 

being occupied was devoid of inhabitants and marriage 

laws aimed at safeguarding racial ‘purity’. 

The fundamental difference between Zionism and 

Apartheid is that the Apartheid regime was willing to 

concede portions of South Africa as ‘belonging’ to Black 

people. These cantons or Bantustans were officially 

considered sovereign states embodied with all the 

symbols of sovereignty. However, the sacred principle 

of Zionism which asserts that the land of Israel ‘belongs’ 

only to Jews means that to grant Palestinians autonomy 

or sovereignty in any part of the land would violate this 

principle and would be forbidden. Additionally, the concept 

of Redemption of the Land demands that the whole land 

of Israel be redeemed 16 and is linked to the redemption of 

the people. 

The manifestations of Israeli racism within its borders and 

in the Occupied Territories will now be examined in two 

separate sections below. 



17

Section 1: 

RaCISm INSIDe ISRaeL 

“Racism is a word that I have feared using until now, 

because I did not believe that it could exist in Israel in 

2007, but the time has come to call a spade a spade. 

Israeli society is profoundly infected by racism and 

unfortunately there is no suitable punishment for 

racism in Israel.” [Avi Maspin, a spokesman for The 

Israel Association for Ethiopian Jews] 



RaCIaL CLeavage amONg JewISH 

ISRaeLIS 

“We do not want Israelis to become Arabs. We 

are in duty bound to fight against the spirit of the 

Levant, which corrupts individuals and societies, 

and preserve the authentic Jewish values as they 

crystallized in the [European] Diaspora.” [David Ben 

Gurion] 17 

From the inauguration of the Zionist enterprise 

in Palestine, and in common with other societies 

characterised by mass immigration, Jewish society has 

been fragmented. It is composed of competing and 

divergent groups divided by fierce tensions and rivalry. 

The rifts within this deeply sectarian society are based 

on national, ethnic, religious, cultural, political and socioeconomic 

factors contrary to unity and integration. 18 

In a bid to create a collective identity intended to 

consolidate ‘one Israel’ 19 , the Ashkenazi ethnocentric 

Zionist elite’s ideas for social integration or ‘Israelisation’ 

focused on immigrant populations. The overriding 

approach in creating this normative Jewish identity 

was to force immigrants to ‘melt’ or assimilate into a 

perceived ‘model society’ and the dominant culture. The 

gold standard of ‘Israeliness’ and the hegemonic culture 

of Israel became that of the white Eastern and Central 

European Ashkenazim. 

The problem with assimilation was that ideas such 

as nation, patriotism or historical memory leave the 

newcomers outside of the normative boundaries. 

Immigrants did not experience the holocaust, pogroms 



19

or fights in the ‘wars of independence’. Thus, the 

national identity is established by means seemingly pure 

and homogenous customs and practices. Mizrahim, 

Ethiopians and Arabs are excluded from this. 

“A rigid hierarchy highly racialised both within and 

between religious or national groups orchestrates Israeli 

social life. Much of it is legally enforced.” 20 Consequently, 

there are levels of citizenship dictated largely by racial 

considerations. At the very top of the citizenship pyramid 

are the Ashkenazim followed by the Mizrahim or 

Sephardic Jews who originate from the orient – the Middle 

East, Central Asia and the Caucasus. Within this layer, 

there is discrimination depending on the specific country 

of origin. At the very bottom of the Jewish pyramid are the 

Ethiopians who are black. Below them yet are the Arabs, 

Christians and Druze. 

Racism and social stratification between ethnic groups 

is well established and sharply divides the population. 

The explicit discrimination initially faced by immigrant 

Mizrahim was based on a disdain for their heritage; some 

cultures were considered ‘Arab’ or ‘Levantine’ and thus 

corrupt, backward and primitive. They were spoken of 

disparagingly by politicians and it was perceived that 

they needed to “modernise” in order to assimilate into 

society 21 . Discrimination was also based strictly on skin 

colour, and the darker skinned Mizrahim were subject 

to verbal abuse being called ‘Kushim’ or niggers 22 . This 

gave rise to ethnic neighbourhoods as housing as well 

as employment is allotted along racial lines. As late as 

August 2009, Sephardic students in the settlement of 

Emmanuel were being physically segregated from their 

Ashkenazi peers. “Different entrances were set up for the 

two groups, plaster walls were erected inside the school 

and fences were constructed in the courtyard to separate 

the populations. In addition, the girls were instructed to 



Young activist as US confirms boycott of UN Conference on racism. 

