Report: Israeli racism against Arabs â€œat an all-time highâ€

Sunday December 09, 2007 07:24

by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

As the international Human Rights Week begins, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel has released its annual report showing anti-Arab sentiment at an all-time high in Israel.

"Israeli society is reaching new heights of racism that damages freedom of expression and privacy," said Sami Michael, the head of the organization, adding, "We are a society under supervision under a democratic regime whose institutions are being undermined and which confers a different status to residents in the center of the country and in the periphery."

The report showed a 26% rise in racist incidents against Arabs in 2007, with twice as many Jews claiming feelings of hatred against Arabs. 74% of Jewish Israeli youth believe Arabs to be “dirty”. And 78% of the adult Jewish population in Israel does not think that Arab political parties should be included in the government.

And the Association for Civil Rights is not the only organization that has made such findings. The Israel Democracy Institute found in a study earlier this year that only half the public believes that Jews and Arabs should have equal rights.

Mohammad Barakeh, an Arab legislator in the Israeli Knesset, said the findings “did not take us by surprise and neither should anyone be surprised by it. Its results are the natural consequence of a racist campaign led by political and military leaders, as well as the result of the anti-Arab racist policies implemented by consecutive governments.”