|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
JERUSALEM -- The mayor of a southern Israeli city sparked a
national uproar Thursday by barring Israeli Arab construction workers
from jobs in local preschools, citing security concerns after a rash of
attacks by Palestinian assailants elsewhere in the country.
The
proposal was condemned as racist by Israeli leaders, but it reflected
the tense mood in the country and deepened longstanding divisions
between the nation's Jewish majority and Arab minority. An opinion poll
showed solid public support for the measure.
Israel
has been on edge following a wave of Palestinian attacks that has
killed 11 people over the past month, including five this week in a
bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue. Most of the attacks have
occurred in Jerusalem - whose population is roughly one-third
Palestinian - with deadly stabbings in Tel Aviv and the West Bank as
well.
Responding to the unrest, the mayor of
Ashkelon, Itamar Shimoni, announced that Israeli Arab laborers
renovating bomb shelters in local kindergartens would be barred from
their jobs. He also ordered security stepped up at construction sites
where Arab laborers are employed.
He said the
order was a response to the synagogue attack Tuesday, in which
Palestinian assailants killed four rabbis and a Druse Arab policeman
with meat cleavers and gunfire.
"Anyone who
thinks this is illegal can take me to court," Shimoni said. "At this
time, I prefer to be taken to court and not, God forbid, to attend the
funeral of one of the children from kindergartens."
The
workers in Ashkelon are Arab citizens of Israel, in contrast to the
Palestinian attackers from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and it
appeared unlikely the order would last for long. Justice Minister Tzipi
Livni called it illegal and ordered the attorney general to take action.
"We
must not generalize about an entire public due to a small and violent
minority," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "The vast majority of
Israel's Arab citizens are law abiding and whoever breaks the law - we
will take determined and vigorous action against him."
Israeli
leaders proudly boast the country is the only democracy in the Middle
East, and say they place great importance on protecting the civil rights
of the Arab minority, a diverse group that includes Muslims,
Christians, Bedouins and Druse.
But the situation for Israel's Arab citizens is complicated - particularly in the current atmosphere.
Arabs,
who make up about 20 percent of Israel's population of 8 million, often
complain of being treated as second-class citizens, and suffer from a
high poverty rate, job and housing discrimination and poor public
services. Many openly identify with the Palestinians, drawing
accusations that they are disloyal.
In recent
years, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has called on Israeli Arabs to
take a loyalty oath and proposed redrawing Israel's borders under any
future peace deal to place large numbers of them on the Palestinian
side.
Tziona Koenig-Yair, the equal employment
commissioner in Israel's Economy Ministry, said she has seen a jump in
claims recently by Arab workers who say they have lost their jobs on
racial grounds. She said she planned to fight the mayor of Ashkelon in
court if his order is not reversed.
"We have
to realize that citizens of this country who want to live here cannot be
held accountable for things that are being done by extremists," she
said.
In a letter to Shimoni and Interior
Minister Gilad Erdan, the Arab civil rights group Adalah called the
decision "arbitrary and racist" and urged it be reversed. "There is no
doubt that this decision is aimed at the Arab workers because of who
they are and their national affiliation," the letter said. Erdan called
the order "unacceptable."
In Ashkelon, dozens
of people demonstrated late Thursday in support of Shimoni. Channel 10
TV said an opinion poll found that 58 percent of the Jewish public
supported the mayor, while only 32 percent opposed him. It said the poll
was conducted by the Panels agency, but gave no details on how many
people had been questioned or a margin of error.
Liraz
Makhlouf, a mother of two young children in Ashkelon, said she
supported the mayor's decision "100 percent." She insisted there was no
racism behind the move, and that in the current climate of violence,
such measures were needed to protect children.
"It's
clear that there are good (Arabs) and bad ones, and it's clear there
are more good ones than bad ones. But no one can point at them and say
who is good and who is bad," she told Channel 10.
The
recent unrest has been focused around Jerusalem's most sensitive holy
site - the hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to
Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
Muslim leaders
fear that Israel is encroaching on the site - a charge that Netanyahu
denies - and are furious over Israeli security measures that have
restricted access for Muslim worshippers.
Most of the violence has been concentrated in Jerusalem, but the unrest has begun to spread beyond the city.
Earlier
this month, an Israeli policeman shot and killed an Arab rioter in
northern Israel, apparently as he was walking away from the officer,
sparking several days of violent demonstrations. Netanyahu later
suggested that protesters who denounce Israel should move to the
Palestinian territories.
On Sunday, Netanyahu
plans to present a "nationality" law to his Cabinet that he said is
meant to solidify Israel's status as the homeland of the Jewish people.
Netanyahu
said the law "will enshrine the full equality" of every citizen. But
the legislation has raised fears among Arabs that it will undermine
their status.
Jafar Farah, the director of the
Mossawa Center, an Arab advocacy group, said the new law would "deepen
the discrimination we face, and the Ashkelon mayor's order is part of
the incitement against the Arab community led by the prime minister
himself."
He urged government leaders "to work
toward calming tensions across the country, instead of fanning the
flames of fear and mistrust."
In Jerusalem,
Israel pressed forward with a pledge to step up the demolitions of homes
belonging to families of Palestinian attackers involved in recent
violence.
Israeli police handed demolition
notices to the families of four attackers in east Jerusalem, including
the two assailants who carried out the synagogue attack. On Wednesday,
Israel demolished the east Jerusalem home of an attacker who rammed his
car into a crowded train station last month, killing a baby girl and a
22-year-old woman.
Meanwhile, Israeli
authorities said investigators had concluded a hit-and-run accident that
injured three Israeli soldiers in the West Bank on Nov. 5 was an
intentional attack. The driver, identified as a 23-year-old Hamas
operative, turned himself into police, claiming he lost control of his
car. But the Shin Bet security agency said he admitted during
questioning to targeting the soldiers.
Late
Thursday, the Shin Bet announced it had foiled a Hamas plot to
assassinate Lieberman last summer. It said four Palestinian men had
staked out the movements of the foreign minister, who lives in a West
Bank settlement, and planned to obtain a rocket-propelled grenade to
attack his official vehicle. The announcement did not say when the men
were arrested.
Do you need to increase your credit score?
ReplyDeleteDo you intend to upgrade your school grade?
Do you want to hack your cheating spouse Email, whatsapp, Facebook, instagram or any social network?
Do you need any information concerning any database.
Do you need to retrieve deleted files?
Do you need to clear your criminal records or DMV?
Do you want to remove any site or link from any blog?
you should contact this hacker, he is reliable and good at the hack jobs..
contact : cybergoldenhacker at gmail dot com