Source: www.ccun.org 

wear different school uniforms based on their ethnicity.” 23 

Especially disturbing was the treatment of immigrants 

from Yemen. In the infamous “Yemenite Babies” scandal, 

the Zionist leadership was implicated in the kidnapping 

of Yemeni children who were given up for adoption in 

Ashkenazi families while their real families were given 

death certificates and no corpses. Similar, was the 

scandal that came to be known as “The Ringworm 

Children” which involved immigrant children from North 

Africa secretly being given high doses of radiation therapy 

to treat fungal ringworm. Many continue to suffer severely 

debilitating and often terminal illnesses as a result of the 

state’s actions which reflect a criminal sense of racial 

superiority inherent in Zionism. 24 

The apparent second class status of Mizrahim caused 



21

younger generations to rebel and in the 70s the “Black 

Panther Movement” of deprived Mizrahim was formed 25 . 

A gradual change in their social standing was partly 

achieved on the back of their efforts and accomplishment 

within the army. Jewish National interest and goals appear 

to transcend all other differences and act as a galvanizing 

force and a point of universal consensus. 



aNTI-BLaCk RaCISm 

“Some of the Turks [i.e. The Mongol race] and 

nomads in the North, and the Blacks and the nomads 

in the South, and those who resemble them in our 

climes. And their nature is like the nature of mute 

animals, and according to my opinion they are not 

on the level of human beings, and their level among 

existing things is below that of a man and above that 

of a monkey because they have the image and the 

resemblance of a man more than a monkey does.” 26 

Having followed Jewish customs since the twelfth century, 

Ethiopian Jews immigrated to Israel, from 1984 onwards, 

on the basis of the Israeli Law of Return although 

they were refused aliyah until 1973 as they were not 

recognised as Jews until then. Much like the Mizrahim, 

they faced overt racism and discrimination and intense 

pressure to assimilate into the hegemonic structure. 

Moreover, since the nineteenth century they have been 

subjected to cultural colonialism and have since then 

slowly adopted European normative Judaism including the 

Talmudic-rabbinic traditions and the oral law. 

On arrival in Israel, the Jewishness of the Ethiopians 

was brought into questioned with the Chief Rabbinate 

demanding they undergo humiliating ritual immersion or 

symbolic conversion ceremonies. The authority of the 

Kes, the respected religious leadership of the community, 

was totally rejected and the children are made to attend 

religious schools in order to complete their ‘conversion’. 

90% of Ethiopian immigrant children and adolescents 

were raised in closed boarding schools, literally cut off 

from their pasts and communities and where the values 



23

Falasha Jews in Israel demonstrating against the racism and discrimination 

they face. Source: tseday.wordpress.com 

of the integrating society were forcefully instilled in them 

in an effort to transform them into western style Jews and 

then Israeli’s. They were even given new ‘Israeli’ names. 

This incredibly traumatic onslaught which practically 

stripped them of their uniqueness and guaranteed them a 

marginal and inferior status within society left the younger 

generation affronted, rebellious and confused and led to 

the formulation and emergence of a new self-identification 

in opposition to the hegemony. 27 

On a day to day basis, the discrimination faced by 

the Ethiopian minority is a collective phenomenon. 

Organisations concerned with equality and justice 

for Ethiopians receive hundreds of complaints yearly. 

