03-12-2010, 06:11 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: the Eiffel Tower
Posts: 5,040
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For Israel's Arabs It Is Not Apartheid
Quote:
For Israel's Arabs It Is Not Apartheid
By Khaled Abu Toameh
An Arab member of the Knesset who goes all the way to the US and Canada to tell university students and professors that Israel is an apartheid state is not only a hypocrite and a liar, but is also causing huge damage to the interests of his own Arab voters and constituents.
If Israel were an apartheid state, what is this Arab doing in the Knesset? Doesn't apartheid mean that someone like this Knesset member would not, in the first place, even be permitted to run in an election?
Fortunately, Arab citizens can go to the same beaches, restaurants and shopping malls as Jews in this "apartheid" state. Moreover, they can run in any election and even have a minister in the government [Ghaleb Majadlah] for the first time.
In this "apartheid" state, the Arab community has a free media that many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip envy. Ironically, an Arab newspaper in Nazareth or Haifa that is licensed by Israel enjoys more freedom than the media controlled by Hamas and Fatah, as well as most corrupt Arab dictatorships.
Ironically, this Knesset member who is complaining about apartheid enjoys more privileges than most Jews and Arabs in Israel. As a parliamentarian, he is entitled to do many things that an ordinary citizen cannot do, thanks largely to the immunity he enjoys as an elected official.
His parliamentary immunity allows him to enter areas that ordinary Jewish and Arab citizens do not have access to. This Knesset member, for example, travels to the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories which, for many years, have been off-limits to ordinary Israeli citizens.
This Knesset member also can sometimes even break the law by visiting "hostile" countries like Syria and Lebanon and holding public meetings with Hamas and Hizbullah leaders.
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True, the Arab community inside Israel has long been facing real problems that need to be dealt with urgently. The main problem was and remains discrimination by the establishment, especially when it comes to employment, infrastructure and allocation of public funds and lands.
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This passage is not quite the truth. They do not receive as much public funding because they do not pay their taxes. Moreover, it is not the Israeli courts who collect their taxes. It is the Arab-Israeli courts in their towns that collect them, and impose a higher tax on them. Pure corruption.
As for the rest of it, regarding "discrimination", take what the author says wit a giant grain of salt. He has his own agenda.
entire article: Doc's Talk: For Israel's Arabs It Is Not Apartheid
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Instead of creating intelligent policy, Obama seeks to solve problems by giving speeches and then holding events in celebration of his words.
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