Little recourse for Arab girl rejected from Israeli day-care

[subsuelo]

Public schools in Israel are segregated and Israeli law doesn't protect students who are racially discriminated in private schools.

An Arab couple whose one-year-old daughter was expelled from an Israeli day-care center on her first day are suing a Jewish mother for damages, accusing her of racist incitement against their child.

Maysa and Shuaa Zuabi, from the village of Sulam in northern Israel, launched the court action last week saying they had been "shocked and humiliated" when the center's owner told them that six Jewish parents had demanded their daughter's removal because she is an Arab.

In the first legal action of its kind in Israel, the Zuabis are claiming $80,000 from Neta Kadshai, whom they accuse of being the ringleader.
The girl, Dana, is reported to be the first Arab child ever to attend the day-care center in the rural Jewish community of Merhavia, less than one kilometer from Sulam.
However, human rights lawyers say that, given the narrow range of anti-racism legislation in Israel, the chance of success for the Zuabis is low.

Since its founding in 1948, Israel has operated an education system almost entirely segregated between Jews and Arabs.

However, chronic underfunding of Arab schools means that in recent years a small but growing number of Arab parents have sought to move their children into the Jewish system.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10701.shtml">Jonathan Cook - read more

[no_hypocrisy]

1. A one-year old baby??? What does the Jewish mother expect from the social comingling?

Racism is unacceptable at any age level. But a one-year old baby . . .

[Hello_Kitty]

2. They have segregated public schools??!?!

However, chronic underfunding of Arab schools means that in recent years a small but growing number of Arab parents have sought to move their children into the Jewish system.

Gee, why is this not surprising?

[UndertheOcean]

3. And Israel is not an Apartheid state , yeah right

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Go back to say, 1954.

A little girl named Brown wanted to go to a school that was closer to her home and better equipped, but the school board wouldn't let her....

[LeftishBrit]

5. Awful

People may wish to consider supporting the following organization which supports integration in Israeli education:

http://www.handinhand12.org/

Segregation at school level is unjust and also perpetuates the conflict to the next generation (as was for long the case in Northern Ireland - indeed to this day only a minority of children in NI attend integrated Catholic/Protestant schools).

[UndertheOcean]

13. Thanks for the link

[oberliner]

6. The lawsuit doesn't represent recourse?

They are suing the parents for incitement. That seems like recourse.

Also, several principals of other Jewish Day Care centers have since invited the family to enroll their daughter in their centers after hearing of this.

[Lakrosse]

8. amazing how people forget this

kind of thing. Put up some links, just to show these people.

Honestly, as if this thing hasn't happened in the US with blacks. Are we an "apartheid state?" I'm SO sure blacks in South Africa could sue, without risk of jail or death.

But he quotes Electronic Terrorism, I mean Intifada, and Johnathan Cook.

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Got it. Bigotry against Arab children is okay because bigotry has happened in the US...

There's absolutely no justification for what was done to the little girl, and it's pathetic that you use the 'yeah, but it happened elsewhere!' argument to justify bigotry against Arabs...

[Violet_Crumble]

10. He said they had *little* recourse, not *no* recourse...

And if suing another parent on the grounds of incitement is the only avenue available to them, then I'd consider that to be a case of little discourse. I would have thought this sort of thing would be covered by anti-discrimination laws and the parents wouldn't have to take the step of suing another parent...

Also, like you, I'm glad that other day care centres have done the right thing and stepped in and offered to enrol the little girl, but that's not considered to be recourse...

[shaayecanaan]

7. $1,100 vs $190

A report published in March revealed that the government invested $1,100 in each Jewish pupil's education compared to $190 for each Arab pupil. The gap is even wider when compared to the popular state-run religious schools, where Jewish pupils receive nine times more funding than Arab pupils.

[Scurrilous]

9. Court to haredi school: End segregation or face closure

Supreme Court accepts petition filed against Beit Yaakov School in Emanuel settlement over segregation of Ashkenazi, Sephardic pupils. 'School infringed on Sephardic girls' right to equality,' Justice Levi says

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3759100,00.html

<snip>

"The Supreme Court on Thursday granted a petition against the segregation of Ashkenazi and Sephardic girls at the Beit Yaakov School in the West Bank settlement of Emanuel.

The honorable Edmond Levi, Hanan Meltzer and Edna Arbel ordered the school to nullify within a week all discriminatory practices and protocols that separate between Ashkenazi and Sephardic students.

"Should the school fail to carry out the order, the Education Ministry must use all the legal means at its disposal to remedy the situation, including revoking the school's license and stopping the allocation of funds to the institution," the court said.

The petition against the Independent Learning Center, Emanuel Regional Council, and the Ministry of Education was submitted by the Noar C'Halacha Youth Organization.

The reported discrimination included the construction of separate classrooms and separate entrances for Ashkenazim and Sephardics, imposing Ashkenazi-style prayer on Sephardic pupils, separation fences in the school's courtyard and different recess times for Ashkenazi and Sephardic students.

"Although the school is sectorial, a minimal level of tolerance is expected of it," said Justice Arbel.

Justice Levi said the school "infringed on the Sephardic girls' right to equality" and that the Education Ministry "failed to prevent this discrimination."

[Scurrilous]

12. 'Day of recreation' ends in tears over Arabic music

Some 250 children from Jish church's summer camp leave country club in northern city of Katzrin, after club's manager refused to allow the counselors to play Arabic music. 'We can't have every sector coming to the pool and playing whatever music they want,' manager explains

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3759993,00.html

<snip>

"Some 250 children of an Arab village's summer camp left a country club in the northern city of Katzrin in tears on Thursday, after the club's manager refused to allow the counselors to play Arabic music.

The Jish church summer camp director, Jadi Sliman, said the country club manager's conduct was "insulting and racist". The manager, Shemi Namimi said in his defense, "We can't have every sector coming to the pool and playing whatever music they want."

Children from northern Israel, as well as from abroad, take part in the Jish church summer camp every year, and according to Sliman, "It is considered the most successful summer camp among the Christian community in Israel."

This year, as always, the camp planned a day of recreational activities at the Katzirn country club's swimming pool. Sliman and Namimi worked out the details and the cost, and signed a contract for Thursday."

<snip>

"The moment we got there I realized something was wrong," says Sliman. "I asked them where I could find an electricity connection and the workers kept sending me around. We eventually connected the stereo system and I put on music of a church prater, in Arabic."

Sliman says he went to fill a pitcher of water, and was surprised to discover when he returned that the music had stopped.

"The Instructors told me that the workers had come and given them a Hebrew music CD. I turned the system on again, and then Shemi approached the system and turned down the volume to the very end. I asked him, 'Excuse me, what are you doing? If you want something, talk. This system belongs to me.' So he immediately replied, 'I am the one making decisions here.' I asked him, 'What's the problem?' And he said, 'Don't put music in Arabic. If you want, you can put music in Hebrew."

Sliman says he explained to the manager that Arabic was the summer camp children's mother tongue, "but he refused to listen and said, 'l am the manager here and I decided. There will be no music in Arabic here.'"

[invictus]

14. What a racist country!