Susan Nathan, an Israeli Jew was in Stanford University last week to discuss her widely acclaimed book, ‘Other Side of Israel’. After experiencing the sting of racism in England, Susan moved to Israel in the late 1990’s only to find enormous discrimination and persecution of Israeli Arabs living in Israel. Susan was the only Israeli Jew in the village of Israeli Arabs and what she experienced prompted her to launch a crusade to expose the ‘dark side’ of life for the disenfranchised Arabs. Susan drew a comparison of life for the privileged Israeli Jews living in the low density highlands with the high density overcrowded Arabs living in the lowlands in comparative filth and squalor.
Sadly, all dark skinned Jews such as the Ethiopians suffer similar discrimination (even their blood was rejected as ‘tainted’). Susan gave many examples of blatant discrimination in education, housing and job opportunities. Susan speculated that this national policy was implemented to ‘encourage’ Arabs to leave Israel thereby mitigating the demographic time bomb when Israeli Jews may one day become a minority. Susan also confirmed the horrors of arbitrary home demolitions when bulldozers arrive at 5 am and the inhabitants are given 20 minutes to remove their all their possessions. Former IDF soldiers are now breaking the silence and voicing their opposition to the apartheid polices of their government (see www.breakingthesilence.org).
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