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Israeli Apartheid

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                                     ISRAELI APARTHEID


              A Jewish Apartheid? 
              By Lev Gunin 
              From "Courier" newspaper (Tel-Aviv) No. 118 
              February 1994, page 3. 

              Translation from Russian original 

                                                   Pre-word from Editor
              "Israel has various climate zones, landscapes, different types of faces - as a 
             multi-colored puzzle. It looks like the whole Planet Earth, all human races and 
             nationalities have their representatives in Israel..." 

              Beautiful, isn't it? But the real life is far from "creamy-chocolate" tourist 
             brochures, and the relations between various Jewish communities within Israel 
             could be much better. (It can't be hidden - dispute of wild attempts of Israel's
             propagandists-ideologists to present this situation as if there were no 
             conflicts between different Jewish ethnic groups at all).  *** 

              The author of this article was born and grew up in Belarus. But he interpreted 
             his Jewish nationality as belonging to a group of East nations, and this 
             developed and stimulated his interest to the East and to people of East, 
             their traditions, and cultural and historic values. 

              Many years before finding myself in Israel I already knew that citizens 
             from all over the world are getting together here, and discovered with 
             horror (from letters of those who came to Israel in 1970-s) that origins 
             from Arabic countries were under pressure of mockery and leveling in 
             kibbutzs, that the present "old immigrants" ("vatikim") - by then fresh, 
             "green" immigrants - met inhumanity and hatred: as we now. 
             

              When (in the end of 1980-s) various Jewish cultural associations started 
             to appear as mushrooms after rain, (some of them published periodic newspapers
             and magazines) I hoped that here is a good chance now for a greater 
             integration between Jewish communities. Living in the last great empire 
             of the XX century, Baltic, Belorusian, Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian, 
             Bukharian, and other Jewish communities, were separated from each other 
             geographically and culturally. Trying to do something for the noble goal
             of their unity I wrote a number of essays about history and cultural  
             traditions of Belorusian, Georgian and Uzbeks's Jews, and mailed them
             to a number of Jewish newspapers and magazines. I thought that my material 
             was interesting and wealthy. 
             

              Sometimes I was astonished by my own "discoveries"; so, when I've got 
             a material about Jews from Bukhara (I obtained it easily in the former USSR) 
             I realized what an Important role played Bukharits In the development of East 
             medicine, art and literature. I also read about their picturesque customs and 
             synagogical traditions. You can Imagine my surprise when I was stopped by 
             questions like "why do you care?" 


              Then I decided to mail my essays to Israel. Naturally, it was clear that 
             they should be adjusted by an information about how these communities 
             are integrated in Israel - their historical homeland. To my surprise I 
             found that there was absolutely no information about that. Did it 
             mean that these, so different ethnic groups, really could loose all 
             their cultural traditions and distinctions during just tenth of years?
              

              I asked Israelis, who very often visited Minsk, about that - but they 
             met this question by a wave of misunderstanding and hostility. I described 
             my thoughts about the history of different Jewish communities and about 
             their life in Israel in a wide essay, which I called "Unknown Israel". 
             Parts (extracts) of this work were published In Russia and USA. When this 
             work was published, I was accused of racism, fascism, anti-Semitism and so on. 
             How many accusations were made in my address during the last one and a half 
             months! Thanks God, they did not went further, and did no other personal 
             accusations lake "sexual maniac" or something like this... 
             Each quitter was extracted from my work and Interpreted in such a manner that 
             it was impossible to calculate where is an end of the quitting and a beginning 
             of a commentary. Well, they studied the Soviet-style mass propaganda and 
             agitating in Soviet Universities just excellent. They replaced an eventual 
             discussion (about my conception of the future of Israel) by false statement 
             about my attitude towards Jews from Bukhara.  In reality no estimations of any 
             ethnic group could be found in my work. I only analyzed what place occupied each 
             ethnic group in Israeli's hierarchy. If - in my opinion (may be I'm correct?!) - 
             Jews from Bukhara have an extremely low status  in Israel; all pretensions have 
             to be aimed not in my address. I have no power to give any social status to any 
             group!
              

