Blatant Racism in Israel

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=206147&cont
rassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y


Monday, September 9, 2002

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m


Wombs in the service of the state

By Gideon Levy


Israel has decided to tackle its "demographic problem" head-on. Last
week, after a five-year hiatus, Shlomo Benizri, the minister of labor
and social affairs, convened the Israel Council for Demography. There
were two items on the agenda, reports said - the need to encourage
families to have more children, and the problem of foreign workers in
Israel.

On the face of it, this is just another committee. But the
reconvening of this particular body, and the total indifference with
which the event was greeted, is cause for serious concern. In the
present public mood in which outbursts of racism are considered
politically correct, Benizri's move - as a representative of the
increasingly nationalist ultra-Orthodox Shas party - is no surprise.
Nevertheless, one can only express astonishment at the people who
have agreed to sit on a committee that evokes appalling historical
connotations.

First, there is the makeup of the committee - its 37 members include
public figures, lawyers, scientists and physicians. No fewer than
three leading gynecologists are on the panel - Prof. Shlomo Mashiach,
the president of the association of obstetricians and gynecologists,
Prof. Yosef Shenkar, Dr. Hanna Katan, and an immunologist, a
microbiologist and a physician who specializes in medical ethics.

There are also representatives of the women's organization Na'amat,
and the Women's Lobby. For what purpose did gynecologists and women's
representatives convene? To encourage a higher birthrate in Israel?
Not at all. They convened to encourage the Jewish women of Israel -
and only them - to increase their child bearing, a project which, if
we judge from the activity of the previous council, will also attempt
to stop abortions. Does this remind you of anything?

And how will the gynecologists contribute to this endeavor? Will they
make do with proposing methods to increase the Jewish fertility rate
and prevent abortions, or will they also suggest techniques to
encourage abortions and reduce the birthrate among Arab women? And
what about non-Jewish women from the former Soviet Union?

As blunt as these questions may sound, they will in fact be at the
center of the committee's discussions, even if they are swaddled in
various bizarre disguises. After all, getting into the bedrooms of
the country's citizens, and the use of scientists, physicians and
women's organizations to mobilize the wombs of women for national
purposes, are elements of control reserved for totalitarian regimes.
True, David Ben-Gurion also campaigned for a higher birth rate, but
he didn't do it by means of gynecologists and a war on abortions.

However, even if the committee should decide not to enter into
questions of birth rate, we should recognize that the "demographic
problem," if it is in fact a problem, will not be solved by a
committee or by any other methods dictated by government. There is no
reason to suspect Benizri of desiring the end of the occupation -
which is the only democratic solution to preserve Israel's Jewish
character that will work - since he and his party have recently
expressed vigorous support for the settlements.

Therefore, the only solution remaining for anyone who is so upset by
the demographic problem is population transfers. First we expel the
foreign workers, then we move the Arabs.

In the early 1970s, the Gafni Commission, an interministerial body
with task of "examining the rate of development in Jerusalem," was
established. Its recommendations, which were submitted in August
1973, stated: "The ratio of Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem must be
preserved" - the ratio at the time was 73.5 percent Jews and 26.5
percent Arabs. Since then, Israeli governments have invested great
efforts to implement that recommendation - innumerable new
neighborhoods have been built for Jews only, while the lives of the
city's Palestinian residents are turned into a living hell. They are
stripped of residency rights, their homes are demolished, they are
denied construction permits, they receive meager services and master
plans for their part of the city are not approved. The aim of all
this is to push them out of the city and maintain the sacred balance.
The result? Twenty-nine years after the Gafni Commission turned in
its report, the Palestinian minority in Jerusalem has increased to
32.5 percent. The conclusion? Either a population transfer or the end
of the occupation in Jerusalem. No commission is needed to conclude
that.

Israel is a binational, multicultural state, and it is high time we
recognized that fact. The only way to cope with it is to become a
society that is more just. The only legitimate way to preserve the
Jewish majority, for those to whom that goal is of overriding
importance, is to end the occupation and perhaps also step up
immigration. Defining the Arab citizens of Israel as a "demographic
problem" raises harsh memories and sends them a highly offensive
message.

What are they supposed to feel when the government, which is also
their government, convenes a committee that has the aim of reducing
their share of the population, as though they were a cancer whose
growth must be stopped.

Since the rate of natural increase among the country's Arabs is
higher than among the Jews, what's needed is not a commission of
gynecologists but a different policy, which will turn the Arabs into
citizens capable of identifying with their country.

The Arabs in Israel will be neither a "problem" nor a "demographic
demon" if the attitude toward them is fair and egalitarian. This is a
country in which the streets are plastered with posters calling for a
population transfer and no one bothers to remove them or to indict
those who put them up. (It is not difficult therefore to guess what
would happen if posters were put up calling for the expulsion of the
Jews). A commission on demography is just another bad omen.