by Aryeh Cohen · Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
The right wing of American Orthodox Judaism, those who align themselves with various factions of chareidi and Yeshivah Judaism, are committed to what might only be called “triumphalist Zionism” (my locution, as far as I can tell). Triumphalist Zionists skip the whole cultural and political transformation piece of Zionism and go straight to “now we have an army and its our turn to kick gentile butt.” Most of these groups are extreme hawks on Israeli (and, often, therefore, American) foreign policy. Lubavitch, for example, were exceedingly anti-Zionist through the second world war (as Avi Rivitzky demonstrates in his important book Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism). They are also very active in opposing any territorial compromises or peace negotiations.
This process of triumphalist Zionism in the States was followed by the same trend in Israel. Whereas there was some talk that Rav Ovadyah Yosef, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi, (who does not see the settlement movement with the same messianic urgency as does Gush Emunim) would direct his political party Shas to support peace overtures, this did not in fact happen. The same holds true for Rav Shach, the dean of Roshei Yeshivah (Yeshivah heads) in Israel, and his Degel HaTorah party. Shas’ supporters were far more right wing than their leader and Rav Yosef ultimately let the party follow the more hawkish line. Rav Shach (an early mentor of Rav Ovadyah) too, expressed himself in opposition to the settlements, however his hatred of secular Jews and especially kibbutzim won out, with his Degel HaTorah party not supporting the peace overtures of the Labor Party.
It was only a matter of time before the patina of ambiguity toward co-existence cracked and the ramifications of triumphalist Zionism became obvious to all. On the one hand, this ideology afforded the chareidi parties internal justification to join the government as ministers (and ensure funding for their families and institutions), and to be in the heart of policy-making for all citizens of Israel (a seeming compromise with the Zionist project); the flip side of this was that this position of power gave the chareidi parties much political capital. Moreover, the chareidi parties could use foreign/security policy (settlements, wars) as leverage to score more funding for families and institutions (with the tacit and explicit backing of the American Jewish right).
This devil’s bargain has just now blown up again in the face of those Israelis who still see Israel as a Zionist project. This week in the Knesset a bill which exempted certain Yeshivot from the core curriculum that is mandatory for all elementary schools in Israel, passed the first reading. The Israeli High Court ruled three years ago that schools which do not teach the core curriculum can be denied government funding. The core curriculum mandates the teaching of basic civics and democratic values, Hebrew language and literature, English and Arabic, (though this latter is being contested mainly by the chareidim), along with sciences and mathematics, etc. This bill would grant exemptions to certain chareidi institutions (the so-called yeshivot ketanot), which would allow them to be funded by the government without having to teach the core curriculum.
The chareidi community in this latest move, has used its political leverage to undermine any sense of homogeniety or even unity of identity in Israel. This might not be a bad thing: liberal democracies are based on the notion that ethnic and/or religious minorities need not conform to the ideologies of the majority. However, and here is the chiddush, the chareidi parties are using their power from within the supposedly Zionist political institutions (not only Knesset seats, but government ministries) in order to undermine Zionism’s claim to forging a new kind Jewish identity. As Prof. Ruth Gavison wrote yesterday in Ha’aretz:
“It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this law to the image of the State and the manner in which it educates its young citizens. The law perpetuates a situation in which particular groups receive significant public financing even though the curriuclae of their institutions do not impart to their students the skills necessary to become part of the life of the State and fulfill their part in the activities needed for the survival of the State. The law gives a hechsher [kosher certification] to the ideologies which are the basis of the “their Torah is their craft” arrangement.” (my translation)
This move follows fast on the heels of the Israeli Rabbinate’s declaration that only chareidi conversions are okay, and that converts practicing modern Orthodox Judaism can have their conversions reversed (as Gershom Gorenberg has been assiduously documenting). In the States, Shaul Magid has argued, modern Orthodox high school graduates go to Yeshivah in Israel for a year and then come back alienated from the modern-Orthodox values of their parents.
