Israel, Zionism and the Media

Category: Israel and Accusations of Racism and Apartheid (Page 6 of 6)

Durban II – Ahmadinejad’s Nuremberg Rally

On April 20th, in Geneva, the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance will begin in Geneva. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was invited and will attend.

This is the long-awaited follow up to the first conference in Durban, South Africa, in 2001 which turned into an anti-Israel hate-fest.

The conference was effectively hijacked by the anti-Israel lobby and its original aims completely lost in a torrent of anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic rhetoric and resolutions. Israel and the United States withdrew in disgust.

The draft documents, (which were eventually rewritten but not adopted by all parties – you can guess which ones adopted the originals), expressed “deep concern” at the “increase of racist practices of Zionism and anti-Semitism”. It thus attempted a sleight of hand to discriminate between this particular form of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.  The draft continued to describe  “movements based on racism and discriminatory ideas, in particular the Zionist movement, which is based on racial superiority”.

Notice the “in particular” and the lies about “racism” and “racial superiority”. Firstly, which “race” is doing the racism against which other race? Jews are not a race, unless you are a supporter of Hitler’s views on this matter. Israel has the most racially diverse population in the Middle East by a very long way.

“Racial superiority”? We have already debunked the “Jews as a race” canard, so this is covert language for Jews being the “Chosen People” which the anti-Israel camp interpret as “racial superiority” and which leads to the “International Jewish Conspiracy”. It also alludes to the  “Right of Return”  which is wilfully misinterpreted by this bunch of hypocrites as giving preference to Jews right to citizenship and not allowing Palestinians a right to return to their pre-1948 homes. You can characterise this as discriminatory, but “racial superiority?” 

I don’t propose to go in to the reasons and arguments about the “Right of Return” of Jews and Palestinians because I can refer you to this article.

If you read the final Declaration from Durban I it is not difficult to see that the countries now baying for Israel’s blood would fail to live up to almost every paragraph of the Declaration’s stated aims. Durban II is hypocrisy made manifest, the apotheosis of the inverted moral order spreading its vicious and malicious hatred throughout the world.

In Geneva, the draft resolutions try to reintroduce the Israel- and Jew-bashing rhetoric of the first conference and to press for a resolution against “defamation” of religion which seeks to silence any criticism of Islam. Once again Israel has been singled out among all nations. Despite strenuous efforts to have the draft resolutions amended, which has been successful to a limited extent, as things stand, the draft is so clearly a document not against racism or xenophobia but actually its opposite: a slur against the Jewish people and Israel which is itself a form of the very xenophobia the Conference is supposed to be designed to condemn and an attempt, by seeking to limit freedom of speech,  to suppress criticism of the religious intolerance and bigotry of those states drafting the anti-Israel lies.

President Ahmadinejad’s presence itself indicates that he is there to orchestrate his own Nuremberg rally. As Arutz Sheva reports:

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor slammed Ahmadinejad as “the representative of a regime which consistently breaches human rights, which assassinates opponents and persecutes minority groups, which exports hatreds and terrorism throughout the Middle East.”

They might also add that he is a Holocaust denier and contemplates the destruction of Israel as a desirable goal.

Canada, Israel, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Australia and now, at last, the United States have all refused to take part in this obscene parody of a Conference. Some Jewish groups intend to go to have their voices heard and to demonstrate. Notably, the UK is still sending a delegation.
My view now is that the Conference should be boycotted. Boycott the boycotters. Deny them any legitimacy.

See the BBC which is quite balanced for a change (having improved on its earlier wishy-washy attempt).

Meanwhile the UN sits on its hands and watches. So much for its founding principals.

I have to pass on to you the words of Anna Bayevsky. I do not apologise for quoting in full. I do not have a web link. (April 20th is Hitler’s birthday – he’d be so proud of the neo-Nazis who have hijacked this Conference. On that day The March of The Living will once again take place at Auschwitz-Birkenau when the Jewish Youth of the world commemorate the Holocaust. The next day is Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Memorial Day)

STATEMENT BY ANNE BAYEFSKY AT THE THIRD SUBSTANTIVE PREPARATORY MEETING OF THE DURBAN REVIEW CONFERENCE

April 17, 2009
United Nations, Palais des Nations, GENEVA, Switzerland

The eyes of millions of victims of racism, xenophobia and intolerance are upon YOU, the representatives of states and the United Nations. And instead of hope you have given them despair. Instead of truth you have handed them diplomatic double-talk. Instead of combating antisemitism you have handed them a reason for Jews to fear UN-driven hatemongering on a global scale.