Discrimination ranges from veteran Israelis not wanting 

to sit next to them on the bus, bus drivers not wanting to 

carry them, verbal abuse and being called ‘Kushim’ or 

niggers to unequal work and housing opportunities and 



Ethiopian veterans being treated differently from other 

veterans. Schools regularly discriminate against Ethiopian 

children by refusing to admit them to classes or removing 

them from classes at the behest of other parents. In 2007, 

four students studying at an elementary school in Petah 

Tikvah were completely segregated from their peers being 

placed in a classroom by themselves and assigned a 

teacher to teach them all their subjects. They were even 

assigned different recess hours and given cab fares home 

so as not to overly socialise with the other students. 28 

In 1996, a newspaper report stated that an Israeli blood 

bank had thrown away Ethiopian blood donations for 

the past 12 years out fear that it was infected with HIV. 

This led to large scale protests and violent clashes - 

an eruption of the pent up feelings of frustration and 

discrimination felt by the Ethiopians for a long time. 

The Chief of Jerusalem District Police labelled the 

demonstrators “young savages” and the Ministry of 

Defense announced it would continue with its policy 

as Ethiopians constituted a risk group along with 

homosexuals and drug users. 29 

For many Ethiopians, the Blood Affair highlighted the 

difference between race and ethnicity or ethnicity and 

religion and signalled a critical turning point for the 

younger generation and the beginning of a struggle for 

recognition in the form of “everyday resistance”. 

According to the 2009 Mossawa Report, there has been 

a 150% increase this year in racism directed toward 

Ethiopians during football matches. 



25

RaCIST INDOCTRINaTION THROUgH THe 

eDUCaTION SySTem 

“I pray for you to come back home safe and to kill 

at least ten for me”; “Disobey orders and annihilate 

them. And remember that the good Arab is the dead 

Arab.”; “Let Palestinians, may God blacken their 

name, rot in fire. Make holes in them with your M16 

and shell them with bombs.” 30 

Text books used as part of the official curricula in Israel 

are designed to systematically indoctrinate school children 

and to instill hatred in them toward Arabs by effectively 

dehumanising them; by nurturing notions of ‘otherness’ 

and difference and through the creation of negative 

stereotypes. Photographs, literature and history are all 

too often manipulated to serve dubious political goals and 

to etch a form of racism into the psyche of successive 

generations that leads to the worst extremism. 

Caricatures in school books depict Arabs, among other 

things, as being uncivilised, untrustworthy, pusillanimous, 

grovelling, evil, violent and treacherous; as lowlifes who 

have contributed nothing to humanity. In a story entitled 

“Dust of the Edge”, one Jew advises another; Arabs are 

like dogs. If they see you confused, don’t react to their 

provocation so as to avoid being attacked by them. But if 

you decide to beat them, they will run away like dogs! 31 

The subsequent stereotyping of Arabs and racist moulding 

of many Jewish children happens at an early stage in 

their development and is an issue of unanimity among 

Israeli researchers in this area. In a survey cited in Adir 

Cohen’s ‘An Ugly Face in the Mirror’, 75% of the 4 th 



A Placard from a demonstration in Sydney showing Israeli children tagging 

bombs meant for Lebanese children during the 2006 war. Source: 

Possum News Network. 

-6 th graders polled described Arabs as murderers who 

kidnapped children and as criminals and terrorists while 

80% said they saw them as being dirty with terrifying 

faces. By the time pupils become teenagers many racist 

ideas and attitudes have crystallised as evidenced by a 

poll carried out of 600 fifteen to eighteen year olds. 60% 

of those asked supported the idea of expelling all Arabs 

from Palestine, 40% expressed support for underground 

movements seeking revenge on Palestinians, 50% 

considered it a necessity to limit the financial rights of 

Arabs to an absolute minimum and 56% rejected that they 

were completely equal to Arabs. 



