During the Yom Kippur holyday, I had a somewhat unsettling exchange of e-mails with a woman from Holland, who claimed that the name of my blog was too close to the name of her blog and that I should change mine. After I explained to her, that the domain names are approved by international organizations and that disputes regarding them must be resolved through an existing dispute resolution mechanism, it quickly became clear that what irked her was more the content of my blog than its name, which is indeed somewhat similar to hers.
The blog she maintains is fiercely pro-Israel and that is fine and maybe Israel needs all the support it can get. But when I pointed out to her that as a strong Israel supporter, it is also very important not to lose sight of problems that exist in Israel, and sweeping them under the rug of propaganda is not in the best interest of Israel or its citizens, she completely lost it. I will not go into details of what she had to say about me or about what I write, but it all came down to one thing: I should leave Israel, I have nothing to look for here, I will be better off in Holland, and Israel will be better off without me. This clear conclusion she came to of course because of one small fact in the “about me” section of my blog: I am not Jewish. I could have given her a dozen names of “proper” Jews, that live here in Israel, that are critical about Israel to a level that I never even got close to, but apparently those have a right to be critical because they are “one of us”.
The rejection of “goyim” by this not too intelligent woman from Holland is somewhat unexpected (also because from what I understand from her blog, she is one of them), but not new. In the 40 years that I have lived here it happened several times and at moments that you would least expect it. Even today, sitting in my study, in the house I built more than thirty years ago, I get a stomachache when I recall the way we got to be in this small moshav in Central Israel at all. After the local council approved us and we moved forward in closing the arrangements for the lease of the land (from the Jewish Agency), it became clear that there are regulations for leasing land that would prevent me from doing so. You need to be Jewish! Not a citizen of Israel, not a taxpaying resident, you need to be Jewish! After we sued the Jewish Agency, they gave in very quickly and even agreed to our demands for financial compensation. Apparently it was clear to them that it would be better to have one goy on sacred Jewish soil, than to have their racist policies spread over the newspapers.
In another, much earlier event that maybe should have lit up red alarm lights, the Weizmann Institute of Science played a major role. I finished my doctorate there in 1981, and a very good friend of mine, who also happened to be the secretary of the President of the Institute, told me enthusiastically that I would receive the yearly prize for the best doctoral thesis in Chemistry, and that she had just given her boss the certificate to sign. Officially I was not informed by anybody and during the ceremony it was stated that this year the prize would not be awarded, without reasons being given. Some enquiry afterwards quickly brought to light that the sponsor of the prize is an influential donor to the Institute, who refused to have the prize being awarded to a non-Jew.
I guess though, that even if I could relay numerous additional events of xenophobia and racism that I personally experienced, I should consider myself lucky. The racism against Sudanese and Eritrean refugees is today being encouraged by the State and practiced by the State. Israeli police will treat Ethiopian Jews almost as if they were also unwanted refugees, and being an Arab in Israel means you are being born into racism. Anyone not being a “standard” Jew is suspect and should be treated that way. I look more or less like a standard Jew (albeit an Ashkenazi one, but that is a different story).
Xenophobia and racism is fast becoming a major problem in Israel mostly because it is being tolerated and in some cases encouraged by the State and by political figures who recognize personal advantages in the (perceived) fear of strangers and “others”. Researchers, more qualified than I am, look at the persecution of Jews for the past 2,000 years as a source of the (supposedly) inborn xenophobia but I can hardly believe it has become a pseudo genetic issue. Others look at it as a phenomenon of “Jewish Superiority”, (which definitely appears to being encouraged by the Israeli education system). But while I am certain such a somewhat far-fetched explanation may play a role at some level, it appears it is merely a simple case of “We are the boss here”. And when such feelings are being strengthened and encouraged by our leaders, it is bound to become worse.
But that it would affect a strange woman in Alkmaar in Holland as well? Enough to take it out on a blog that she came across by accident? And that her rant would touch me sufficiently strong that I felt the need to look for relief in words?
I guess we are all just humans. And it is a good time to remember that we are ALL just humans……………..
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