The Durban conference – allegedly dedicated to combating racism, antisemitism and other forms of intolerance – will open April 20th on the anniversary of the birth of Adolf Hitler without agreement on even so much as remembering the Holocaust and the war against the Jews. Your draft words on the Holocaust – the very foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – have been narrowed to the barest mention from previous versions. And if the minor reference survives at all – it will be a testament to your interest in Jews that died 60 years ago, while tolerating and encouraging the murder of Jews in the here and now.

Furthermore, the draft before you demonizes the Jewish state of Israel and then has the audacity to pretend to care about antisemitism in a single word buried among 17 pages. Antisemitism means discrimination against the Jewish people. Since it is evident that almost none of you have the courage to say it, the face of modern antisemitism IS the UN – your – discrimination against Israel, the embodiment of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.

Over and over again we have heard a massive misinformation campaign about the content of these proceedings and the draft before you. We have heard the tale that this draft does not single out Israel, that the hate has been removed, that the fault of the antisemitism at Durban I was that of NGOs while states and the UN were blameless.

Perhaps you think that journalists and victims will not bother to read for themselves the Durban Declaration adopted by some governments. There is only one state mentioned in it – Israel. There is only one state associated with racist practices in it – Israel. And yet the very first thing that this draft before you does is to reaffirm that abomination, abomination for Jews and Arabs living in Israel’s free and democratic society, and for all the victims of racism ignored therein. Lawyers call it incorporation by reference when they hope nobody reads the small print. The propaganda stops here. We have read it. We understand the game. And we decry the ugly effort to repeat the Durban agenda to isolate and defeat Israel politically, as every effort to do so militarily for decades has failed.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chair of this Preparatory Committee also told us this week that the Durban Declaration in all its aspects is a consensus text. Perhaps they are unfamiliar with the Canadian reservations made in Durban in 2001 which state categorically that the Middle East language was outside the conference’s jurisdiction and not agreed. Perhaps they failed to notice that one of the world’s greatest democracies, the United States, voted with its feet and walked out of the Durban I hatefest? The Durban Declaration has never represented a global consensus among free and democratic nations. When the head of the Islamic conference treats Durban as a bible, in their words, it is more accurately a defamation of religions.

This week you decided which states ought to serve in a leadership role at next week’s conference. Among them are some of the world’s leading practitioners of racism, not those interested in ending it. You have also decided to hand a global megaphone to the President of a state which advocates genocide and denies the Holocaust.

So in a state of shock and dismay we address ourselves not to the human rights abusers that glorify the Durban Declaration or its next incarnation, but to democracies — and we ask: Will Germany sit on Hitler’s birthday and listen to the speech of an advocate of genocide against the Jewish people and grant legitimacy to the forum which tolerates his presence? What about the United Kingdom, the birthplace of the Magna Carta? Or France that helped to ship last generation’s Jews to crematoriums?

You could have fought racism. You chose instead to fight Jews. You could have promoted the universal standards against racism already in existence. You chose instead to diminish their importance in the name of alleged cultural preferences. You could have protected freedom of expression. You chose instead to undermine it by twisted concepts of incitement. You could have brought victims of racism together in a common cause. You chose instead to pit victims against each other in an ugly struggle for meagre recognition. For those democracies that remain under these circumstances you are ultimately responsible for what can only be called an appalling disservice to real victims of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance around the world.

Palestinian genocide exposed

Well that grabbed your attention and may have brought you to this page under a false pretence.

I’m sorry.

The world, and especially the Arab and Muslim world, appears top believe, or at least promulgates the belief, that Israel is intent on the genocide of the Palestinian people. If it is, it is going about it an a very strange way.

For example, Israelity.com has an interesting, and may I say, heart-warming, article on a positive aspect of Israeli-Palestinian relations that you won’t hear or read about on the BBC or in the annals of Israel’s detractors.

The article, written in January 2009, describes how Israel “routinely” (which I infer means very frequently) admits patients from the Palestinian Authority into Israel hospitals AND Israel pays for the treatment.