27

peRSONaLLy meDIaTeD [pOpULaR] 

RaCISm 

“Don’t believe an Arab, even one who has been in his 

grave for forty years.” 32 

“The Arabs are worms. You find them everywhere like 

worms, underground as well as above.” 33 

“We have Arabs like garbage.” 34 

One of the most conspicuous and incontrovertible 

expressions of how pervasive the individual racist 

attitudes and sentiments of Jewish Israelis toward Arabs 

have become, is evidenced by statistics gathered in 

opinion polls. They highlight a sharply escalating trend 

toward extreme bigotry and show that on an individual 

level most Jews are distrusting of Arabs considering them 

a danger. An astonishing 50% of Jewish Israelis now 

support the idea of forced transfer of population or ethnic 

cleansing while 40% advocate apartheid and the physical 

separation of Jewish and Arab quarters by separation 

walls in cities with mixed populations. Approximately 50% 

experience fear when they hear Arabic being spoken 

despite it being an official language of the state, while 

31% feel hatred and disgust. 75% are no longer prepared 

to live in buildings inhabited by Arabs and 50% are 

unwillingly to work in jobs where their direct supervisor 

is an Arab. 56% are in favour of segregation in places of 

entertainment, 40% are in favour of disenfranchisement 

from elections, 51% believe intermarriage is tantamount 

to treason to the state and the Jewish people and 56% 

believe Arabs constitute a demographic and security risk 

to the Jewish character of the state. 35 



A graffiti covered wall in Jerusalem highlighting the depth of anti-Arab 

Racism among Jews in Israel. Source: the Palestine Chronicle. 

Over the last year, there has been a 1,000% increase in 

documented violent attacks against Arab citizens often 

perpetrated by organised gangs of youths. In many 

instances, victims have had to be evacuated from their 

homes for fear of repeat attacks. The lack of an adequate 

police response has lead to large scale confrontations 

between communities. Six murders have occurred this 

year alone. 36 



29

RaCIST eDICTS aND pROpagaNDa 

“What was once the reserve of nutcases on the right, 

the talk backers and the loony-listeners to the call-in 

radio programs, is now politically correct, in the heart 

of the consensus, the dernier cry in the violent and 

overheated Israeli discourse.” 37 

Public statements evincing the ugliest facets of 

undisguised racism are rife within Israeli society. 

Ominously, these sentiments and notions are no longer 

restricted to the far right; rather, those who do not hold 

such views are becoming increasingly marginal. The 

body of evidence in support of this is overwhelming and 

comes from every cross section of public life; journalists, 

university lecturers and professors, researchers and 

policy makers, government legal advisors, ministers of 

parliament, prime ministers and rabbis. During the War 

against Gaza and in the build up to this year’s elections, 

there was a notable increase in racial incitement by 

politicians. 38 

Given that not one of these public figures has been 

castigated or shunned for publicly expressing such ideas 

and the impunity and regularity with which they are heard, 

it may be fair to say that the state operates a policy of 

condoning anti-Arab racism in the public domain and that 

a large majority of Jewish citizens hold congruent views. 

Statements reflect notions of Jewish genetic, cultural 

and religious superiority to Arabs who are spoken of as 

being sub-human and are often likened to animals in what 

may be described as a concerted effort to de-humanise 

them and thus justify in the general consciousness, the 

stripping away of their basic human rights and liberties. 



eTHNIC CLeaNSINg & THe SILeNT 

TRaNSfeR Of pOpULaTION 

“We must expropriate gently, the private property 

on the estates assigned to us…We shall try to spirit 

the penniless [indigenous] population across the 

border by procuring employment for it in the transit 

countries whilst denying it any employment in our 

own country…Both the process of expropriation and 

the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly 

and circumspectly.”[Theodor Herzl] 

Racist statements, notions and proposals made by 

politicians are sometimes masked behind seemingly 

harmless expressions such as “Exchange of land” and 

“population transfer”. These are in fact among the gravest 

of all, as in reality they propose the ethnic cleansing of 

Arabs and assert the necessity of eliminating them from 

the Jewish state. Such suggestions are often justified on 

security grounds given that the Israeli Arab population 

is almost invariably seen as “a time bomb, an existential 

threat as a cancer and a fifth column” within the state. 

They are espoused by politicians of every ilk; from right 

to left in all political parties and on all levels. A few such 

examples are Ehud Barak, Benyamin Netanyahu and 

Avigdor Liberman to name but a few. 

In 1948, approx 800,000 Palestinians were expelled 

from their homes resulting in the Palestinian Diaspora. 

