ISRAELI APARTHEID
A Jewish Apartheid?
By Lev Gunin
From "Courier" newspaper (Tel-Aviv) No. 118
February 1994, page 3.
Translation from Russian original
Pre-word from Editor
"Israel has various climate zones, landscapes, different types of faces - as a
multi-colored puzzle. It looks like the whole Planet Earth, all human races and
nationalities have their representatives in Israel..."
Beautiful, isn't it? But the real life is far from "creamy-chocolate" tourist
brochures, and the relations between various Jewish communities within Israel
could be much better. (It can't be hidden - dispute of wild attempts of Israel's
propagandists-ideologists to present this situation as if there were no
conflicts between different Jewish ethnic groups at all). ***
The author of this article was born and grew up in Belarus. But he interpreted
his Jewish nationality as belonging to a group of East nations, and this
developed and stimulated his interest to the East and to people of East,
their traditions, and cultural and historic values.
Many years before finding myself in Israel I already knew that citizens
from all over the world are getting together here, and discovered with
horror (from letters of those who came to Israel in 1970-s) that origins
from Arabic countries were under pressure of mockery and leveling in
kibbutzs, that the present "old immigrants" ("vatikim") - by then fresh,
"green" immigrants - met inhumanity and hatred: as we now.
When (in the end of 1980-s) various Jewish cultural associations started
to appear as mushrooms after rain, (some of them published periodic newspapers
and magazines) I hoped that here is a good chance now for a greater
integration between Jewish communities. Living in the last great empire
of the XX century, Baltic, Belorusian, Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian,
Bukharian, and other Jewish communities, were separated from each other
geographically and culturally. Trying to do something for the noble goal
of their unity I wrote a number of essays about history and cultural
traditions of Belorusian, Georgian and Uzbeks's Jews, and mailed them
to a number of Jewish newspapers and magazines. I thought that my material
was interesting and wealthy.
Sometimes I was astonished by my own "discoveries"; so, when I've got
a material about Jews from Bukhara (I obtained it easily in the former USSR)
I realized what an Important role played Bukharits In the development of East
medicine, art and literature. I also read about their picturesque customs and
synagogical traditions. You can Imagine my surprise when I was stopped by
questions like "why do you care?"
Then I decided to mail my essays to Israel. Naturally, it was clear that
they should be adjusted by an information about how these communities
are integrated in Israel - their historical homeland. To my surprise I
found that there was absolutely no information about that. Did it
mean that these, so different ethnic groups, really could loose all
their cultural traditions and distinctions during just tenth of years?
I asked Israelis, who very often visited Minsk, about that - but they
met this question by a wave of misunderstanding and hostility. I described
my thoughts about the history of different Jewish communities and about
their life in Israel in a wide essay, which I called "Unknown Israel".
Parts (extracts) of this work were published In Russia and USA. When this
work was published, I was accused of racism, fascism, anti-Semitism and so on.
How many accusations were made in my address during the last one and a half
months! Thanks God, they did not went further, and did no other personal
accusations lake "sexual maniac" or something like this...
Each quitter was extracted from my work and Interpreted in such a manner that
it was impossible to calculate where is an end of the quitting and a beginning
of a commentary. Well, they studied the Soviet-style mass propaganda and
agitating in Soviet Universities just excellent. They replaced an eventual
discussion (about my conception of the future of Israel) by false statement
about my attitude towards Jews from Bukhara. In reality no estimations of any
ethnic group could be found in my work. I only analyzed what place occupied each
ethnic group in Israeli's hierarchy. If - in my opinion (may be I'm correct?!) -
Jews from Bukhara have an extremely low status in Israel; all pretensions have
to be aimed not in my address. I have no power to give any social status to any
group!
My conception suggests that the modem Israel is a state of special
"apartheid within one nation". Some East European origins (Jews and not Jews
from Romania, Hungary, Chechia, Slovakia, Yugoslavia (I mean Serbia) and partly
from Poland) and their descendants posses maximum of possible political power
and economic influence, what guaranteed safety and material security for them.
Others, like out comers from Arabic countries, are the second-class citizens. But
those from Ethiopia, Russia /former Slavic republics, and former Muslim republics
(USSR, Jews from Bukhara are among them) - they are the most oppressed and most
exploited part of society.
If my statement that Israel is a country where severe ethnical
pressure / inequality as a basic norm is wrong - then why to keep silence
about it? Then why direct lie about my work is used? Such methods are not the
best arguments in a dispute.
The next moment - there is a monstrous pressure by the state to all communities
for leveling them, for forcing them to turn down all their customs and traditions:
their culture. I turned to people to tell them: you must save your different
cultures, but this is not against an appeal for a better Integration. Leveling
human beings bad regimes producing ethnically - culturally lumped nation (several
generations of Israelis were lumped that way), they have nothing what to give
nor for their contemporaries, nor for the descendants.
When the essence is killed and cultural traditions are suppressed (leaving just
external differences like the skin color) they are always replaced by hatred and
hostility...
We have several years only to save the nation. It's survival - in cosmopolitan
approach, in opening ethnic schools: "Russians", "Ethiopian", "Bukharian", and so
on, in honest and equal representation of all ethnic groups in country's
parliament.
But even before that other urgent measures are needed. 1. Prohibition of the
present propaganda of superiority of Israelis ("sabras") over all others
2. Ban of using the housing problem as a tool in consolidation of political and
economical power in 3-4 ethnic groups' hands for the cost of others
3. Abolition of the well-known "Kvijut" (job "permanency"), which gives it's
possessors incredible social and economic privileges over the others supported
by money and rights, taken from the "weak" ethnic groups
4. Abolition of the well-known "Kablanut", in other words, slavery for "weak"
ethnic groups
The awful truth is that in reality people from these ethnic groups
are forced to execute a compulsory, forced and - taking into consideration the
size of their salaries - slavish labor.
This is the real source of already existing and permanently
increasing tension between various ethnic groups as well as between private
people. But any Israeli ("sabra") normally denies the fact of such tensions.
Today, new immigrants from former USSR have found themselves among the most
exploited ethnic groups.
There is a wave of suicides among them; the death rate among them
is several times higher then among Israelis. There is an incredible wave of
traumatism and accidents on unsafe working places among "Russians''... From 5
to 10 thousands Russian speaking children are not attending schools because of
their families' poverty or because of mockeries over them by teachers or
classmates -Israelis. Such are results of the country's monstrous political
system.
The duration of the working day, salaries, wage rates - everything has special
standards for "Russians". It is difficult to figure out how many "Russians"
have suspended their participation in medical insurance programs - because they
can't pay for them. How many of them live under permanent threat of eviction from
apartments they rented or bought. This situation of disaster is so obvious
that there is not a big discovery: if such a big minority group is in
trouble - this will increase tensions more and more, and lead to a more
tense criminal situation, and later - to a social and economic disaster.
This is why we have to destroy a mechanism that again and again turns an awful
flywheel of the "ethnic apartheid" within one nation. If it is not too late...
This translation is a corrected version of Mrs. Eleonora Broder's translation,
made in Montreal, in 1995. Corrections were made by Mr. Sergei Poslavsky, fluent
in Russian and English languages, in Toronto. Mrs. E. Broder's translation might
be submitted on request.
Copyright љ Lev Gunin & Co
Montreal 1998