It would seem then that the vaunted Zionist “return to history” is actually history repeating itself, playing out once again the fight over modernity of eighteenth and nineteenth century Eastern Europe and Germany. The new variable is, of course, political power. The chareidim now have the ability to enforce their own brand of Wahabism. It would also seem that only on Birthright (or the mainstream American Jewish community more generally) is Israel seen as paradigm which provides an answer to question of Jewish identity.
by Temim Fruchter · Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
The 4th of July has forever been one of those occasions where I wish we could just take giant X-rays of this place, this country – turn the layers inside out, uncover its history. What did this street used to be named? Over whose home was this highway built? From whom was this neighborhood stolen? And at whose expense was this city, this country built? Literally looking at those x-rays might be the most potent way to understand the many fraught and disturbing answers to those questions.
While this is certainly not the same as talking about similar history-layer-uncovering work being done in Israel/Palestine, it still feels connected to me – and I thought that posting about it would be an opportunity to engage some of the comments on my last post (particularly, the questions about what it really means to be an anti-Zionist, which I appreciate, and hope I can continue to address in coming posts). So in that light, I want to mention the work of Zochrot – a group whose goal is just this kind of uncovering, of reminding. As an anti-Imperialist US citizen, and as an anti-Zionist Jew, it’s important to me to be a part of making visible the history that governments, history books and popular discourse try so desperately to erase – both here, in the U.S., and internationally - and this is central to Zochrot’s work.
For me, one big part of being an anti-Zionist is to remember – and to bring into public conversation as much as possible– that what’s happening in Gaza and across Palestinian communities today started the moment the state of Israel was founded. While it is widely accepted to talk in our Jewish communities about 1967 being the year that marks the beginning of Israeli occupation of and military violence against Palestinians, it’s so important to remember that 1948 was the year that more than 500 Palestinian villages were depopulated and/or destroyed, and 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their lands, communities, and homes, so that a Jewish-majority state could be created.. Israel’s continued violence against and repression of Palestinian communities today is a continuation of the project of 1948 – a Jewish majority state at the ongoing expense of another people.
Zochrot does an excellent job of uncovering the history of the place we call Israel that is so rarely publicized or talked about. They bring tourists and locals to see where Palestinian villages used to stand, what streets used to be named, and what that map of Israel that some of us know like the backs of our hands used to look like. This is a vitally important and creative way to help insure that this history stays a part of the conversation – the colonization of Palestinian land did not start with sieges or with settlements, but with the vision for a Jewish majority state that initially drove them out in 1948. And talking about, staying rooted in this history, and in the ongoing fact that ethnic cleansing is not a Jewish value - for me, this is one big part of what anti-Zionism is about.
by Temim Fruchter · Friday, June 20th, 2008
Hi everyone – new Jewschooler here.
Just for context’s sake, my world has always been one of strange co-existent dualities. I have been known to take the same train as a family member to a pro-Israel rally, disembark, hug good-bye-see-you-later, and proceed in two different directions: they, to the rally itself, and I, to the protest on the green across the way.
I come to my identity as a proud, anti-Zionist Jew through this lens – I stick close to my roots and love going home to the gantze mishpocha for Shabbos, Modern Orthodox style, and at the same time, I am fueled forever by my past and by my present with a love for Judaism that is fierce and deep and that has justice at its core.
For these last couple of months, basically spanning the Passover-to-Yom Ha’atzma’ut festival season, there have been lots of public celebrations, media coverage all over the city of Jews-being-proud-of-being-Jewish in the one way most media often solely represents it - on pro-Israel floats, Seders, parades, trips and public forums.
There was another layer of frenetic activity marking this season, too – a side of Jewish New York that most people didn’t - and don’t, generally – see: anti-Zionist Jewish New York. No Time to Celebrate, just one example of the response to the plethora of Israel’s 60th celebrations, is a campaign organized by anti-Zionist Jews from around the U.S. to protest Israeli Independence Day celebrations and to commemorate the Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”).
For me, as someone who spent years in and around parades celebrating Israel, it never gets less powerful to remind the community that the anniversary of the Nakba is not a thing to celebrate. And to remind the community that there is a big, vibrant and growing community of Jews who are enraged by Israel’s actions, and by 60 years of occupation and dispossession, the continuing effects of 1948. And finally, to remind the community that there is not – and never has been – consensus on Zionism in the Jewish community. This in and of itself makes me extremely proud to be Jewish.