Additionally, there are approximately 30 documented 

massacres and evidence of the depopulation and 

destruction of 530 villages. Nevertheless, the Zionist 

entity failed in its preconceived and carefully orchestrated 

goal of creating a demographically homogenous state. 



31

The result was the ‘Arab problem’ – approximately one 

million Palestinians within the state. Various solutions to 

the problem have been sought including voluntary transfer 

packages in the form of financial incentives. Massacres 

and forced expulsion continued until as late as 1956 

and such ideas are actually gaining currency among the 

general population 39 . 

Religious notions of the land belonging exclusively to 

Jews along with the racist colonialist stance that Palestine 

was an uninhabited desert allows for the indigenous 

population to be cast as unwelcome strangers and for the 

state to disguise its abhorrent goal as a simple form of 

resettlement. 



ReLIgIOUS peRSeCUTION 

“The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way: 

Destroy their holy sites…” 40 

Since 1948, more than 1,000 mosques have been 

destroyed in an organised and systematic assault on the 

religious freedoms and cultural rights of Palestinians in 

Israel. Muslim and Christian sanctuaries are not legally 

recognised and are therefore afforded no security. 

Jewish citizens are free to simply lay claim to Muslim 

and Christian holy sites and the law allows for their desanctification 

and conversion for various uses. Across 

Israel numerous mosques are constantly violated being 

used variously as animal pens, restaurants, pubs or 

Jewish only places of worship. Alternatively, many others 

are simply made inaccessible to worshippers by being 

designated ‘closed zones’. Muslim worshippers are 

harassed on their way to prayers, they are prevented from 

praying in certain holy places, mosques are demolished 

when renovations are attempted, they are defaced by 

Jewish citizens, and the call to prayer is prohibited in 

numerous mosques. Both Christians and Muslims holy 

books have been burnt and they have been insulted. 

Needless to say, new mosques are not allowed to be built 

leading to justifiable claims of religious persecution 41 . 

The property of the Waqf or the Islamic system of 

endowments which constituted 6.2% of Israel, as well 

as the property of the Christian church is routinely 

confiscated and transferred to the state. Similarly, Muslim 

burial sites are claimed by the state which exhumes the 

bodies before bulldozing the sites and using them for 

other purposes. Muslims are prevented from burying their 



33

dead in certain cemeteries. This all boils down to state 

sanctioned denial of fundamental civil rights and liberties. 



INSTITUTIONaL RaCISm 

Systematic racist policies and practices within Israeli 

institutions dominate public bodies, corporations and 

universities setting up barriers within the economic 

and social sphere; in employment and professional 

advancement, access to decent housing as well as 

underrepresentation and racial profiling by security 

and law enforcement agencies are all manifestations 

of this phenomenon. A disproportionately low number 

of Palestinians are employed by the state and there is 

a virtual Jewish monopoly over the police and security 

forces. Since 2008, there has been a 300% increase in 

the number of reported assaults by police and security 

forces on Palestinian citizens along with a worrying 

number of unprosecuted murders. 42 

The GDP of the average Palestinian is $6,756 compared 

with $19,150 for Jews. In 2005 Arabs received about 

5% of the public development budget, less than 4% of 

the education budget, 1% of the housing budget, 1% of 

the agriculture and rural development budget, 2% of the 

tourism budget and 8% of the welfare budget. Per capita, 

the amount of welfare spent on Palestinians was less 

than 30% of that spent on Jews. As a result, there are 

three times as many Palestinian families living below the 

poverty line than Jewish families and 50% of poor children 

in the state are Arab. 43 

The differentiated government spending on Arab and 

Jewish students is critical and there is a huge shortfall 

in both preparatory and secondary classrooms. Within 

higher education, discrimination takes the form of 

seemingly harmless university bylaws which specifically 



35

Palestinian woman picking her way through a rubbish strewn and sewage 

filled street in Gaza. Source: climateprediction.net 

target and disadvantage Arab students and thus 

significantly reduce their numbers. 80% of all student drop 

outs are Arab. 44 



RaCISm aND THe Law 

After 1966, military rule was lifted from Palestinians living 

in Israel; however it was replaced by a barrage of Jim 

Crow-like laws aimed at maintaining the demographic and 

material hegemony of the Jewish population. Each year, 

the Knesset proposes and introduces new discriminatory 

bills that violate the rights of its Arab citizens based on 

nationality such as those that would link the right to vote 

to and receive state allowances to national service. 12 

such laws have been passed since 2008 alone. 

