There’s no such moral category as racism (or it would have been mentioned as a sin in Torah but no great rabbi has ever written a book against racism because it does not exist, it is goyisha nonsense, “racism” is simply an affinity for those with similar genes). Preferring your own kind is natural, healthy and good. Arabs are a disaster for Israel and the country would be stronger without them. <\/p>\n
Or Kashti, Haaretz, August 23, 2014<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, personally, Arabs are something I can\u2019t look at and can\u2019t stand,\u201d a 10th-grade girl from a high school in the central part of the country says in abominable Hebrew. \u201cI am tremendously racist. I come from a racist home. If I get the chance in the army to shoot one of them, I won\u2019t think twice. I\u2019m ready to kill someone with my hands, and it\u2019s an Arab. In my education I learned that . . . their education is to be terrorists, and there is no belief in them. I live in an area of Arabs, and every day I see these Ishmaelites, who pass by the [bus] station and whistle. I wish them death.\u201d<\/p>\n The student\u2019s comments appear in a chapter devoted to ethnicity and racism among youth from a forthcoming book, Scenes from School Life (in Hebrew) by Idan Yaron and Yoram Harpaz. The book is based on anthropological observations made by Dr. Yaron, a sociologist, over the course of three years in a six-year, secular high school in the Israeli heartland\u2013\u201cthe most average school we could find,\u201d says Harpaz, a professor of education.<\/p>\n The book is nothing short of a page-turner, especially now, following the overt displays of racism and hatred of the Other that have been revealed in the country in the past month or so. Maybe \u201crevealed\u201d isn\u2019t the right word, as it suggests surprise at the intensity of the phenomenon. But Yaron\u2019s descriptions of what he saw at the school show that such hatred is a basic everyday element among youth, and a key component of their identity. Yaron portrays the hatred without rose-colored glasses or any attempt to present it as a sign of social \u201cunity.\u201d What he observed is unfiltered hatred. One conclusion that arises from the text is how little the education system is able\u2013or wants\u2013to deal with the racism problem.<\/p>\n Not all educators are indifferent or ineffective. There are, of course, teachers and others in the realm of education who adopt a different approach, who dare to try and take on the system. But they are a minority. The system\u2019s internal logic operates differently.<\/p>\n Much of the chapter on racism revolves around the Bible lessons in a ninth-grade class, whose theme was revenge. \u201cThe class starts, and the students\u2019 suggestions of examples of revenge are written on the blackboard,\u201d the teacher told Yaron. A student named Yoav \u201cinsists that revenge is an important emotion. He utilizes the material being studied to hammer home his semi-covert message: All the Arabs should be killed. The class goes into an uproar. Five students agree with Yoav and say openly: The Arabs should be killed.\u201d<\/p>\n One student relates that he heard in the synagogue on Shabbat that \u201cAravim zeh erev rav\u201d [\u201cArabs are a rabble,\u201d in a play on words], and also Amalek, and there is a commandment to kill them all,\u201d a reference to the prototypical biblical enemy of the Children of Israel. Another student says he would take revenge on anyone who murdered his family, but would not kill them all.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the other students are outraged by this [softer stance],\u201d the teacher reported. \u201cThe student then makes it clear that he has no love for Arabs and that he is not a leftist.\u201d<\/p>\n Another student, Michal, says she is shocked by what she is hearing. She believes that the desire for revenge will only foment a cycle of blood; not all Arabs are bad, she adds, and certainly they don\u2019t all deserve to die. \u201cPeople who decree the fate of others so easily are not worthy of life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Yoav himself claims to have heard Michal say: \u201cToo bad you weren\u2019t killed in a terrorist attack.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe students all start shouting,\u201d the teacher says, according to Yaron. \u201cSome are personally insulted, others are up in arms, and Michal finds herself alone and absorbing all the fire\u2013\u2018Arab lover,\u2019 \u2018leftist.\u2019 I try to calm things down. The class is too distraught to move on to the biblical story. The bell rings. I let them out and suggest that they be more tolerant of one another.\u201d<\/p>\n In the corridor during the break, the teacher notices that a crowd has gathered from all the ninth-grade classes. They have formed a human chain and are taunting Michal: \u201cFie, fie, fie, the Arabs will die.\u201d The teacher: \u201cI contemplated for five seconds whether to respond or keep going down the corridor. Finally I dispersed the gathering and insisted that Michal accompany me to the teachers\u2019 room. She was in a state of shock, reeling under the insult, with tears to come instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n Six students are suspended for two days. The teacher reports on his conversation with Michal: \u201cShe continues to be laconic. This is what always happens, she says. The opinions are racist, and her only regret is speaking out. I just want to hug her and say I\u2019m sorry I put her through this trauma. I envy her courage to say aloud things that I sometimes am incapable of saying.\u201d<\/p>\n Leftists as \u2018Israel-haters\u2019<\/p>\n In his research, Yaron spoke with Michal and Yoav, with other students in the class and with the homeroom teacher and the principal. The multiplicity of versions of the goings-on that emerge suggest a deep conflict and a lack of trust between the educators and the pupils. Each world functions separately, with the adults exercising little if any influence on the youngsters. It\u2019s hard to believe that the suspension, or the punishment inflicted on some of the students\u2013for example, to prepare a presentation for the ninth-grade classes on the subject of racism\u2013changed anyone\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n The same goes for the principal\u2019s unequivocal declaration that, \u201cThere will be no racist comments in our school.