Read the full No Time to Celebrate campaign statement.
by Chorus of Apes · Sunday, April 6th, 2008
Listen to Avraham Burg talk about how Israel is like baklava.
More specifically, he explains how the notion that Israel is a Jewish democratic state is like baklava. When you first taste it, its feels sweet, but after a few minutes, things get sticky, and you are left with a lump in your stomach.
Burg says a lot more than that. The interview is 90 mins long. He talks about love conquering hate, the place of the holocaust in the Israeli psyche, the place of minorities in Israel, and the end of the zionist myth.
Its well worth a listen.
(link courtesy of JTA)
by Josh Frankel · Monday, March 10th, 2008
Not long after getting out of the army, a friend and I drove down to Eilat to relax for a couple of days. We were sitting in our hotel room after an amazing day of hiking and snorkeling, and there was the news. A suicide bombing. Twenty people were murdered, dozens more injured. It was the “Childrens’ Attack.†I stared helplessly at the TV screen, I prayed for the injured, and I prayed to see an image of the new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, distraught, upset, denouncing the violence. As the night rolled on, more people died, the army made plans, but Abu Mazen never appeared. My friend and I were shooken up, we couldn’t stay and swim any longer. We packed our bags and headed home.
The next morning, on the drive back, we stopped by an army base where my old unit was stationed. There was a good friend of mine, now an officer. Roi was doing some work on a tank, and he was alone. I climbed up with him, and we sat down to talk. There, on that hulk of steel we cried. We were sorry for ourselves, we were sorry for our country, we were sorry for the victims, we were sorry for the Palestinians, and we were sorry for the world. Niether of us had ever wanted to fight, but we did. We did it because we needed to, because there was a war, because we had a responsibility to keep our friends and our families safe. But, every day, we prayed for peace. We prayed for an end. Every day that we fought in the territories, every day that we caused Palestinian suffering, we understood just how much we shared with them, and how hurtful it was for everyone for this all to go on. The past few weeks had been quiet. Roi’s company was able to leave the front. We thought it was ending, that perhaps things would change, but the night before had shattered everything once again. So, we sat, stared at the sun, and we cried. We were tired.
That was nearly five years ago. Since then, wow, things have changed, right? Arafat died, the Red Sox won the World Series, the disengagement hapenned, I went to school, Arik had a stroke, Facebook, the Lebanon war – and we’re still fighting the Palestinians, and terrorism keeps on going. You know what? I am tired.
I am tired of fighting, I am tired of death. Yes, I will go on. I will continue to support Israel, I will continue to fight for peace. I will continue to draw attention to the genuine suffering of the Palestinian people, and I will continue to serve in the reserves, and God forbid – in another war. But, I am tired of all of this i am tired of trying to fight my way through this horrible moral thicket, and I am tired that for every thought of doubt I have, someone is questioning my character. Blaming me for the holocaust, blaming me for the death of Palestinians, blaming me for the death of Jewish citizens, and blaming me for ignoring Torah. All of this is complicated, it is exhausting. My thoughts have grown so jumbled and confused, that the beginnings and ends of conversations and arguments are hidden beneath so many layers of rhetoric.
I am lost, I am confused, and I am tired.
by Kung Fu Jew · Friday, February 8th, 2008
When the government of Israel has to run advertising extolling the values of not deserting military service, we all may be welcome to speculate about the sustainability of the occupation.
With the spat of articles recently covering the increasing number of citizens “ineligible” for military service — be they hareidi or just anyone, now 1 in 4 — apparently the Israeli government is now running ads saying “A true Israeli doesn’t desert.”
– But I think the message is proved as missing the point when the reply is this parody sticker changing one letter so it now reads “A true Israeli doesn’t rule over [other people].” Ha! Hell yes.
It sounds like it’s the government of Israel that isn’t getting the message? And anybody got a picture of the real advertising?
by aaronf · Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
A delegation of Columbia University professors is planning a trip to Tehran to apologize to Ahmadinejad. The Israel Lobby authors say we need “candid but civil” dialogue about the ME. This could be a fine example of that.
by BZ · Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
The Annapolis conference convened today, bringing together delegations from around the world. Many expected (indeed, some hoped) that nothing would be accomplished at the conference. However, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has shocked everyone by pushing through his radical left-wing agenda of dividing Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Not only has the division of Jerusalem been ratified, but it has already been implemented in the space of less than a day, with an efficiency uncharacteristic for Israel.
