The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has released its annual "racism" report, detailing discrimination against the underprivileged, subcontractors, prisoners, and others. The report concentrates on "racism" against Arabs - without noting the decades-long terrorist war waged by Arabs against Israelis.
The report contains 13 sections - including health, privacy, and more - yet its main focus is revealed by the fact that no fewer than six of them deal with Arabs in Israel.
Health, Manpower, Foreign Workers...
The report notes with concern that there are only 1.94 hospital beds per 1,000 residents, compared with 3.27 in 1970. Public health insurance covers 44% less than it did in 1994, while 30% of the public - "most of them elderly, new immigrants, underprivileged, Arabs, or poorly educated" - does not have the supplementary health insurance that would compensate for this.
Regarding manpower agencies, the report states, "The government and its offices save millions of shekels by employing subcontractors who oppress their workers. The salary for employment agency workers is 60% of the average wage, and only 5% of them received 25 shekels an hour or more, with few or no benefits.
The report also notes faults in the conditions under which foreign workers are employed, as well as Israel's refusal to grant asylum to 1,800 citizens of the hostile country of Sudan. It similarly documents and criticizes the increase in police wiretapping, and the fact that only 7 out of 1,135 police requests to wiretap were rejected by the courts. Police violence and prisoners' rights are also briefly touched upon.
...But Mainly Arabs
Nearly half the report, however, deals with Arabs and their lot in Israel.
The report blandly notes an "increase in hatred by the Jewish public," without placing this phenomenon in the context of the ongoing war waged by Arab nations and groups against Jews in Israel. Over 75% the Jewish public is said not to want to live with Arabs - though the relevant security concerns are not mentioned at all.
The report also devotes considerable space to an attack on General Security Services Chief Yuval Diskin for saying that he sees "Israeli citizen Palestinians" as a "strategic threat" and that he feels "duty-bound to thwart subversive activity of those who wish to harm the Jewish and democratic nature of Israel, even if these activities take place via democratic tools."
The report lambasts the "racial profiling" at airports that leads to extra security checks for Arabs, and notes that 40% of the civilian victims of the Second Lebanon War were Arabs. The report states that many of the latter lived in areas that are not sufficiently protected - but did not mention that in at least one case, family members of victims said they continue to support Hizbullah in its war against Israel.
The ACRI report says that Knesset legislative proposals that make voting rights and benefits dependent on military or national service are "racist." Similarly, the demand that Arab government ministers and MKs must pledge allegiance to the Jewish State is considered "racist," as is the proposal that Jewish National Fund lands be appropriated only to Jews. The plight of 80,000 Bedouin in the Negev is noted, wherein Israel is in the process of recognizing nine villages while "ignoring tens of others" and establishing 30 Jewish farms in the Negev.
The ACRI laments the fact that Israel does not allow Arabs of PA-controlled areas who have married Israeli-Arabs from receiving Israeli citizenship or residency status; in fact, until this practice was stopped, it was a common method by which PA Arabs would move to Israel. Since the signing of the Oslo Accords, tens of thousands of requests for entry have been granted to Arab aliens who either married Israeli-Arab residents or have relatives living in the country. The tide of Arab immigration was somewhat stemmed in 2003 when the Citizenship Law was temporarily amended with more strict criteria for the approval of immigration requests.
The ACRI report further complains that relatives of Israeli-Arabs living in enemy countries Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq are also not admitted into Israel.
Netanyahu's Warning Against Arab Demographic Threat
The Arab demographic threat within Israel was the subject of an acute warning by former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu four years ago, when he told the Herzliya Conference that, "regarding the Israeli-Arabs - here we have a problem... If the Arabs become a minority of 40%, the State will cease to be Jewish, and therefore, we need a policy that will first of all guarantee a Jewish majority. I say this with no hesitation, as a liberal, a democrat, and a Jewish patriot - ... and one that will balance between these two needs."
In the Carmiel-Misgav area of the Galilee, the population is 20% Jewish and 80% Arab.
In a section entitled "De-stabilizing Democracy," the ACRI report bemoans the finding that only half the public recognizes the need for equal rights for Arabs and Jews. "Occupation is not benign," it declares, lamenting the "killing of citizens [by military counter-terrorism forces], restrictions on travel, checkpoints, administrative arrests, confiscation of land, preventing access to land, and army entries into houses" in Judea and Samaria. Once again, the dozens of Arab terrorist attacks - stabbings, stonings, shootings and more - that are perpetrated or planned each week are not mentioned. A separate section on the Arabs of eastern Jerusalem is also included in the report.
Jews Want to Separate From Enemies
Baruch Marzel of Hevron responded to the racism report as follows: "It speaks for itself; our people truly want to separate from its enemies, and feel that our enemies are dangerous. It shows once again that Rabbi Meir Kahane was right all along. The Arab leaders and Knesset Members shouldn't come to us with complaints, but should rather realize that it is their own behavior and disloyalty that has brought this about."