Is Israel Racist?

[steve_bank]

I have avoided this topic in the past, but given Netanyahu’s campaign promise to annex the Jordan valley it is unavoidable. News reports on Israeli politics say the idea has wide support in Israel.

Is Israel racists? I try to be balanced, but the only answer right now is yes.

Israel is enacting a slow motion displacement and ethnic cleansing of Arabs for Jewish population expansion.

It is near impossible to get Israeli citizenship without having proof of a matriarchal blood line.
t
It is no less than a state based racial purity. While I can understand the creation of a Jewish state as a refuge post WWII and the genocide, none the less Israel is a racist state. Thrown in a quasi-theocracy. Justification for displacing Arabs for Jews is through divine biblical right. God gave it to them.

Jews displaced Arabs, Arabs fight back, Jews win, Jews wall off Palestinians in a defacto ghetto controlling travel in and out.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

There are racist and theocratic policies. Particular persons are also racist. Maybe one can say the current government is racist. Something that is rarely discussed is the discrimination by some Ashkenazi Jews against Sephardic and Ethiopian Jews.

Even so, calling the country itself racist may be perceived to mean something else, something other than calling the current govt racist, such as calling the whole people racist. Don't forget there are a lot of liberals and anti-war persons there, too.

 

[repoman]

There are racist and theocratic policies. Particular persons are also racist. Maybe one can say the current government is racist. Something that is rarely discussed is the discrimination by some Ashkenazi Jews against Sephardic Jews.

Even so, calling the country itself racist may be perceived to mean something else, something other than calling the current govt racist, such as calling the whole people racist. Don't forget there are a lot of liberals and anti-war persons there, too.

Will you extend this to America, or will you fellow white this too?

 

[Arctish]

Yes.

 

[fast]

This screams, “category error.”

Is there another way to word the question? Right now, I’m just inclined to say that a country is not the kind of thing that can be racist.

I could be more charitable in my interpretation of what you mean by what you say. Oftentimes, I am charitable, but in this instance where the baggage-carrying term “racist” is being used, I’m afraid my attempt at charitableness may inadvertently lead to a misinterpretation of what you actually mean.

Are the policies put in place by many of Israel’s governmental officials biased against certain citizens of their population based on race in large part? <is that the question>

 

[PyramidHead]

Meet the candidates

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Wrong question. To the extent that Israel discriminates it's against religion and culture, not race.

 

[ronburgundy]

Wrong question. To the extent that Israel discriminates it's against religion and culture, not race.

Except "Jewish" is both an ethnic and religious category, thus discrimination against non-Jews is a form of ethnic discrimination.
The notion of the Jewish people being "chosen" by God has an inherent racial superiority flavor to it.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

The notion of the Jewish people being "chosen" by God has an inherent racial superiority flavor to it.

That's right. Further, the notion of a chosen people is present in all Abrahamic religions and extends into the culture of Islamo-Judeo-Christian populaces.

 

[Ford]

Wrong question. To the extent that Israel discriminates it's against religion and culture, not race.

Except "Jewish" is both an ethnic and religious category, thus discrimination against non-Jews is a form of ethnic discrimination.
The notion of the Jewish people being "chosen" by God has an inherent racial superiority flavor to it.

It is worth noting that the entire basis for their claims on the region is rooted in "God gave this land to us, not them." That's inherently discriminatory and even Loren seems to grasp this (though he appears to be perfectly okay with such discrimination).

 

[Politesse]

Wrong question. To the extent that Israel discriminates it's against religion and culture, not race.

Oh? If a Palestinian converts and marries a Jew, does that therefore mean that they will no longer be discriminated against?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Wrong question. To the extent that Israel discriminates it's against religion and culture, not race.

Oh? If a Palestinian converts and marries a Jew, does that therefore mean that they will no longer be discriminated against?

See post#2: there is discrimination against Sephardic and Ethiopian Jews by Ashkenazi Jews. A Palestinian Jew would probably at best on average be treated like a Sephardic Jew and in worst moments, like an Islamist terrorist.