From here in Jerusalem, we can look around and see what the peaceniks have wrought. Traffic was insane today with all the moving trucks driving around the formerly undivided capital, but now that everything has settled, the Jewish and Arab residents of Jerusalem are now living almost entirely in separate neighborhoods. (However, in an apparent concession to parties like Yisrael Beiteinu that had threatened to quit the coalition, Olmert has agreed that municipal services will be provided primarily to the Jewish neighborhoods.) In clear defiance of the will of the many Zionist organizations who opposed the division of Jerusalem, Jewish and Arab students are now attending almost entirely separate school systems. And the anti-Zionist left has shown that it means business, by placing some neighborhoods outside the separation barrier, to create a physical rupture in the everlasting unity of our 3000-year-old holy city. Construction crews have been working triple shifts to ensure that all of this is carried out as soon as possible, ever since the order arrived from Annapolis just a few hours ago.
The anti-Zionist left isn’t content merely with dividing Jerusalem; their agenda also includes weakening the city. To this end, they have begun encouraging Jewish residents of Jerusalem to move to fast-growing outlying neighborhoods on Jerusalem’s periphery, and away from the city center, to ensure that central Jerusalem (associated with the Zionist entity) will not see economic development.
In further evidence of a left-wing anti-Israel conspiracy, population studies show that Jews will soon be a minority of the total population of all land under Israeli control, posing a threat to the future of the Jewish state.
How will supporters of Israel respond to these latest provocations?
by Chorus of Apes · Monday, November 26th, 2007
While most “organized” Jews are downplaying the importance of Annapolis, Leonard Fein thinks the future of Zionism is at stake.
Time does not favor the concept of a Jewish state. Not the concept, not the reality.
Is a two state scenario even possible, or is it to late for that, given that the matrix of control is entrenched deeper and deeper everyday?
by Kung Fu Jew · Friday, November 23rd, 2007
The Union of Progressive Zionists announces “Final Status Taboo” in a clever pun on my all-time favorite game, Taboo, in which players attempt to describe final status issues, such as Jerusalem, right of return, etc., without loaded words like “holy,” “Dome of the Rock,” “wall,” “Israel,” “capital” or “religion.”
“While the premise of these events is play, this game has serious ramifications for our ability to move forward as a community in advocating for vigorous U.S. leadership in the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations necessary to ensure Israel’s prospects for peace and security in the future,” says Tammy Shapiro the Executive Director of UPZ.
Indeed, this is a variation of a game I play with myself all the time — “Zionist” taboo. I don’t use the Z-word word. I won’t use it around any group. It’s got too much baggage. However, despite how I refuse to call myself a Zionist, I put so much of my time and effort towards a two-state solution, one could argue that I’m more actively supporting the existance of Israel than many so-called Zionists who either (a) take a passive interest but don’t do anything about it or (b) believe that prolonging the unclear status of 6 million Palestinians under Israeli jurisdiction isn’t likely to backfire.
In either right- or left-wing Jewish settings, or especially among non-Jews, the Z-word has too many meanings, too many conflicting connotations. Heroic or villainous, it’s not worth the time of deconstructing my vocabulary, so I just do without it. “Two state” is the wording of choice, “a secure Jewish state alongside a viable Palestinian state” seems to avoid the troublesome yelling matches which occur when people read into my language something I didn’t intend in the slightest.
This offends a few commited left-wing Zionists, including people I greatly, greatly admire, because they believe so strongly in taking back the Z-word from the Messianists, the Likudniks, and the Christians. That fight is laudable, sure. But it’s not worth my time to make a pit-stop to save the Z-word on the way to fighting for peace in the Holy Land. And it has the added benefit of making it easier to get along with all kinds of people.
Sorry, Z-word, it’s just another reason to leave you behind.