Now, I also reported recently how  the PA Health Minister has closed the door on the PA funding the transfer of patients to Israeli hospitals since Operation Cast Lead purely for political purposes. This decision will lead to the unnecessary deaths of Palestinians because the PA, Israel’s ‘peace partner’ places political gestures above the health of its own people.

But the Israelity story predates this and deals with cases where ISRAEL pays, not the PA.

This is not emergency assistance. Israel is supplying hospitals in Ramallah and Bethlehem (both inside the PA administered territory) with software developed in Israel called i-Rox. But most extraordinary is the fact that the software was developed in Bnei Barak, an ultra-orthodox town near Tel Aviv, by ultra-orthodox Jews, the very people who are often believed to be most extreme in their views on Palestinians and Palestinian self-determination. The company is deliberately and purposefully adding functionality to the software  so that the Israeli and PA Health Ministries can share data for mutual benefit.

If you are sceptical, the Israelity article cites a World Health Organization PDF document (reporting for 2006-7) which states that 60,000 Palestinians from the PA authority controlled area were treated in Israel in that year and 20,000 actually hospitalised. It also mentions 5,000 Gazans receiving similar treatment of which 2,000 were hospitalised. The Figure includes 2,500 children being treated for long-term illnesses such as cancer.

The article concludes:

As far as Israel providing services to PA hospitals, “Public health laboratories at the Israel Ministry of Health continue to regularly provide assistance to the Palestinian Health Authority in the way of laboratory tests for poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, influenza and other viral diseases,” the report says. Israel – via the health funds and the Health Ministry – continued those tests throughout the year, “in spite of the fact that the Palestinian Authority delays or halts payments.”

Does this sound like genocide?

Does this sound like Israel targeting children? which is the mantra of the Hamas and many other detractors of Israel and Zionism around the world.

You can read the whole Israelity.com article here.

48 Gazan children

yNet.com reports “48 Gaza orphans to travel to Israel for 2-week rest

Forty-eight Palestinian orphans whose parents were killed in bombings during Operation Cast Lead were planned to arrive in Israel on Wednesday for two weeks of rest and recovery from their grim reality at home.

If these kids weren’t orphans, no doubt they would never have been allowed out because their parents would have feared retribution from Hamas.

Propaganda exercise? All such gestures can be characterised as such by cynics and bigots.

The groups who have organised the visit to Haifa see that the only hope for the future is children who are taught to love and respect and not to kill. That goes for both sides but is especially true of children in Gaza who are fed a diet of Jew-hating vitriol in schools and on TV. 

Children whose parents were killed by Israelis would have a natural animus against the country of their killers. They will be especially vulnerable to the death cult of Hamas.

Does this not demonstrate that Israelis and Jews are not taught to hate and do not rejoice in the blood of their enemies children (as Caryl Churchill suggests in her play, “7 Jewish Children”). At least a portion of Israeli society is making an effort to bring the children of enemies together to try to make a better future for Israelis and Palestinians.

The children who have received love from us will remember this experience for many years and when they grow up will reach out for peace. I believe the change will come only from the youth out of will and recognition and not from treaties.

said Yoel Marshak, one of the organisers. This is a left-wing narrative, it is unlikely to make a difference, but it can’t do any harm.

It demonstrates that Israel is a free and plural society where many views are tolerated. It gives the lie to genocidal narratives.

Now we need similarly aged Israeli children to visit Gaza for the sake of their education, perhaps.

Israelis and Palestinians – surprising examples which challenge preconceptions

Two events happened recently in Israel which in their own strange way debunk some myths about how  Israelis treat Palestinians, especially Israeli Arab, and how Palestinians view Israelis.

First story in Ha’aretz: Violent settlers freed over ‘improper’ police conduct.

Apparently Israeli police in Kfar Sava have been using entrapment; not against Palestinians but against Israeli Jewish settlers.

The story does not show either the settlers or the police in a particularly good light.

The police posed as Palestinians in an illegal West Bank settlement. Note that it is designated illegal by Ha’aretz. Others would disagree. The police were pretending to fix a tyre. Now, if you remember, recently two policeman were killed by Palestinians they went to help who were pretending to fix a puncture. (This itself says something of the dangers of being ‘nice’ to Palestinians when a minority are prepared to kill you for it.) The settlers attacked the police who they thought were Palestinians and vandalised the (unmarked police) car. The police promptly arrested them.

The settlers were freed because of the provocation. The police were reprimanded by a judge for endangering life recklessly – their own.

