The disease of racism and how to cure it

[Violet_Crumble]

I would like to believe that if those same people who expressed their desire to have the Arabs expelled from the State of Israel in a survey by the Center for the Study of National Security at Haifa University had been asked their opinion in public rather than in a pollster's questionnaire, the results would have been different.

In that survey, 63 percent of the Jews said they support the idea that the government should encourage Arabs to emigrate; 45 percent said Arab citizens should be prevented from voting for the Knesset. In open discussions, on television or in public interviews, Jewish citizens would certainly be embarrassed to express such chauvinistic and racist opinions. We can assume that they would want to be portrayed according to the best tradition of "the only democracy in the Middle East," and of the Jewish people. As members of a nation that went through the Holocaust and suffered racial discrimination more than any other, they wouldn't be willing to be exposed as Arab haters, as people who have no trouble trampling the rights of the Arab citizens of the state, to the point of expelling them from their homeland.

But those questioned found an opportunity this time to say what they really felt, and to transmit a message to anyone interested - that we, in this country, have deteriorated to such a point; and please, deal with the crisis.

And in fact, we are all, Arabs as well as Jews, obligated to deal with the problem - which is the problem of all of us. It wouldn't be right for each side to transfer responsibility to the other's court. Judging by the answers in other surveys that have been published in the past, the results of the new survey are not particularly surprising. They only signal a continuation of the deterioration, and indicate that almost nothing has been done so far to check the phenomenon.

A responsible leader in Israel, one who is concerned about the Jews and about the country, would take responsibility and make a declaration that hasn't been heard until now, regarding special handling of the subject. He would gather his ministers and those responsible for education, and announce an overall work plan, which would immediately put a stop to all forms of delegitimization of Israeli Arabs in their country, from racist declarations by ministers and people in positions of responsibility, to government policy in all areas.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/443157.html

[The Magistrate]

1. An Excellent Article, Ma'am!

Thank you for putting it up. Mr. Majali strikes me as a very sensible fellow, who has the right of this question firmly in hand.

[Lithos]

2. Mr. Majali

Has a good feel of the problem and some very good ideas for solving the issue of racism in the area. Ignorance is the breeding ground for intolerance which makes open and fair education along with firm and direct action taken against those who misuse their positions of public authority.

He is also very correct that this a problem facing both Arabs and Jews and I personally feel his solutions would yield fertile results if also applied to the Palestinian side.

L-

[Gimel]

3. Survey conducted

This survey was conducted by telephone interviews. That has less validity than a survey conducted in person. If it were conducted publicly, as this commentator suggests, it would produce a different set of responses, but not exactly what is desired. The survey was for the purpose of discovering personal values, not what one says in public. A personal interview would have gotten data with a much higher validity.

[Djinn]

4. presumably

this survey was conducted to find out what people REALLY think - not what they'd be too ashamed to say in public or face to face with an interviewer because they KNOW their thoughts are out and out racist garbage.

If this poll were conducted in person I fail to see how the ersults would eb more "valid"

[bigbillhaywood]

5. How to cure the disease of racism:

1. Destroy its institutional bases-- organized religion, the nation-state, capitalism.

2. Build alternative organizational structures based on egalitarian and libertarian ideology.

Just tell me how to get 1 and 2 accomplished, and we can rocknroll.

[The Magistrate]

6. More People Should Read This....

[Violet_Crumble]

7. They should...

but I doubt it'd have any effect on folk who need to read it most...


Violet...

[Gimel]

8. It's always well

to say the problem lies elsewhere, not in one's own view of the situation.