Promise to End Discrimination Broken

Oops, I spoke to soon.

In September (Some Good News Items) I noted as good news that "fact" that he Jewish Agency has finally decided to stop discriminating against Israeli Arabs. "Its about time!" I wrote. Turns out I spoke to soon.

At the time the Jewish Agency, with the Israeli Government's blessing, had promised that a third of the funds raised to aid Israel's north after this summers war would be allocated to Arab communities, a third to Jewish communities and a third to national infrastructures in the region. (Israeli Arabs make up approximately 50% of the citizens in the affected areas.) Now, according to an article in Haaretz, it turns out that only 10% of those funds are being spent in the Arab sector. And so, the decades old discriminations against Israeli Arabs continues. The hopeful new policy announced in September turns out to be a sham.

Perhaps Septembers announcements where just for show. A sop to liberal Diaspora Jews and to those elements of Western opinion that views a de-jure ethnically based state as necessarily discriminatory. (And based on this example, its hard to argue with that view.)

At the same time there is a hew and cry among Israeli Jews, that Israeli Arabs are more and more demanding that Israel stop being a "Jewish State" and become a "State for all her citizens." With discriminatory policies like these - just another example of many - its no wonder.