 

[SimpleDon]

I have avoided this topic in the past, but given Netanyahu’s campaign promise to annex the Jordan valley it is unavoidable. News reports on Israeli politics say the idea has wide support in Israel.

Is Israel racists? I try to be balanced, but the only answer right now is yes.

Israel is enacting a slow motion displacement and ethnic cleansing of Arabs for Jewish population expansion.

It is near impossible to get Israeli citizenship without having proof of a matriarchal blood line.
t
It is no less than a state based racial purity. While I can understand the creation of a Jewish state as a refuge post WWII and the genocide, none the less Israel is a racist state. Thrown in a quasi-theocracy. Justification for displacing Arabs for Jews is through divine biblical right. God gave it to them.

Jews displaced Arabs, Arabs fight back, Jews win, Jews wall off Palestinians in a defacto ghetto controlling travel in and out.

Almost everyone here is much more of an expert on race than I am. Is Palestinian Arabic a different race than the Jews? Are the Ashkenazi Jews a race?

I thought that there isn't much difference between the Jews and the Arabs. That they both are Semitic people, not very far apart genetically. And that Muslims consider Jews to be "people of the book" (and Christians). Like theological cousins maybe.

It would be hard to call someone a racist if they are not of different races. Perhaps it is the religious differences that create the problem between them. This is something else that I don't have any feeling for, hating someone because he has a different religion. To believe so totally in a fantasy about your own made-up super being that you hate someone whose fantasy is different.

I don't believe that it is racism or religious differences, but that they both want to live on the same land and aren't willing to share.

 

[Politesse]

I have avoided this topic in the past, but given Netanyahu’s campaign promise to annex the Jordan valley it is unavoidable. News reports on Israeli politics say the idea has wide support in Israel.

Is Israel racists? I try to be balanced, but the only answer right now is yes.

Israel is enacting a slow motion displacement and ethnic cleansing of Arabs for Jewish population expansion.

It is near impossible to get Israeli citizenship without having proof of a matriarchal blood line.
t
It is no less than a state based racial purity. While I can understand the creation of a Jewish state as a refuge post WWII and the genocide, none the less Israel is a racist state. Thrown in a quasi-theocracy. Justification for displacing Arabs for Jews is through divine biblical right. God gave it to them.

Jews displaced Arabs, Arabs fight back, Jews win, Jews wall off Palestinians in a defacto ghetto controlling travel in and out.

Almost everyone here is much more of an expert on race than I am. Is Palestinian Arabic a different race than the Jews? Are the Ashkenazi Jews a race?

I thought that there isn't much difference between the Jews and the Arabs. That they both are Semitic people, not very far apart genetically. And that Muslims consider Jews to be "people of the book" (and Christians). Like theological cousins maybe.

It would be hard to call someone a racist if they are not of different races. Perhaps it is the religious differences that create the problem between them. This is something else that I don't have any feeling for, hating someone because he has a different religion. To believe so totally in a fantasy about your own made-up super being that you hate someone whose fantasy is different.

I don't believe that it is racism or religious differences, but that they both want to live on the same land and aren't willing to share.

Genetics have nothing to do with race. Race is about intra-group prejudice, for which arbitrary determinations of acceptable and unacceptable phenotypes are a proxy.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Wrong question. To the extent that Israel discriminates it's against religion and culture, not race.

Except "Jewish" is both an ethnic and religious category, thus discrimination against non-Jews is a form of ethnic discrimination.
The notion of the Jewish people being "chosen" by God has an inherent racial superiority flavor to it.

It is worth noting that the entire basis for their claims on the region is rooted in "God gave this land to us, not them." That's inherently discriminatory and even Loren seems to grasp this (though he appears to be perfectly okay with such discrimination).

No. I don't like the discrimination. I just recognize it as a very practical basis--survival. I consider a "solution" that expects a group to commit suicide to be a non-starter.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

A two state solution is suicide?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

A two state solution is suicide?

The issue was who gets to vote. That's asking for a one-state solution.