Racism on the Radio: Ethnic Transfer Relay Races and Subsidized Discriminatation on the Farm

Driving yesterday, I turned on the radio. I don’t drive much, and don’t listen to the radio much. Maybe if I did, I would have been numbed to what I heard. But I don’t, and so I was shaken and frightened by the radio’s slew of casual, matter-of-fact racism, accompanied by jolly music.

The racism wasn’t part of an interview with an Israeli politician. That I would have brushed off: Nu, what’s new? Many Israeli officials are racists.

It wasn’t part of news “reporting”: That too, while jarring, is par for the course. Israeli mainstream news reporting is generally slanted and xenophobic. Like mainstream news reporting everywhere, with an added bit of unique Israeli flair thanks to the fact that Israel’s most popular radio stations are, um, run by the military. (Gal gal gal galots of likelihood that an occupying army will not insert its propaganda into its radio shows…)

It was part of the advertisements.

Advertisement #1: “מרוץ הלפיד!,” A Relay Race!”

My ears perk. I’m a runner. It could be fun to sign up for a race. Maybe even bring some friends along.

“בבקעת הירדן.” In the Jordan Valley.

Ha. Oh well.

What's wrong with the Jordan Valley? — What’s wrong with the Jordan Valley?

’’להנצחת זכרו ופועלו של רכבעם זאבי” For the Eternalization of the Memory and Actions of Rechavam Ze’evi.

Oh. Wow. Come to a relay race! In the middle of Occupied Territory which Israel clearly has no intent of ever de-occupying as “Peace Talks” crumble onwards! In order to eternalize the memory and -here’s the real kicker- THE ACTIONS of an Israeli politician who advocated forced Population Transfer! Hey: at least they’re consistent.

Italicized Snark aside for a second: Ze’evi was assassinated in 2001 by a member of the PFLP. I am an advocate of nonviolence in almost all scenarios, and thus see Ze’evi’s assassination as wrong. That said, as far as those killed as a result of this conflict, Ze’evi is not the first- in fact, he may be one of the very last- whose memory and actions deserve to be eternalized. Here the “Jordan Valley Regional Council” is just taking their cues from the Knesset, which passed a law in 2005 mandating Ze’evi’s memorialization. As Haaretz wrote in an editorial last month, “[Ze’evi] headed an extreme right-wing political movement, Moledet, which wasn’t far from Meir Kahane’s Kach party. The shocking idea most closely identified with Ze’evi’s worldview is his proposal to “transfer” Palestinians out of the territories Israel occupied in 1967… The mistake inherent in the law to memorialize Ze’evi must be corrected by repealing it. Israel should be ashamed of the fact that a man with such views once served in its government.” In 2005, the same year the law was passed, a Ynet poll found that Israelis saw Ze’evi as the “7th greatest Israeli of all time.”

Advertisement #2: מה עושה חקלאי פיקח? What does a clever farmer do?

I dunno. Sell his crops outside of the Ethnic Transfer Relay Race?

שם את כל התירס בחממות כדי שייצא לו פופקורן? תשובה לא נכונה Puts his corn in a greenhouse so that he will have popcorn? Wrong answer.

Ha. Sort of cute, actually.

חקלאי פיקח מעסיק עובדים ישראלים ומקבל תמריצים כספיים! A clever farmer employs Israeli workers and gets financial benefits!

Less cute.

OK. The US also has the discourse of “American jobs for Americans.” It’s usually creepy there, also. I’m sure it exists all over Europe as well. But racism in other countries doesn’t make me feel better about racism in my own, [especially what with the whole Occu-We don’t use that word!-Poodle]. Farm work in Israel is often done by foreign workers from Asia (it was done by Palestinians, for the most part, until the 1990s when Israel began closing its “border”). The government brings these workers over, their kids are born and raised in Israel, and then, periodically, there are moves to deport them, including the children, en masse, lest Israel’s Jewish majority be threatened by this non-Jews who want to make their lives here. Now the radio tells me, with cute jokes and all, that the government will pay farmers extra not to hire non-Israelis. I wonder (genuinely) if a farmer in, say, Umm al-Fahm can get financial benefits for employing Palestinian citizens of Israel? That’d be a cool campaign. Anyone know any Palestinian-citizen-of-Israel Farmer Activists?

What does a clever farmer do? Discriminates and gets financial benefits for doing so!

