Jim Crow Israel, part 2

Back in June, I mentioned a couple instances in Israel in which public services were recently denied to Palestinian Israelis solely based on the fact that they were Arab.  Since that time, more examples have come to light.

First, since March, only Jews have been allowed on flights from Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel, to Tel Aviv.  Once such a policy was exposed, the government said it would change it, yet it still hasn't.

Despite promises made by the Transportation Ministry to install temporary X-ray scanning machines in the Kiryat Shmona airport a month ago, Israeli Arabs and Arab tourists are still barred from flights between Tel Aviv and the northern city.

Meanwhile, last week an Israeli bus company was ordered by the Israeli army to stop picking up Palestinians workers in the West Bank on their way to jobs in Israel.  Yet the bus line is of course free to continue transporting Jewish colonists to and from their homes in the occupied West Bank. 

Those examples are certainly heinous and make life that much more difficult for Palestinians, yet the recent rocket attacks by Hezbollah on Israel have shown that Israel's Jim Crow policies can mean life or death.  Some rockets have hit Palestinian Israeli towns, which lack the same protective measures that Jewish Israeli towns have.

[Nazareth] residents voiced anger that the Israeli authorities had made no preparations for such an attack on Arab communities.

"We watch Israeli TV and can see that in Jewish towns like Haifa and Nahariya they have air raid sirens to warn them and public shelters in which they can hide," said Ziad Awaisi, a 31-year-old physiotherapist.

"What do we have? Nothing. There is no place for us to hide. Israel doesn’t think our deaths are important." The mayor of Nazareth, Ramez Jeraisi, has been asking for the funds to build public shelters in the city for some time. There are a number of shelters in the neighbouring Jewish city of Upper Nazareth.

Of course Hezbollah should not be targeting civilians regardless of their religion or ethnicity, but the fact that Israel chooses to protect its Jewish citizens and not its non-Jewish ones provides insight that goes far beyond this current conflict.  And in the end if we are to discuss who should not be targeting civilians, it is Israel who most deserves that lecture, as it daily destroys the lives of dozens and dozens of civilians in Lebanon and Palestine in inexcusable acts of war crimes and state terrorism.

UPDATE: This was just brought to my attention - Israel's parliament is discussing a plan to make it harder for non-Jews to gain "legal" status in the country.

Comments

[Jacky]

Home Front Commander Yitzhak Jerry Gershon told government ministers: "The city of Nazareth asked to be disconnected from the system of air raid sirens because it interfered with them on remembrance days for IDF martyrs and on Holocaust Day."

[scott]

Do you have a link or anything to back up this statement? I find it highly suspect given that the mayor of Nazareth and others are so upset about not having a siren. And how does that explain the lack of shelters?