Full info on UPZ’s project below. More »
by rokhl · Friday, November 9th, 2007
If you look at the Forward’s recently published Forward 50, you’ll see April Rosenblum’s name listed right below grizzled Cold Warrior Norman Podhoretz, in the Ideas and Activism section. Strange bedfellows, indeed. Gey veys! (Go figure)
April is being recognized for her groundbreaking work, the recently published 32 page pamphlet The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere: Making Resistance to Anti-Semitism Part of All of Our Movements. If you’ve spent more than five minutes doing social justice work, you probably know that anti-Semitism is a real and pervasive problem. April’s pamphlet includes historical analysis, as well as thought provoking discussions about the nature of anti-Semitism today.
April was, as she describes it, ‘raised radical’ in Philadelphia, where she lives today. She is also an ardent Yiddishist and brings what I consider to be a Diaspora Nationalist perspective to her political analysis.
So, mazl tov April!! I look forward to seeing what else you have in store for us!
by shamirpower · Thursday, August 16th, 2007
New to the blogosphere and a previous yored* who has just returned to Israel with his family, and to teach at Hartman, Dr. Alex Sinclair recently wrote a post about a creative way of solving his dilemma between his values and his loathing of traffic:
The quickest way [to Jerusalem] is to take the lovely new Road 443 which zips you from Modiin to Jerusalem in under half an hour. Beautiful new road, no traffic, stress-free, brilliant. The alternative is to take good old “kvish mispar echad” (Road Number 1), which is the main Tel Aviv -Jerusalem highway. In the middle of the day, or later on in the evening, when there is no traffic, this is only about 5 minutes longer than the 443. But any other time that has the faintest whiff of rush hour about it turns Road Number 1 into a parking lot. “So what’s the problem? Just take 443!” Well, one of the reasons that 443 is so quick is that it cuts through over the Green Line, into territories captured by Israel in the 6 day war. And while the road was originally designed for use by, and indeed was used by, the Palestinian Arab communities who live alongside it (it also zips you to Ramallah in no time at all), the entrance/exit roads to those villages were closed off after several drive-by shootings, some fatal, during the Al-Aksa intifada. So now it’s one of those, ahem, “apartheid” roads, that you read about on the news.
…
So here is the solution I have come up with: Peace offsets.
You know, like carbon offsets? When Al Gore gets all upset about global warming but then runs up a huge bill air conditioning his mansion, he gives money to various organisations that promise to “offset” his carbon footprint by planting trees, investing in renewable energy, etc. I figure, why not do the same with Road 443? Every time I drive on it, I will make a small donation to Peace Now or a similarly worthy group.
You all should also read his op-ed from the Jerusalem report about the importance of Jews expressing their opinions about Israel at a young age. Finally, a public shout-out to Dr. Sinclair (with a touch of Robbie Gringras on the side) who taught me that it was alright for my relationship with Israel to be like a committed lover: connected always, but with room for criticism, discussion, and differences of opinion.
* one who has Israeli citizenship and then leaves Israel
by shamirpower · Thursday, August 9th, 2007
So in my precious moments under a shady tree before lunch today at the ‘Tute, I decided to catch up on last week’s New Yorker. I was hoping to avoid any Jewish topics since there’s an over saturation of that here. With my luck, I opened to a piece about Israel. However, as I glanced forward in the article it turned out to primarily be about none other than Avraham Burg, a former Knesset speaker. It traces various events in his life including statements he has made, as well as specific references to his recent book “Defeating Hitler - ìðöç à ú äèìø” and the recent Ha’aretz interview about the book. (You can also read Forward Editor’s J.J. Goldberg’s article with reflections and interview).
In any case, while this all may be old news to some people, I felt the need to bring everyone’s attention to it. First, I’ve appreciated much of Burg’s writing over the years, particularly in Ha’aretz. Yay for people who don’t know if they are post or progressive or anti Zionist - why should we be forced to label ourselves? Second, I am amazed at his ability to piss off people at all ends of the spectrum, and even those not on it. This is a man who does not feel a single pang of guilt for speaking his mind while in a position of power. Third, I love it when the New Yorker speaks to me exactly where I am in my life. How does it know to do that?