I am sitting in the car and feeling afraid. This radio racism is so casual. And the advertisements are not over. The next one begins:

משהו טוב קורה בישראל! Something good is happening in Israel!

Oh dear lord I don’t even know if I want to know…

מיחזור! Recycling!

This one remained basically at that. Thank God. No “recycle and get a free house in Ariel!” But it also incorporates into my troubled polemic… A good thing is happening in Israel: Recycling. I know that there are a few other good things going on, too, on official levels. But some days, like yesterday, I get the feeling that most things coming out of official Israel are more along the lines of road races to commemorate advocates of ethnic cleansing and government subsidies for those who pledge to discriminate.

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1

Isaac Rubinson on November 22, 2013 at 09:37

it was done by Palestinians, for the most part, until the 1990s when Israel began closing its “border”).

Could this have something to do perhaps with the terrorism that began after the Oslo Accords were signed? Perhaps you don’t remember Palestinians coming into Israel daily by the hundreds of thousands, until the 1990s that is, when Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups sent terrorists in among the workers? You mention nothing of this in your accounting of the 1990s, so I have to assume it is due to either ignorance, or memory loss.

Just a reminder: Hamas and other Islamist terror groups were trying to stop the Oslo peace process with violence directed mostly at Israeli civilians. These are not all the examples (there are many more) and all this happened BEFORE the 2nd intifada.