              My conception suggests that the modem Israel is a state of special 
             "apartheid within one nation". Some East European origins (Jews and not Jews 
             from Romania, Hungary, Chechia, Slovakia, Yugoslavia (I mean Serbia) and partly 
             from Poland) and their descendants posses maximum of possible political power 
             and economic influence, what guaranteed safety and material security for them. 
             Others, like out comers from Arabic countries, are the second-class citizens. But 
             those from Ethiopia, Russia /former Slavic republics, and former Muslim republics 
             (USSR, Jews from Bukhara are among them) - they are the most oppressed and most 
             exploited part of society. 


              If my statement that Israel is a country where severe ethnical 
             pressure / inequality as a basic norm is wrong - then why to keep silence 
             about it? Then why direct lie about my work is used? Such methods are not the 
             best arguments in a dispute. 


              The next moment - there is a monstrous pressure by the state to all communities 
             for leveling them, for forcing them to turn down all their customs and traditions:
             their culture. I turned to people to tell them: you must save your different 
             cultures, but this is not against an appeal for a better Integration. Leveling 
             human beings bad regimes producing ethnically - culturally lumped nation (several 
             generations of Israelis were lumped that way), they have nothing what to give 
             nor for their contemporaries, nor for the descendants. 


              When the essence is killed and cultural traditions are suppressed (leaving just 
             external differences like the skin color) they are always replaced by hatred and 
             hostility... 


              We have several years only to save the nation. It's survival - in cosmopolitan 
             approach, in opening ethnic schools: "Russians", "Ethiopian", "Bukharian", and so 
             on, in honest and equal representation of all ethnic groups in country's 
             parliament. 


              But even before that other urgent measures are needed.  1. Prohibition of the 
             present propaganda of superiority of Israelis ("sabras") over all others 
              2. Ban of using the housing problem as a tool in consolidation of political and 
             economical power in 3-4 ethnic groups' hands for the cost of others
              3. Abolition of the well-known "Kvijut" (job "permanency"), which gives it's 
             possessors incredible social and economic privileges over the others supported 
             by money and rights, taken from the "weak" ethnic groups 
              4. Abolition of the well-known "Kablanut", in other words, slavery for "weak" 
             ethnic groups 


                          The awful truth is that in reality people from these ethnic groups 
             are forced to execute a compulsory, forced and - taking into consideration the 
             size of their salaries - slavish labor. 
             

                          This is the real source of already existing and permanently 
             increasing tension between various ethnic groups as well as between private 
             people. But any Israeli ("sabra") normally denies the fact of such tensions. 
             

              Today, new immigrants from former USSR have found themselves among the most 
             exploited ethnic groups. 
             

                          There is a wave of suicides among them; the death rate among them 
             is several times higher then among Israelis. There is an incredible wave of 
             traumatism and accidents on unsafe working places among "Russians''...  From 5 
             to 10 thousands Russian speaking children are not attending schools because of 
             their families' poverty or because of mockeries over them by teachers or 
             classmates -Israelis. Such are results of the country's monstrous political 
             system. 


              The duration of the working day, salaries, wage rates - everything has special 
             standards for "Russians". It is difficult to figure out how many "Russians" 
             have suspended their participation in medical insurance programs - because they 
             can't pay for them. How many of them live under permanent threat of eviction from 
             apartments they rented or bought. This situation of disaster is so obvious 
             that there is not a big discovery: if such a big minority group is in 
             trouble - this will increase tensions more and more, and lead to a more 
             tense criminal situation, and later - to a social and economic disaster. 
             This is why we have to destroy a mechanism that again and again turns an awful 
             flywheel of the "ethnic apartheid" within one nation. If it is not too late... 
              


              This translation is a corrected version of Mrs. Eleonora Broder's translation, 
            made in Montreal, in 1995. Corrections were made by Mr. Sergei Poslavsky, fluent 
            in Russian and English languages, in Toronto. Mrs. E. Broder's translation might 
            be submitted on request. 






                                     Copyright љ Lev Gunin & Co
                                           Montreal 1998


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