Most importantly, I have to point out that I am really into how much he and I have in common:
Burg is a vegetarian, and fit; he has taken up marathon running. He is nearly bald, and wears a small knit yarmulke. Normally, this is the yarmulke of the modern Orthodox, though Burg seemed eager to emphasize his disaffection from all things Orthodox; he told me of his affinity for B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue on New York’s Upper West Side where some of the rabbis are women and the sermons are as likely to quote Martin Luther King as Maimonides. “My alliance with the people at B’nai Jeshurun,†he said, “is much more immediate and intensive and important for me than my alliance with my nephew or my cousin, who lives two kilometres away in the West Bank, a fundamentalist settler.â€
…
“I went on a very long walk on the Appalachian Trail. I went for five weeks and crossed half the state of Connecticut, the whole state of New York, and half the state of New Jersey. I saw maybe twelve people, none of them Jewish—for the first time in my life. I did a lot of thinking, and I realized that I had to change the pace of my life.â€
Yes folks - Avraham and I are both liberal religious Jews who care about women rabbis and music in services. We are both physically active vegetarians who like to hike on the Appalachain trail in the New York/Connecticut region. Meant to be? You be the judge.
by Mobius · Monday, July 23rd, 2007
When strangers sojourn with you in your land, you shall do them no wrong, the strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as natives among you, and you shall love them as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. –Leviticus 19:33-34
Today it was learned that Yuli Tamir will be ousted from her position as Minister of Education amidst outcry from the Right over a reference to the Naqba in a new textbook for Israeli Arab students.
Last week, an overwhelming majority of MKs voted in favor of legislation that would prohibit the sale or leasing of state-owned lands to non-Jews (ie. Arabs).
The week before that, Shimon Peres remarked upon the shared interest of both Israel’s Left and Right in maintaining a Jewish majority, an interest that Gideon Levy rightly notes “attests to the development in our society of very deep racist norms, cloaked in various ways, against the minority groups among us.”
While I agree that the concept of Zionism in-and-of-itself is not racist, how can you otherwise describe the practice of Zionism exemplified by the policies of the modern State of Israel?
And how does one justify what I’m sure will be the baseless hatred that will consume the comments on this post in the defense of such actions?
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? –Isaiah 58:6
You will fast, and beat your chest. But what will you change? Where to from here?
See also: The Apostate: A Zionist politician loses faith in the future.
by aaronf · Thursday, June 21st, 2007
While in Israel with the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour, fellow comic Ray Hanania and I visited the west bank town of Ramallah. This guy honors his coreligionists as Machsom Watch and B’Tselem honors ours.
by Mobius · Sunday, June 10th, 2007
This is me eating my hat. Why? Because I keep my word.
It tastes awful, by the way.
The AP reports (in full):
A boy playing with matches burned down the synagogue of an anti-Israel Orthodox Jewish group, not Zionist opponents, police said Friday.
The 15-year-old boy was charged with criminal mischief and referred to Family Court in the April 1 fire that wrecked the Congregation Bais Yehudi synagogue, about 40 miles north of New York City, said Ramapo police Sgt. John Lynch.
Some synagogue members had claimed the blaze was set by Zionists opposed to their anti-Israel views. Members of the group, Neturei Karta, routinely burn the Israeli flag, heckle marchers in Israel Day parades and pray for the end of the Jewish state. A few members prompted outrage when they traveled to Iran to participate in a Holocaust-denial conference.
But Lynch said the fire was caused by the boy “recklessly throwing matches around.â€
No one was injured in the fire, which gutted the building.
Source.
by Kung Fu Jew · Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Azmi Bishara, in JTA’s words, “abruptly ended a parliamentary career built on denouncing the Jewish state from enemy capitals and then dodging charges of sedition at home. ” He quit from outside the country in protest of allegations for spying for Hezbollah during this summer’s Second Lebanon War.
But comparing himself to Alfred Dreyfus, Azmi says in this article in The Los Angeles Times,
These trumped-up charges, which I firmly reject and deny, are only the latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in the struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a state of all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges to Jews that it denies to non-Jews….
Today we [Israeli non-Jews] make up 20% of Israel’s population. We do not drink at separate water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and can serve in the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and informal discrimination in all spheres of life.
More »