Dec 31, 1993 – Chaim Weizman and David Bizi were found after being murdered by terrorists in a Ramle apartment. ID cards of two Gaza residents were found in the apartment, together with a leaflet of the Popular Front ‘Red Eagle’ group, claiming responsibility for the murder.
Jan 12, 1994 – Moshe Becker of Rishon Le-Zion was stabbed to death by three Palestinian employees while working in his orchard. The Popular Front claimed responsibility for the murder.
Jan 14, 1994 – Grigory Ivanov was stabbed to death by a terrorist in the industrial zone at the Erez junction, near the Gaza Strip. HAMAS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Feb 09, 1994 – Ilan Sudri, a taxi driver, was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists while returning home from work. The Islamic Jihad Shekaki group sent a message to the news agencies claiming responsibility for the murder.
Feb 10, 1994 – Naftali Sahar, a citrus grower, was murdered by blows to his head, inflicted by terrorists. His body was found in his orchard near Kibbutz Na’an.
Feb 25, 1994 – Sam Eisenstadt, age 80, was assaulted by a terrorist with an axe in the center of Kfar Saba. He died of his wounds shortly afterwards.
Mar 23, 1994 – Victor Lashchiver, employed as a guard at the Income Tax offices in East Jerusalem, was shot and killed by terrorists near Damascus Gate on his way to work. The Popular Front claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mar 29, 1994 – Yitzhak Rothenberg, age 70, of Petah Tikva, was attacked on a construction site by two residents of Khan Yunis by axe blows to the head. He died several days later of his wounds. The murderers, apprehended the next day, stated that they carried out the attack in order to clear themselves of suspected collaboration with the Israeli authorities.
Mar 31, 1994 – Yosef Zandani, age 28, of Bnei Ayish, was found killed in his apartment near Gedera. Near the body was a leaflet of the DFLP “Red Star”, explaining that the murder was carried out in revenge for the shooting of one of its members by an Israeli citizen. The Israeli acted in self-defense.
Apr 06, 1994 – Eight people were killed in a Hamas terrorist car-bomb attack on a bus in the center of Afula. This was the first documented car bombing in Israel.
Apr 07, 1994 – Yishai Gadassi, age 32, of Kvutzat Yavne, was shot and killed at a hitchhiking post at the Ashdod junction by a member of HAMAS. The terrorist was killed by bystanders at the scene.
Apr 13, 1994 – Five people, Rahamim Mazgauker, age 34, of Hadera; David Moyal, age 26 of Ramat Gan , an Egged mechanic; Daga Perda, age 44, immigrated from Ethiopia in 1991; Bilha Butin, age 49, of Hadera; Sgt. Ari Perlmutter, age 19, of Ir Ovot in the Arava were all killed when a Hamas terrorist detonated himself in a homicide bombing attack on a bus in the central bus station of Hadera.
Apr 21, 1994 – Officer cadet Shahar Simani , age 20, of Ashkelon, was found stabbed to death near the roadside at the village of Beit Hanina , north of Jerusalem . He had been kidnapped while hitchhiking in the south.
July 23, 1994 – Two Palestinian terrorists stabbed an American woman in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Aug 26, 1994 – Shlomo Kapach, age 22, and Gil Revah, age 21, both elevator technicians from Bat Yam, were killed at a Ramle building site. Their killers are known but protected by the Palestinian Authority, who refuse extradition to Israel.
Sept 1994 – Natasha Ivanov, age 32, of Ashdod was strangled to death. In March 2001, a Palestinian arrested for being in Israel illegally, admitted to carrying out the murder in order to gain acceptance into a terrorist organization.
Oct 09, 1994 -Ma’ayan Levy, age 19, an off-duty soldier from Zayit and Samir Mugrabi, age 35, a civilian from Kafr Aka were killed in a terrorist attack in the Nahalat Shiva section of downtown Jerusalem . HAMAS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Oct 14, 1994 – Cpl. Nahshon Wachsman, age 20 was first abducted by HAMAS, and then killed by his captors.
Oct 19, 1994 – When a terrorist detonated himself on the No. 5 bus on Dizengoff Street in Tel-Aviv, 21 Israelis and one Dutch national were killed.
Nov 30, 1994 – Sgt. Liat Gabai, age 19, of Afula, was axed to death in the center of Afula.
Jan 22, 1995 – Two consecutive terrorist bombs exploded at the Beit Lid junction near Netanya, killing 18 soldiers and one civilian. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
Apr 13, 1995 – A Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up at the Hadera Central Bus Station, killing 5 and injuring 30.
Jul 24, 1995 – Six civilians were killed when a terrorist detonated himself in an attack on a bus in Ramat Gan.
Aug 21, 1995 – Three Israelis and one American were killed when a terrorist detonated himself in an attack on a Jerusalem bus.
Feb 25, 1996 – When a Hamas terrorist detonated himself in an attack on a bus No. 18 near the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem, 26 were killed (17 civilians and 9 soldiers).
Feb 25, 1996 – Sgt. Hofit Ayyash, age 20, of Ashdod, was killed in an explosion when a Hamas terrorist detonated himself in an attack at a hitchhiking post outside Ashkelon.
Feb 26, 1996 – Flora Yehiel, age 28, of Kiryat Ata, was killed when a car was driven into a bus stop at the French Hill junction in Jerusalem.
Mar 03, 1996 – In a homicide bombing of bus No. 18 on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, 19 were killed (16 civilians and 3 soldiers).
Mar 04, 1996 – Outside Dizengoff Center in Tel-Aviv, a homicide bomber detonated a 20-kilogram nail bomb, killing 13 (12 civilians and one soldier).
July 26, 1996 – Uri Munk, age 53, of Moshav Mevo Betar and Rachel Munk, age 24, of Moshav Mevo Betar, (Munk’s daughter-in-law) were killed in a drive-by shooting attack near Beit Shemesh. Ze’ev Munk, age 30, of Moshav Mevo Betar, (Rachel’s husband) was critically wounded and died in the hospital the following week.
Mar 21, 1997 – Three people were killed when a homicide bomber detonated a bomb on the terrace of a Tel Aviv cafe. 48 people were wounded.
July 20, 1997 – An Arab attacked two Israelis with an iron rod in Rishon L’Tzion. One of the Israelis later died of his wounds.
Jul 30, 1997 – 16 people were killed and 178 wounded in two consecutive homicide bombings in the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem.
Sep 04, 1997 – Five people were killed and 181 wounded in three homicide bombings on the Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall in Jerusalem.
Nov 19, 1997 – Gabriel Hirschberg, age 26, was killed by automatic gunfire in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Feb 11, 1998 – David Ktorza, age 40, of Jerusalem, was stabbed to death near his home.
May 06, 1998 – Haim Kerman, age 28, a student at the Atert Cohanim Yeshiva, was stabbed to death in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Aug 27, 1998 – Twelve people were wounded by a bomb detonated in front of the Tel Aviv Great Synagogue.
Sept 24, 1998 – One Israeli was wounded by bomb explosion at a public bus stop near the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
2

Moriel Rothman on November 14, 2013 at 14:30

sadder. wow.
3

Josh on November 14, 2013 at 12:37

Truth.

If it makes you happy (or sadder): England has an ad campaign targeting migrants, with billboards screaming GO HOME, and text messages being sent to their phones…
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/08/go-home-climate-of-fear-rights-groups