Understanding United Methodist Divestment

Apartheid and Discrimination in Israel

1. Unequal funding for Arab education

   There are separate and inferior school systems for Arabs inside Israel. In 2001, Human Rights Watch reported that one in four of Israel's 1.6 million schoolchildren is educated in a completely separate public school system. The report stated that â�œPalestinian Arab children attend schools with larger classes and fewer teachers than do those in the Jewish school system, with some children having to travel long distances to reach the nearest school. Arab schools also contrast dramatically with the larger system in their frequent lack of basic learning facilities like libraries, computers, science laboratories, and even recreation spaceâ�¦ The educational system has given a low priority to teacher training for the Arab school systemâ�¦ Palestinian Arab teachers on average have lower qualifications and receive lower salaries than non-Palestinian Arab teachers.â� http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel2/ISRAEL0901-01.htm
   http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel2/ISRAEL0901-10.htm
   http://abs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/49/8/1075
   http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel2/ISRAEL0901-06.htm
   http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel2/ISRAEL0901-06.htm#P1339_191271

2. Arab history, Israel�s borders removed from public school textbooks

   Teachers are not allowed to teach students in public schools about the Arab history in the region. Israeli textbooks do not show the â�œGreen Lineâ� or the internationally recognized border between Israel and the occupied territories. They refer to the West Bank as â�œJudea and Samaria.â� â�œTeachers for the Arab schools are approved by the state security service, the Shin Bet, and the curriculum is designed to remove references to Palestinian history and cultureâ�¦. The Shin Bet prohibits even great Arab and Palestinian literature from inclusion in the curriculumâ�
   http://www.peykarandeesh.org/noFarsi/Condition.html,
   http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/796896.html,
   http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/21480/format/html/displaystory.html

3. Unequal funding for Arab towns

   Arab towns and villages in Israel do not receive the same funding as Jewish towns, even though taxation rates are equal for Arabs and Jews. Israel has a system of progressive taxation, with wealthier individuals paying more than those with low incomes. Under such a system, poorer communities are supposed to be helped by the higher taxes paid in wealthier ones, but this is not the case when it comes to Arab neighborhoods in Israel According to a report by the US State Department, Government spending was proportionally lower in predominantly Arab areas than in Jewish areas, which adversely affected children in Arab villages and cities.â�
   http://www.jewishcurrents.org/2003-jan-muraskin.htm
   http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27929.htm

   According to Israeli journalist Ori Nir, â�œBetween 1975 and 2000, only 0.3 percent of public construction initiated and subsidized by the Israeli government was for Arabs.â� In the years 2000 â��� 2004,Arab citizens received less than 5% of the overall Regular Budget of Israel. In 2005, less than 3% of the Development Budget was allocated to the Arab communities.
   http://www.fmep.org/analysis/articles/israels_arab_minority.html,
   http://www.jfjfp.org/factsheets/arabsinisrael.htm
   http://www.mossawacenter.org/files/files/File/mossawa%20news%202005.pdf

4. Right of return for Jews only

   Palestinians are denied the right to return to homes and lands that have been taken from them in Israel, while a person with one Jewish grandparent anywhere in the world can settle on land that has been taken from Arabs inside Israel or on Palestinian land in the occupied territories in violation of international law. (The Geneva Conventions prohibit a country from moving its own population into territory it occupies: â�œThe Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.â� â��� Article 49)
   http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm,
   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2001/israel_and_the_palestinians/issues/1099279.stm
   http://www.jatonyc.org/UNresolutions.html,
   http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/index.php?lang=english,
   http://www.jewishcurrents.org/2003-jan-muraskin.htm

5. Denial of family unification for Arabs

   In 2003, the Israeli Knesset enacted legislation that denies any possibility of formal residency status for Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza who are married to Israeli citizens or residents. According to UCLA professor Saree Makdisi, â�œIsrael's newly revised nationality law â�¦ prohibits Palestinian citizens of Israel from marrying Palestinians from the occupied territories and living with their spouses in Israel. The same law does not apply to Jewish Israelis who marry Jewish settlers living in the occupied territories. Interestingly, similar legislation had been proposed in South Africa at the peak of Apartheid, only to be rejected by that country's supreme court. Israel's nationality law, however, was endorsed by Israel's High Court just this year.â� (2006) The law is unconstitutional as it discriminates on the basis of national origin.
   http://www.acri.org.il/english-acri/engine/story.asp?id=255.
   http://www.monabaker.com/pMachine/more.php?id=A2104_0_1_0_M,
   http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/racism.html
   