Now although this is somewhat unsavoury the police were acting to protect Palestinians from extremist Jewish settlers by provoking them to expose themselves by this ruse. When do we hear about such things in the UK press? Most would find it unbelievable that Israeli police are trying to root out extremist Jews to protect Palestinians in the West Bank.

Police sources told Ha’aretz that the technique is established and effective when it comes to the arrest of settlers involved in attacking Palestinians.

says Ha’aretz. Sometimes, despite the attempts to characterise Israelis as ethnic cleansers, apartheid-mongers and worse, stories like this show us that things are not as black and white as you might think. Despite the dubious nature of the strategy it puts the police in a positive light, don’t you think?

Second an Associated Press story on yNetNews.com:

A Palestinian youth orchestra from Jenin travelled to Holon in Israel to sing and perform for Holocaust survivors. Just read that sentence again.

Strings for Peace, youth orchestra from Jenin refugee camp, gives touching musical performance for Holocaust survivors in Israeli town Holon as part of Good Deeds Day. Zeid, one of musicians in group: Only people who have been through suffering understand each other….

the youths had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide — or even what the Holocaust was.

One of the pupils expressed sympathy and was shocked at learning the story of the elderly survivors. Some had never met ordinary Israelis before. The Holocaust is not taught to Palestinians and Denial is commonplace.

The audience were shocked when they learned the youths were from Jenin but when it was announced they would sing for peace the audience burst into applause.

“I’m here to raise spirits,” Younis [the conductor] said. “These are poor, old people.”

If only there were more events like this to bring these two peoples together. It should be noted that this event was part of a programme organised by Shari Arison, a wealthy Israeli business woman as part of the annual Good Deeds Day events.

UN: Israel may not be allowed to defend itself

It’s official: long-time Israel basher, academic and UN  “special rapporteur” on Human Rights in Palestine Richard Falk is not just accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza but, according to the BBC website, questioning “whether Israel acted lawfully in entering Gaza at all”.

So according to Falk, Israel is unique among the countries of the world in possibly not being allowed to defend itself against a barrage of rocket attacks from a neighbouring territory over a period of many years.

Just to balance things up, “He is calling for an independent inquiry to examine possible war crimes committed by both Israel and Hamas.” With one sentence he equates the actions of a terrorist organisation, whose charter reveals that it is dedicated to the physical destruction of Israel, with the country it is trying to destroy and which, perhaps, may not be allowed to defend itself against that terrorist organisation.

There is no question of “possible war crimes” when it comes to Hamas. Falk only needs to stand on the streets of Sderot for a day (but he can’t as Israel won’t give him a visa) and see what are considered harmless rockets raining down indiscriminately on a civilian population. He only needs to ask Hamas when last Gilad Shalit had a visit from the Red cross.

Here are some of Falk’s bons mots from the past:

it is not an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with the criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity

After writing an article in June 2007 called “Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust” he defended his use of the word “Holocaust” by comparing Israel’s policies to the collective punishments used by the Nazi regime in Germany.

He has also accused Israel of “genocidal tendencies”.

In 2006, Yitchal Levanon, the Israeli ambassador to the UN in Geneva said:

He has taken part in a UN fact-finding mission which determined that suicide bombings were a valid method of ‘struggle’

The BBC alludes to Falk’s previous record as a critic of Israel, who is considered biased by the Israelis, without giving the substance of that criticism.

For Falk, Israel, the arch-criminal, should sit on its hands and allow itself to be destroyed. Then, perhaps, he would be wringing his hands and describing a second Holocaust of the Jewish people and investigating Palestinian war crimes in the ruins of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Israeli Arab women march through Tel Aviv

We hear so often that Israel is racist and apartheid, that it is not a true democracy.

Ha’aretz reporter Noah Kosharek reports on a march through Tel Aviv by Arab women which was organised by the Workers Advice Center.

The women want to work in agriculture but there is a general policy of employing foreign workers within that sector. 

The main thrust of the protest is to bring attention to the plight of Arab women and empower them to find work at a fair wage.

Apparently 83% of Arab women in Israel don’t work. This is probably more of a cultural problem than one of discrimination although the article does not explore the causes of such a high figure.

So what is my point?

How many Arab countries would countenance a demonstration by women at all? Were these women marching through Tel Aviv attacked or abused? No. Can you imagine a march of Jewish women in Teheran or Damascus? 