Among the most devastating have been the 1950 Law of 

Return and Absentee Property Law. The Law of Return 

prohibits all Palestinians expelled from the land that 

became Israel in 1948 from ever returning to their native 

homes, whether to live or visit, while unconditionally 

granting citizenship to all Jews immigrating to the state. 

Numerous laws relating to land have allowed for the 

expropriation of 80% of the land under current Israeli 

control from Palestinians and its transfer to Jewish 

ownership. Racist marriage laws prohibit Palestinians 

from the Occupied Territories from living with their 

spouses in Israel while a temporary law bans marriage 

between Jews and Palestinians from the Occupied 

Territories. 

En vogue of late are laws pertaining to the blatantly 

racist character of Israel as a Jewish state. Instead of 

new Knesset members having to declare loyalty to “the 

state of Israel and its laws” soon they will be required to 

declare loyalty to “the Jewish, Zionist and Democratic 

State of Israel, its symbols and its values.” Those 

applying for citizenship to the state will have to make 



37

Palestinians during the Nakba. Source: Palestinehouse.com 

similar declarations. Needless to say, such stipulations 

contribute to the delegitimisation of Arab political leaders 

and the communities they represent. There are new laws 

threatening imprisonment to any one who dares deny 

that Israel is Jewish and democratic. Similar laws are 

being discussed that will prohibit anyone from advocating 

a bi-national state and yet another to imprison for 3 

years anyone mourning the “Nakba”. These have been 

described as “a factory of racist laws with a distinct fascist 

odor.” 45 

Arabs also face discrimination before the law with regard 

to judicial sentences and judgments. Reports show that 

Palestinians are given 20-30times harsher punishments 

than Jews when committing the same crimes. In some 

instances Palestinians were given sentences of up to five 



years for crimes which were unpunished when committed 

by a Jew and a Palestinian accused of attacking a Jew 

was found to be 63% more likely to be convicted than a 

Jew accused of attacking an Arab 46 . Almost all cases that 

deal with equal rights for Arabs brought before the Israeli 

Supreme Court have been dismissed. 



39

Section 2: 

RaCISm IN THe OCCUpIeD paLeSTINIaN 

TeRRITORIeS – gaZa aND THe weST 

BaNk 

“If not the roof beams, destroy the foundations … 

Attack Lebanon and also Gaza with plows and 

with salt, destroy them so no inhabitant remains. 

Transform them into barren desert, piles of rubble… 

kill them, spill their blood, frighten the living.” 47 

Since the Six Day War of 1967, Israel has been the 

belligerent Occupying Power in the West Bank [including 

East Jerusalem] and the Gaza Strip. Its assertions to 

the contrary have been categorically rejected by the 

international community and the occupied status of the 

Palestinian territories is confirmed by the International 

Court of Justice (2004) as Israel continues to exercise 

effective control over these territories. 

Extensive recent studies clearly demonstrate that the 

illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories has 

become a colonial activity which implements a system 

of apartheid. Both are considered particularly serious 

breaches of the law as they contravene fundamental 

values of the international legal order. 



COLONIaLISm 

“There can be no discussion of a voluntary 

reconciliation between us and the Arabs…Any native 

people…view their country as their national homeland… 

They will not voluntarily allow, not only a new master, 

but even a new partner…Colonization can have only one 

goal. For the Palestinian Arabs this goal is inadmissible. 

