Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: E gli altri?

Moshe Zimmerman: What about other racists?
Uproar over neo-Nazi gang masks other types of Israeli racism
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3447926,00.html
Finally, Israeli society discovered its seed of destruction - a group
of thugs who used neo-Nazi symbols as a framework for its acts of
violence. Populist politicians won't miss this opportunity and we
already see proposals for changing the law or resorting to draconian
measures - expulsion from the country, revocation of citizenship, and
amendment of the Law of Return.
While the phenomenon that was discovered (which is not new at all)
certainly deserves to be condemned and addressed by the legal system,
the exaggerated responses should arouse the most concern, or at least
make us wonder. Everyone agrees that using Nazi symbols or using
violence is a wrong act that must be fought with the legal means
available to us. The gang that was exposed will be punished by law,
so
that imitation attempts will be prevented as much as is possible.
However, is this disturbed group really where the seed of destruction
lies? Aren't the excited responses to this group a sort of alibi, for
both the politicians and public as a whole, used to prevent us from
seeing reality for what it is?
Israeli society is replete with racism and violence regardless of
this
group. In Israel, neo-Nazi groups of the type uncovered now have no
chance of becoming a "trend," not only because in Israel and among
Jews
there is particular revulsion in the face of Nazi associations, but
also because Israeli racism already has another broad and popular
target - the Arab population, whether in the occupied territories or
in
Israel proper.
In order to fight this racism, the politicians who are crying out
over
the neo-Nazi gang should be changing their positions and examining
their own actions.
The people who are speaking out now don't notice, for example, that
they're using methods of thinking that bring up historical
associations
that are no less aggravating. One Knesset member, for example,
demanded
that we carefully examine the grandparents of new immigrants and
disqualify those who only have one Jewish grandparent - haven't we
already been victims of the classification to "half Jew," "quarter
Jew," etc.?
Moreover, do we accept the assumption that only those whose origins
are
100 percent Jewish cannot be afflicted by a Nazi and racist
perversion?
Will the criterion for revoking citizenship over neo-Nazi activity,
as
another Knesset member demanded, be only the usage of symbols, as was
the case with the above-mentioned group of thugs, or based on other
things as well? And then, who will determine what justifies the
revocation of citizenship and what doesn't?
We should also be outraged by abuse of Palestinians
And after we hear righteous voices calling to protect foreign workers
from the violence of the above gang, won't we be thinking about the
violence we use against those same foreign workers all the time, and
with official backing? Does the manner in which immigration
authorities
handle foreign workers constitute violence worthy of criticism? Isn't
the process of pursuit and expulsion of these foreign workers a case
of
violence against foreigners? Isn't the attitude that foreign
dark-skinned soccer players encounter from fans a blatant expression
of
racism that should be condemned?
On a more fundamental level, isn't the "working assumption" of
Israeli
society, which talks about a "Jewish state," about a preference to
Jews
to the point of undermining the rights of non-Jews? The manner in
which
settlers hurt residents of the territories is a display of violence
that is no less dangerous than that of the gang that captivated
public
and political attention.
The manner in which we abuse the population of the occupied
territories, even with no relation to our fears of terrorism, should
outrage us no less that the tales of the neo-Nazi gang.
Many Israelis associate Nazism and neo-Nazism only with anti-
Semitism.
In this case the group is not motivated by anti-Semitism (beating
strictly Orthodox or disabled people is one and the same for them,)
but
rather, racism. We must not accept the "defense" argument emerging at
this time: "The group is not anti-Semitic." We're talking about
violent
racism, and Jews can certainly be racist and violent.
Neo-Nazi groups in Europe and the US that persecute "others" -
homosexuals, minorities, Jews and the disabled - by combining a
racist
tradition with a sense of social inferiority in order to create an
outlet and justification for their aggression. The same is true for
the
Israeli neo-Nazi gang. Therefore, we should look into another
question:
What led a group of new immigrants from Eastern Europe to use this
type
of violence backed by this type of ideology? Isn't the attitude of
Israeli society to ethnic Jewish origins, that is, Jewish
ethnocentricity and racism, an indirect or direct reason for the
scary
phenomenon we're discussing now?
Any way we look at it, the real story is the story of Israeli
society's
helplessness in the fight against racism and in favor of tolerance,
liberalism, and democracy. If we cry out now, we should be going back
to the basics: The education system and socialization on the one
hand,
and the conduct of the legislator and executive on the other hand,
based on a broad system-wide vision.
Moshe Zimmerman is the head of the German History Dept. at the Hebrew
University.

society's helplessness in the fight against racism
Le solite *STRONZATE* senza nulla a sostegno.
-Stefano

 Le solite *STRONZATE* senza nulla a sostegno.
lo sappiamo che non sai scrivere altro, è inutile che lo ripeti 100
volte al giorno...o soffri di autismo?

lo sappiamo che non sai scrivere altro
Che *NON SANNO* scrivere altro :)
-Stefano