\u201d Even the essay Michal was asked to write on the subject was soon forgotten. \u201cThe intention was to launch an educational program, but in the meantime it was postponed,\u201d the homeroom teacher admits.<\/p>\n A year later, however, the incident itself was still remembered in the school. The same student who told Yaron that she won\u2019t think twice if she gets the opportunity \u201cto shoot one of them\u201d when she serves in the army, also said, \u201cAs soon as I heard about the quarrel with that leftist girl [Michal], I was ready to throw a brick at her head and kill her. In my opinion, all the leftists are Israel-haters. I personally find it very painful. Those people have no place in our country\u2013both the Arabs and the leftists.\u201d<\/p>\n Anyone who imagines this as a local, passing outburst is wrong. As was the case with the girl from the ORT network vocational school who alleged earlier this year that her teacher had expressed \u201cleft-wing views\u201d in the classroom\u2013in this case too a student related that he cursed and shouted at a teacher who \u201cjustified the Arabs.\u201d The students say that workshops to combat racism, which are run by an outside organization, leave little impression. \u201cRacism is part of our life, no matter how much people say it\u2019s bad,\u201d a student said.<\/p>\n In the concluding discussion in just one such workshop, the moderator asked the students how they thought racism might eradicated. \u201cThin out the Arabs,\u201d was the immediate reply. \u201cI want you to leave here with the knowledge that the phenomenon exists, for you to be self-critical, and then maybe you will prevent it,\u201d the moderator said. To which one student shot back, \u201cIf we\u2019re not racist, that makes us leftists.\u201d<\/p>\n The moderator, in a tone of despair: \u201cI\u2019d like it if you took at least something small from this workshop.\u201d A student responds to the challenge: \u201cThat everyone should live the way he wants, that if he thinks he\u2019s racist, let him think what he wants, and that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n As an adjunct of racism and hatred, ethnic identities\u2013Mizrahi (Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries) and Ashkenazi\u2013are also flourishing. Yoav believes that there is \u201cdiscrimination between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim. We were severely punished for the incident [with Michal], but if it were the other way around, that wouldn\u2019t have happened.\u201d Yoav later told Yaron that he found the common saying, \u201cWhat\u2019s this, an [open-air] market?\u201d offensive, because his whole family works in the local produce market.<\/p>\n \u201cOur business has existed since the state was established,\u201d he said. \u201cI am proud of my father, who is a man of the market. What are they trying to say, that my father isn\u2019t cultured? When people say something about \u2018Arabs,\u2019 it\u2019s considered a generalization, but when they say \u2018market,\u2019 that\u2019s alright. When people say \u2018market,\u2019 they are actually talking about Mizrahim. We need to change the prejudices about the market and about the Mizrahim. People say I am a racist, but it\u2019s just the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no discussion about the topic of racism in the school and there probably will not be,\u201d the principal admits. \u201cWe are not prepared for the deep, long-term process that\u2019s necessary. Even though I am constantly aware of the problem, it is far from being dealt with. It stems in the first place from the home, the community and the society, and it\u2019s hard for us to cope with it. You have to remember that another reason it\u2019s hard to deal with the problem is that it also exists among the teachers. Issues such as \u2018human dignity\u2019 or \u2018humanism\u2019 are in any case considered left-wing, and anyone who addresses them is considered tainted.\u201d<\/p>\n Threat of noise<\/p>\n Prof. Yoram Harpaz is a senior lecturer at Beit Berl Teachers College and the editor of Hed Hahinuch, a major educational journal. Recalling the recent promise of Education Minister Shay Piron that classes in the first two weeks of the coming school year will be devoted to \u201cemotional and social aspects of the summer\u2019s events,\u201d including \u201cmanifestations of racism and incitement,\u201d Harpaz observes that schools in their present format \u201care incapable of dealing with the racist personality and identity.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds: \u201cThe schools are not geared for this. They can only impart basic knowledge and skills, hold examinations on them and grade the students. In fact, they have a hard time doing even that. In classes of 40 students, with a strict curriculum and exams that have to be held, it is impossible to engage in values-based education.\u201d<\/p>\n Yaron, a senior lecturer in sociology at Ashkelon Academic College, emphasizes how important teachers and the principal (and the education system in general) feel it is to stick to the curriculum and the lessons schedule\u2013two islands of quiet amid a risk-laden reality.<\/p>\n \u201cDoing this makes it possible for the teachers not to enter a dynamic sphere, which obligates openness and is liable to open a Pandora\u2019s box, too,\u201d he notes. \u201cThe greatest threat to the teacher is that there will be noise\u2013that someone will complain, that an argument will break out, etc. That danger looms especially large in subjects that interest young people, such as sexuality, ethnicity, violence and racism. Teachers lack the tools to cope with these issues, so they are outsourced, which only emasculates educational personnel even more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s no such moral category as racism (or it would have been mentioned as a sin in Torah but no great rabbi has ever written a book against racism because it does not exist, it is goyisha nonsense, “racism” is … Continue reading