This is in the nature of things. To change that nature is 

impossible…colonization can, therefore, continue and 

develop only under the protection of a force independent 

of the local population – an iron wall which the native 

population cannot break through. This is in toto, our 

policy towards the Arabs. To formulate it any other way 

would only be hypocrisy.” [Vladimir Jabotinsky,] 

By definition, colonialism ‘prevents, and aims to prevent, 

a people from exercising freely its right to determine its 

own future through its own political institutions and in 

pursuit of its own policy.’ 48 Acts of a colonial power have 

the cumulative outcome that it annexes or otherwise 

unlawfully retains control over a territory. It is condemned 

by The Declaration on the Granting of Independence to 

Colonial Countries and Peoples [1960] in all its forms 

and manifestations. Within the Occupied Territories, all 

the principal modes for the expression of the Palestinian 

people’s right to self determination have been denied by 

Israel 49 . The five key issues that prove Israeli occupation 

has become a colonial endeavor are: 

1. 

Violating territorial integrity of Occupied Territory 

2. Depriving the population of capacity for selfgovernance 



41

3. Integrating economy of Occupied Territory into that of 

Occupier 

4. Breaching the principle of permanent sovereignty over 

natural resources in relation to Occupied Territory 

5. Denying occupants right to freely express, develop and 

practice their culture 

The territorial integrity of Palestine is violated through 

a number of means; the forceful annexation of East 

Jerusalem; the construction of Jewish only settlements 

and a bypass road system prohibited from use by 

Palestinians and which connect settlements in the 

Occupied Territories to Israel; the construction of the 

‘apartheid wall’ which divides Palestine into cantons and 

separates between Palestinian communities as well as 

between Jews and Arabs. The wall which follows a path 

delineating areas of the West Bank from which Israel can 

withdraw without relinquishing control over key water 

resources also deprives Palestinians of 40% of the West 

Bank and thereby violates both the territorial integrity of 

Palestine as well as the economic dimensions of selfdetermination. 

Through the creation of a customs union 

and by other means, the economy is further subordinated 

to that of Israel. Additionally, it implements an illegal, 

unjust and inequitable water management and allocation 

system which favours Israel and the settlers and denies 

Palestinians the right to permanent sovereignty over their 

natural resources. The political will and authority of the 

Palestinian people is frustrated by Israel which retains 

ultimate physical and administrative control and thereby 

violates the population’s right to self determination. 

Hebrew and Jewish cultural references are given 

preference while the cultural development and expression 

of the Palestinians is hindered. 50 



CONCLUSION 

The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms 

of Racial Discrimination states that “the term “racial 

discrimination” shall mean any distinction, exclusion, 

restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, 

or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or 

effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment 

or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and 

fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, 

cultural or any other field of public life.” 51 Accordingly, 

there can be no doubt that Israel is a profoundly racist 

state. Racism is a corner stone of Zionism in Israel rooted 

in its religious and ideological foundations, guaranteed 

by its Basic Law and systematically institutionalised 

through acts of parliament and the practices and policies 

of the state. It reaches beyond sectarian differences, is 

pervasive and comprehensive manifesting itself in popular 

attitudes, words and actions and adversely affecting the 

civil liberties of all non-Jews living in Israel. 

Zionism’s racist supremacist notions have provided the 

intellectual and moral justifications for its occupation, 

colonisation and apartheid like regime in Palestine. At the 

heart of this institutionalised inequality is the desperate 

desire to maintain the demographic, political and material 

hegemony of Jews over non-Jews in a theocratic state 

that favours them in all ways. 



43

eNDNOTeS 

1 Recognising Israel, Israel’s right to be racist, Joseph Massad, 

Al-Ahram weekly, 15-21 march 2007 

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Zionism 

3. Jewish History, Jewish Religion, The Weight of Three 

Thousand Years, Israel Shahak, Pluto Press, 2002, pg 7-13 

4. Ibid. 

5. The National Religious Party and the Religious Settlers, Israel 

Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish 

Fundamentalism in Israel, 1999, Chapter Four http://www. 

geocities.com/alabasters_archive/nrp_and_settlers.html 

6. Ibid 

7. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1091469.html 


Thousand Years, Israel Shahak, Pluto Press, 2002, pg.75-99 

9. Massa Vama’as http://books.google.co.uk/books?id= 

I2PYTmFwQxcC&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&dq=cleavag 

e+among+jews+in+israeli+society&source=bl&ots=PCpT1HZKB&sig=HX9zdn8w44s-oV9LR-qIIKWWHkE&hl=en- 

