From the equality of rights springs identity of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your neighbor's rights without striking a dangerous blow at your own. Carl Schurz

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

A week of racism in Israel

 We stood to the side. Demonstrators, mistaking us for supporters, handed us leaflets containing shameless propaganda. I read them aloud to my colleague, even though I was ashamed to repeat the words I held in my hands. "The Arabs are taking control of Bat Yam, buying and renting apartments from Jews, taking and ruining girls from Bat Yam! Fifteen-thousand Jewish girls have been taken to Arab villages! Guard our city - we want a Jewish Bat Yam," the leaflets said.

Along with the leaflets, there was singing, shouting and speeches, which I translated for my colleague. Several times, I stopped mid-sentence. I could not believe what I had heard. Did that man really say that Jewish women who date Arab men should be sentenced to death? Did that rabbi really say that the Jewish people have "holy blood"?

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