500 Arabs begin studies in Ariel: 'There's no racism here'

[shira]

Some 11,500 students, among them 500 Arab and Druze Israelis, began the academic year Sunday at the Ariel University Center of Samaria, which is located in the West Bank, beyond the Green Line.

"I scored high on my psychometric exam and could have enrolled in Tel Aviv University and other institutions, but here the enrollment process was quicker. This was the first place that accepted me, so I decided to go for it," said 20-year-old Tayibe resident Manar Diuani, who is studying computer science.

A group of prominent Israeli artists recently caused a public uproar when they drafted a letter declaring their refusal to perform in Ariel's new cultural hall for political reasons.

Diuani, an Arab-Israeli, told Ynet the settlement issue does not concern her. "I separate studies from politics. I don’t think where I go to school will matter to anyone – only my grades and diploma will matter." Another Arab student, who chose to remain anonymous, said, "We did not come here because of the ideology; we came here to get an education, and we don’t want to link this to politics."

more...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3970752,00.html

So much for apartheid in the settlements.

:eyes:

[DCKit]

1. The racism is rampant. They have no shame.

It's not going to get better until they give it up.

I've got some Jewish blood in my background, and I couldn't be more ashamed. The S.O. has Arab blood, and my sister's husband is Palestinian. I'm disgusted by all of it.

[Shaktimaan]

3. ashamed of what?

racism in Israel? Your Jewish blood?

why would you be ashamed of anything if you had nothing to do with any of it?

[King_David]

8. Explain please.

.

Makes no sense to me,your post.

[cali]

13. yikers. I'm horrified by the op and just as horrified by your pathetic

post. You couldn't be more ashamed of having "some Jewish blood"? Sorry, but that's rather an ill frame of mind.

[shaayecanaan]

2. And how many Arabs actually live in Ariel?

Presumably, if there is no apartheid in the settlements, one would expect a thriving Arab community living in Ariel.

[azurnoir]

4. but but the student's attending the university are a whopping 4.35% Arabs

so there's nothing to see here move along now

but still one wonders if the 'old timers' in South Africa who miss the 'good ole days' look at Israel in admiration and amazement and ask themselves "damn, why didn't we think of that?"

[Shaktimaan]

5. you lost me...

OK, so the percentage of students who are Arab is far less than the Arab percentage of the country as a whole. Racism could be a cause. Or it could not be. I can think of several alternative reasons right off the top of my head other than outright racism.

Do the percentage of Black students at any given US university correlate to their percentage of the whole population? What about Jews? I already know this one... some schools have tons of Jews, far outstripping their piece of the whole. Usually the best ones, or specifically Jewish ones. While some have zero. Does this indicate anti-semitism to you?

Correlation does not prove causation. This is a good thing to remember.

And your comment about SA makes an equal amount of sense, re: little to none.

[LeftishBrit]

7. I agree; but by the same token I don't think that the fact that there are Arab students at Ariel who

claim not to experience racism, means that there is none in the wider community.

Apart from the possibility that the students who made the claim of 'no racism' to an Israeli paper may have been self-selected, it's possible that they didn't experience racism *because* they were a small minority in that particular context. On the whole, racism tends not to be that marked against very small minorities; it is usually, though not always, somewhat larger minorities that attract the most hostility.

Also, university students tend not to be the most racist of groups (though there are exceptions!), at least when within the university context. It's my impression, for example, that black British students tend to experience less racism from their white fellow students than from whites in other situations, and perhaps even than they would from those same fellow students in a different context.

So it's great that these particular students seem to be having a good experience; but one cannot extend from it to making an assumption that there isn't really that much racism in the settlements or that the settlements aren't that bad. I know that *you* are not saying that, but it seems to be somewhat implied by the original article.

I agree that equating Israel with South Africa is misleading on a number of grounds, unless one is going to lump together *all* countries that have serious problems of racial/ethnic discrimination and prejudice - of which there are many.

[aranthus]

10. Israel would be unique if there was no racism at all. n/t

[azurnoir]

11. you assume I was trying to 'find' you ?

as to your reply it reads rather like 'absence of evidence is evidence of absence " or some disingenuous nonsense

[shaayecanaan]

9. Not much chance of those couple dozen Arabs being allowed to reside on campus either...

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/no-place-in-university-dorms-for-arabs-who-didn-t-serve-in-idf-1.307448

[Shaktimaan]

6. why?

I'm not defending the settlements here. I just don't understand your reasoning.

[azurnoir]

12. Brcause Israel's promoters are absolute champions

at explaining to us how yellow is indeed purple, I think my statement about South Africans would also would also apply to segregationists in the '50's and 60's US