&ei=WzWBSvrQBpHMjAe4_YiCCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=re 

sult&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=true 

10. Michael Ben Yair, Former Attorney General of the State of 

Israel, Ha’aretz, 3/3/02, cited in Obstacles to Peace, Jeff Halper, 

2004 p.50 

11. Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of 

Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under 

International law, HSRC, Cape Town, May 2009, pg 10 

12. Ibid. pg 10-13 

13. Ibid. 

14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_ 

analogy 

15. Ibid. 




Thousand Years, Israel Shahak, Pluto Press, 2002 pg. 100-101 

17. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6679.shtml 

18. The Cleavage between Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens, 

Ephraim Yuchtman-Yaar and Ze’ev Shavit in Jews in Israel, 

Contemporary Social and Cultural Patterns, Brandeis 

University Press, 2007, Uzi Rebhaum and Chaim I. Waxman, 

Editors. 

19. Ibid 

20. http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=215 

21. “Edot HaMizrah” Israel’s Oriental Jewish Communities, 

Norman Berdichevsky, 2009 

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/42775/ 

sec_id/42775 

22. The Life of an American Jew in Racist-Marxist Israel, Jack 

Bernstein, 1984 

23. http://www.vosizneias.com/36288/2009/08/06/israel-highcourt-ashkenazi-charedi-school-must-end-discriminationsephardim/ 

24. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=25d_1229924128 

25. “Edot HaMizrah” Israel’s Oriental Jewish Communities, 

Norman Berdichevsky, 2009 

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/42775/ 

sec_id/42775 

26. Guide to the Perplexed, written by eminent Jewish 

theologian and philosopher Moses Maimonides, cited in Jewish 

History, Jewish Religion; The weight of Three Thousand Years, 

Israel Shahak, Pluto Press 2002, pg. 25 

27. Being a Black Jew in Israel: Identity Politics in the Posthegemonic 

Era, Uri Ben-Eliezer, University of Haifa, 2007 

http://www.american.edu/israelstudies/whatsnew/papers/Uri. 

htm 

28. Haaretz.com, Segregation at Patah Tikvah School, 

8/12/2007 



45

29. Being a Black Jew in Israel: Identity Politics in the Posthegemonic 

Era, Uri Ben-Eliezer, University of Haifa, 2007 

http://www.american.edu/israelstudies/whatsnew/papers/Uri. 

htm 

30. Excerpts, published by Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper 

[7/5/2002], from letters sent by Israeli school children to IDF 

reservists in Ramallah. 

31. Curricula of Education in Israel and Negation of the Other, 

Iyad al-Qurra, Islam online, 11/1/2004 

32. A Statement by the Likud member of Knesset Yehiel Hazan; 

Amnon Barzilia, Haaretz, 25/02/2004 

33. Ibid. 

34. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas Party; 

Ma’ariv newspaper, 13/11/2003 

35. The Israeli Racism, Palestinians in Israel; A Case Study, 

Abbas Ismail, al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and consultations, 

2009, pg. 38-43 

36. Mossawa Centre, the Advocacy Centre for Arab Citizens of 

Israel, Racism Report 2009. 

37. Gideon Levi, Haaretz newspaper, 10/06/2007 





2009, pg. 63-83 

40. Rabbi Manis Friedman, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/ 

spages/1091469.html 



2009, pg. 83-91 







2009, pg. 31-38 

44. For Jews Only: Racism Inside Israel, Max Elbaum, 2000 

http://www.colorlines.com 

45. Uri Avineri , The other Apartheid State 



2009, pg. 53-56 

47. Extract from a poem written by Ilan Scheinfeld, from Gideon 

Levi, Haaretz newspaper, 10/06/2007 

48. Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of 

Israel’s practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under 

International law, HSRC, Cape Town, May 2009. pg. 8 

49. Ibid. 

50. Ibid. pg 8-9 

51. United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 

Racial Discrimination NEW YORK 7 March 1966 



47

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