This is a fundamental difference between Israel and its neighbours which many on the left in the UK who support Israel’s enemies: Israel is a free country and a democracy. It is not perfect by any means, but at least everyone regardless of race or religion can find a voice. There is freedom of speech and of the press. 

The world concentrates on Israel’s relationship with the Territories, the Separation Wall, the restriction of movement and illegal settlements. All these are genuine concerns, and the plight of Palestinians outside of ‘Israel proper’ can be described as being between the ‘Rock’ of Israel’s policies in the Territories and the ‘Hard Place’ of being subject to rule by either Hamas or the PA.

The questionof whether you can separate the two Israels – the Israel within the pre-1967 and the Israel in ‘the Territories’  – I’ll leave to another time.

See the article here

The PA’s sick logic

I recently wrote about how many Palestinians have sought medical treatment in Israel.

Now Israel’s ‘peace partners’ cannot bear that Israel might be seen in a good light. So what do they do? They further emiserate the lives of their own people:

The Palestinian Authority has announced that it will stop sending sick Arabs to Israeli hospitals and will cut off funds to local residents who use Israeli medical facilities. “Israel cannot be allowed to render medical aid at the same time it is killing us,” said PA Health Minister Fathi abu Marlee.

So reports Arutz Sheva today. So yet again the Palestinian leadership not only fails its own people but blatantly uses them in its propaganda battle against Israel. It would rather they die than be treated by Israelis.

Tragic.

Israeli judiciary says ‘No’ to racism

It’s interesting to note the number of times Israel is accused of being racist whilst its independent judiciary strongly counters these claims.

Case in point reported by the Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235410717593&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

A man who displayed a racist bumper sticker – “No Arabs – No Terror” (in Hebrew of course), and drove with it through the West Bank, has been convicted by Judge Shulamit Dotan for incitement to racism.

“The call ‘No Arabs – no terror’ is tainted with racism because it connects the entire Arab population, without any differentiation among its members, and the execution of heinous terror acts”

This slogan is one already branded by a former attorney-general as an illegal racist incitement. The extreme right-wing group that espouses this nasty cause fall little short of calls for ethnic cleansing and genocide. 

By staunchly upholding the founding principles of the State the judiciary clearly demonstrates that not only is Israel not a racist state but it will not tolerate such egregious views expressed publicly.

Does the reader know of any Arab state that would protect its Jewish citizens from similar outrages? Can’t think of any. Just a minute… nope, not one. In fact, most are engaged in fomenting hatred of Jews and Israel and the destruction of the State and the annihilation of its citizens. The world, meanwhile, focuses firmly on Israel and accuses it of racism and apartheid. Strange world we are living in.

Disgraceful Israeli TV spoof

It does not help Israel counter claims of racism and intolerance when  a TV station, albeit a private one, screens an offensive skit on Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.

The Australian reported:

In the program, Israeli comedian Yair Shlein joked that since Christians “deny the Holocaust, then I want to deny Christianity.” Following protests, he later apologised to Arab Israeli Christian dignitaries.

This has brought protests to the Israel government from the Vatican who, perhaps, see an opportunity to counter recent protests about Holocaust-denier Bishop Richard Williamson who the Vatican recently rehabilitated.

Israel is a free country and free speech is practised there as in any other free democratic country. However, when will Israelis realise that they have to be careful about the image they are projecting and the fuel they are providing to its enemies.

Case in point: who should come out on the side of outrage? None other than the very nice people in Hezbollah. freerepublic.com reported that: “Hezbollah blasts sacrilegious Israeli show (that offends Christianity!) A Hezbollah representative stated: “It was not surprising to see ‘Zionists’ broadcast such sacrilegious material, given their history, which is filled with ‘the massacre of prophets, destruction of mosques and churches and offensive behavior toward Islamic and Christian sanctities…” The hypocrisy, inaccuracy and thinly veiled anti-Semitic “Zionists” and “massacre of prophets” bits are pretty much common currency for “The Party of God”

This isn’t the post to rebut every single one of Hezbollah’s statement which says a lot more about them than it does about Jews.

But all this does not absolve Yair Shlein. The Israeli government made an immediate apology to the Vatican (and Shlein himself admitted the error). Let’s hope that Israeli broadcasters do not repeat any further affronts to Christianity, Islam or any other religion or group. 

