'Why are you complaining?'

[Violet_Crumble]

A groundbreaking new TV series is exploring the lives of Israel's Arab citizens

The first frames of this new documentary pull no punches over its content. Israel's "Mr Television", Haim Yavin, is a household name, a veteran newsreader and the director of a controversial film that argued for a settler evacuation from Gaza before it took place. Now he's filmed a new series, "Blue ID Cards", for Israeli Channel Two and on the subject of the 20% Arab population of the Jewish state. This sector comprises Palestinians who stayed in Israel after the 1948 war and who often, therefore, prefer the label "48 Palestinians" or "Arab-Palestinian" to the airbrushed standard appellation: "Arab-Israelis".

Anyway, first episode, first frame: a Palestinian family in northern Israel have just lost their son because of a Hizbullah rocket attack during the 2006 war. "Why should I not think of him as a martyr?" ask the grieving father. "He died for Israel, it's our country too. Isn't it?"

Second episode, first frame: we're in an unrecognised Bedouin village in the southern Negev desert where a Bedouin family's tent-home has just been demolished by Israeli forces. "How can you do this to your citizens?" a woman screams after the police. "Get away from here! To hell with the state of Israel!"

These two frames serve both as taster and overview of the content of Yavin's series, focused on a population that is constantly neglected, suspected and marginalised and constantly struggles to attain equal status. It's no use pointing out all the democratic rights that Arab-Israelis enjoy in the Jewish state and it's no use saying that they are far better off in Israel than they would be in any neighbouring Arab state. Palestinians living in Israel might feel solidarity with and a connection to the Arab world, but they don't compare their own status with residents of Arab countries; why should they? Their reference point is their Jewish co-nationalists, constantly shown to be favoured by a state that denigrates and discriminates against Arab skin.

The complexities of this experience are given a refreshingly candid airing in this TV documentary, say Israeli media commentators (both Arab and Jewish). We see professionals who lament that they did as they were told – "learn Hebrew, get educated, achieve" – only to discover the pokily low level of the glass ceiling for Arab-Israelis.

We see the exasperation of an Arab-Israeli routinely invited to high-brow academic lectures overseas and routinely harangued by Israeli airport officials. We see a young shop worker explain he has a string of degrees that don't even generate job interviews because of an Arab surname. We see Arab houses being demolished while building permits are refused. And over and over again, we see frustration as Arab-Israelis talk of wanting to be a part of a nation that tells them, in the words of one interviewee: "I am not a human being first. I am an Arab first, and this nation is for Jews."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/12/israelandthepalestinians-humanrights

[shira]

1. good news

[HamdenRice]

2. "constantly neglected, suspected and marginalised"

I've known two Israeli Arabs (both referred to themselves as Palestinians, btw), both internationally trained lawyers.

They told me in great detail what it was like to live as second class citizens within Israel. I've also read a great deal about their treatment.

That's why I find it perplexing that so many on this board use Israeli Arabs as some sort of example of the absence of discrimination within Israel. Nothing could be further from the truth.

They may not be treated like Palestinians in the WB or Gaza, but they sure aren't treated as equal citizens within Israel.

[pelsar]

3. its not so perplexing...

would you claim that the blacks are treated as full citizens in the US?....

yet most americans would claim that there is no overt discrimination.....Like in the US the laws demand equality, the reality is different. Every minority in every single society that exists on the face of the earth has some discrimination against it, israel is no different in that respect. The amount of discrimination is the problem.....and israel, like all democracies are constantly fighting it.....

[azurnoir]

4. Ahem recent elections not withstanding eh? n/t

[pelsar]

6. so?

i'm assume your kidding

all of a sudden there is no more discrimination against blacks in the US because of Obama?....all of a sudden the LA cops arent going to pull over a black guy driving in Beverly Hills at night and check his ID because of Obama...

[azurnoir]

8. No however when Israel elects an Arab PM

then we'll have something to discuss, but alas as it is Ms Livni seems to have other plans.

[shira]

10. so....

...up until 2 years ago, Israel was just as discriminating against Arabs as the USA against blacks? yes?

[azurnoir]

12. why yes at kleast according to comment #2

but perhaps you know Israeli Arabs you could site that would differ, as it is I know Lebanese and Syrian Arabs.

[HamdenRice]

9. At least in the US there isn't legal discrimination

There are still many places that Israeli Palestinians are not allowed to rent or buy property. There are still many legal exclusions that would be unconstitutional in the US.

[pelsar]

11. where?

There are still many places that Israeli Palestinians are not allowed to rent or buy property.

never heard of it.....so please enlighten me.....

the sole place of official discrimination that i i know of exists within companies that work with security

[HamdenRice]

14. Legally mandated residential segregation is very well entrenched in Israel

It has to do with the way Israel was founded with the assistance of private organizations that became quasi public, and its early "socialist" character. The Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund came to control most of the land, which after 1948 was administered by the state.

This continued after the foundation of the state and continues today. Israeli Palestinians have told me that even when friendly Jewish Israelis were willing to rent them apartments, they could not, or were afraid they would be taken to court.

Presently although most land in Israel cannot be sold, but only leased, to Jews or Arabs, because it is under state control, the government basically allocates (or misallocates) land to Jewish towns and Arab towns. Arab towns therefore have no room for expansion and become dense and undesirable while the government subsidizes Israeli "Jewish" developments within Israel.

In addition, there are a welter forms of private discrimination that prevent Israeli Arabs from moving into "Jewish" neighborhoods or apartment buildings, including the fact that (as poll results show) most Israeli Jews simply won't rent to an Arab.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/07/world/middleeast/07israel.html?pagewanted=print

[pelsar]

15. law vs society....your mixing them up....

public land is leased to both arabs and jews now (supreme court ruling)...that leaves you left with just the private area, where discrimination exists, but is not sanctified officially by the state...

[HamdenRice]

20. Actually you are mixing up private and public state action

Just because a state discriminates through administrative action, which the executive branch is still doing, doesn't mean it's private.

This is a basic concept in comparative constitutional law. It's just as illegal (under human rights standards) whether segregation is mandated by statute or by administrative action.

[oberliner]

17. Legally mandated residential segregation was very well entrenched in the US

Do you feel that it still exists in a defacto way in our country at all?

[Crunchy Frog]

19. Have you read the book, The Other Side of Israel by Susan Nathan?

It's a very intimate look at that situation by a Jewish Israeli woman who has chosen to live in an Arab community. I would highly reccomend it.

http://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Israel-Journey-Across/dp/0385514565

[Dick Dastardly]

16. There is still legal discrimitation in the US

If you own a single or 2 family dwelling and you live in one of the units then you are within your rights to discriminate. Some states have been able to limit this to those that dont use a real estate broker and those that dont advirtise in print. I remember a case a few years back where this lady put a sign to rent up and put no blacks, Hispanics, gays yada yada yada need apply. It raised a stink but nothing could be done to this bigot legally

[azurnoir]

18. really where is this?

In my area the only discrimination allowed is that in a single family, duplex (2 family dwelling), or 4plex 4 family dwelling and then only if the owner lives there too, is that one can be adults only but race, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, those are not allowed.

[shira]

5. you're right...

it's not perfect. Blacks in the USA still don't feel they're treated as equal citizens within their country, despite Obama's recent win. Hopefully, this TV program will effect some positive change within Israel.

[LeftishBrit]

13. Agreed.

[azurnoir]

7. Strawman argument

one which Ms Livni set a torch to recently.