Embracing racism, turning the clock back on democracy

Racism exists, in varying degrees, in every society – democratic or not. Democratic governments, however, are supposed to abhor racism; and democratic societies are supposed to fight against it. That has been the official and quasi-official position of pretty much every democratic state I can think of, as illustrated by historical events and legislation since the end of the Second World War -  particularly in social-democratic states. In America, desegregation of schools began with the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education. Canada, my native country, is one of a long list of democratic states that have enacted laws to prohibit hate speech – including racism.

In Israel, however, we seem to be going backward. Instead of fighting racism, we are embracing it and reveling in it. Whereas once the official position was shock and abhorrence at overtly racist speech, today we hear statements that would have made pro-segregation Alabama Governor George Wallace proud.

Israel has become a state that sanctions the destruction of  a mosque built by Bedouin citizens of the state, while protecting a synagogue built illegally by settlers on confiscated Palestinian land in the West Bank.

Israel has become a state that gives legal sanction to the construction of gated complexes for Jews only, right in the heart of Ajami, a Palestinian-Arab neighbourhood in Jaffa.

Israel has become a state with sitting members of Knesset who gleefully predict white flight from Tel Aviv to the West Bank settlements, as African refugees settle in the south of the city.

Israel has become a state headed by a government that remains silent when Arab citizens are beaten and shot at by a raging mob – simply because they are Arabs (this type of event is something I heard about as a child from my great-grandmother – but in her stories, the rampaging mob was composed of Cossacks and the victims were Jews).

This past week, a group of Israeli artists and 72 members of Knesset signed a petition to protest the atmosphere of growing intolerance and racism in Israel. From Ynet’s report:

In the letter, also signed by six Israel Prize recipients, the signatories call out against “acts of explicit racial incitement by public personas, including the Chief Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu, who have prohibited selling and renting apartments to non-Jews, and the current spiritual leader of the Shas Ovadia Yosef, who also declared that selling apartments to non-Jews is prohibited.”

The petition was followed by a supporting demonstration in Tel Aviv, which took place yesterday.

Are Israelis waking up, or are the petition and demonstration mere plaintive shouts inside the echo chamber?