I always think “How would I react if this were a Christian talking about Jewish beliefs” and I base my reaction on that. To say I am disappointed is an understatement. But it is indicative that Israel has to tread so carefully. How did the Vatican learn of this? No doubt mischievous elements in Israel ran screaming to Pope Benedict. But in other countries religious ‘jokes’ go unreported and ignored.

See the full text here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2190138/posts

The Muslim refugees who want to get INTO Israel

In Darfur, Sudan, as the world is well aware, there has been a genocidal assault on the region’s population by the Afro-Arab Islamists who rule the country. Most Darfurians are Muslim. It is difficult to estimate numbers killed but they are in the hundreds of thousands and at least 2 million have been displaced and reside in refugee camps in neighbouring Chad or at the mercy of the Janjaweed militia within Sudan itself.

It is no exaggeration to say that this horror is the clearest and most terrible example of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the world in the past 10 years, yet it receives relatively little attention from the world and its media.

The Arab and Muslim world, which you would have thought would be making strenuous efforts to end this conflict and the murder and rape of hundreds of thousands of its fellow Muslims, just sits on its hands. Why? Well the Muslim world doesn’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to defending Muslims being murdered by other Muslims (Iran-Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine for example). 

So why do I write about this on a blog about Israel?

Well, for one, the plight of the Palestinians, especially in Gaza, has attracted an unprecedented wave of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and Jew hatred across the world. There have been marches, convoys of  aid (Viva Palestina being a case in point), attacks on Jews and Jewish property in many countries, and widespread media vilification of Israel. Yet the comparison between what is happening in Darfur and what is happening in Israel shows a gross exaggeration and a gross misfit between the level of hate spewed out in Israel’s direction compared to what should be an even greater level of hate and outrage directed at the Sudanese government.

But listen to this: you are a Sudanese Muslim surrounded by Muslim countries. You want to leave Sudan and seek refuge elsewhere so you can rebuild your life and save your family. Where would you go? How about Israel? Yes, Israel, that so-called racist apartheid state that everyone is so fond of demonizing. Hundreds of Sudanese Muslims, who are citizens of an enemy state, are arriving in Israel after being smuggled across the border with Egypt. 

Why do they want to come to Israel and what happens to them when they arrive there?

Firstly, Egypt, a Muslim state, has a policy of returning all Sudanese refugees. No absorption centres in Egypt then, just wretched camps where Sudanese wait to be repatriated to almost certain death as they are sent straight back into the hands of their oppressors.

So the Sudanese move on and cross illegally into Israel where they are at first detained as enemies of the state. But they are treated humanely, picked up by the IDF and taken to holding camps awating judgement. Human rights groups, lawyers and many sympathetic Israelis have fought for these people to be allowed to stay. The Sudanese goverment meanwhile states that any Sudanese citizen who has sought refuge in Israel and returns will be considered a Mossad spy and executed – nice.

Israel, under the International Laws, that everyone seems to believe it so flagrantly breaches as a matter of national policy, is obliged to absorb them. Many can now be found working on kibbutzim and moshavim. So let me spell this out to the ‘Israel is racist/apartheid’ brigade. BLACK MUSLIM SUDANESE REFUGEES ARE BEING GIVEN REFUGE AND WORK IN ISRAEL. I capitalise that to hammer home the point.

But wait, there are several problems. If Israel is seen as an easy touch, will it not be invaded by Sudanese hordes. Israel is a small country unable to absorb so many foreigners. And they are Muslims; what about demographic time-bombs and all that?  

These questions must wait whilst Israel abides by its oblgations to genuine refugees. They will not be held for 60 years in ‘refugee camps’, those that stay will be absorbed, taught Hebrew, given shelter, work, a home, safety and respect. Oh yes, there are racists in Israel too who don’t want more immigrants especially more Muslims, but they forget when they too were refugees from genocide, they forget their own people’s Exodus from Egypt.

The canard that is trotted out by all the anti-Zionists is that only Jews are allowed to emigrate to Israel, that Israel is an apartheid state. So why would it allow in black people? Why would it allow in Muslims? How many Sudanese has Syria or Lebanon or Jordan or Saudi Arabia or Libya allowed in? How many Iran?

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/16/news/ML-Israel-Sudanese-Rebel.php
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1065201.html
http://atheonews.blogspot.com/2009/02/darfur-rebel-leader-visits-israel-to.html

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