6. Unrecognized Arab Villages Denied Basic Services or Destroyed

   Many Palestinian villages, some predating the establishment of Israel, are unrecognized by the government, and thus receive no running water, electricity, or access roads. Some do not appear on maps. A number have been destroyed in recent years. http://www.shalomctr.org/node/382 Approximately 450 Palestinian villages were destroyed after Israel declared its independence in 1948.http://www.palestineremembered.com/. 215,000 Palestinians in 220 villages have no connection to a sewer system. http://www.peykarandeesh.org/noFarsi/Condition.html

7. Limits on Arab growth

   Since 1948, scores of new communities have been founded for Jews, but very few for Palestinians, causing Israeli Arabs severe residential overcrowding. According to Israeli Ori Nir, Washington bureau chief for The Forward, â�œNo Arab community has been created since 1948, except for towns created for Bedouins in the Negev, whereas something like 1000 towns have been created for Israeli Jews.â�
   http://www.fmep.org/analysis/articles/israels_arab_minority.html
   http://www.peykarandeesh.org/noFarsi/Condition.html In 2002, the Nature Reserve and National Park Authority presented to the Northern District Planning and Building Committee for a nature preserve and national park which would surround 5 Arab villages in northern Israel and border others. It included the provision that privately owned Arab land could be confiscated for this purpose. Restrictions would be placed on Arab farmers. The goal of this is to prevent further growth in these Arab communities.
   http://www.adalah.org/eng/intladvocacy/CESCR-land.pdf
   

8. Confiscation of Arab Land for Jewish Use

   Land can be and is confiscated from Arab villages and made available for Jewish use. Susahan, a Jewish Israeli living in an Arab village inside Israel bears witness to this phenomenon in her book The Other Side of Israel.
   http://www.peykarandeesh.org/noFarsi/Condition.html

9. Plans to â�œJudaizeâ� the Arab areas of the Galilee

   The area of the Galilee in northern Israel is where many Israeli Arabs live. Some are descended from the earliest Christians, while others are Muslim. In September, 2001, the Israeli Governmentâ�™s Northern District Committee for Planning and Building issued a plan to â�œJudaizeâ� the Galilee region, citing the presence of Arabs in that region as a problem. The plan restricts the development of industrial, commercial and development areas in Arab villages, and places industrial, commercial and tourism facilities in or near Jewish areas.
   http://www.adalah.org/eng/intladvocacy/CESCR-land.pdf

10. Limits on Land leased to Arabs

    All land in Israel must be leased. It is not privately owned. Until recently, Israeli Arabs were not permitted to lease land from the Israeli Land Administration, which controls 93% of the arable land in Israel. This land is either state-owned (80%) or owned by the Jewish National Fund (13%). Much of it was expropriated from Arabs. In an effort to head off a legal challenge, the Attorney General announced that ILA should not discriminate; however, a deal was reached under which equally valued government land would be transferred to the Jewish National Fund for each lease of its land to Arabs. This would effectively keep at least the same amount of Israeli land in the hands of the Jewish National Fund. (There is an excellent article on this at http://semitism.net/2005/02/09/OLD97, a web site started by American Jews who have visited the region and oppose the occupation.)

11. Restricted access to good jobs for Arabs

    Service in the Israeli army is a prerequisite for the best private and public sector jobs in Israel. Most non-Jews other than Druze are not allowed to serve in the army so these jobs are not often available to Israeli Arabs. Arabs are thus denied the benefits that come from these jobs and from army service. However, religious Jews who do not serve in the army face no such discrimination and receive all benefits and opportunities accrued to those in army service.
    http://www.caabu.org/pdf/Israeli-Arabs-final.pdf,
    http://www.jfjfp.org/factsheets/arabsinisrael.htm
    According to a report by the US State Department, in 2004, only 3 percent of civil service employees in Israel were from the Arab sector. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61690.htm
    

12. Discrimination in public places

    Arab citizens of Israel are often discriminated against through denial of access to recreation spaces, swimming pools, water parks and other public places frequented by its Jewish citizens.
    http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Cohen-Eliya.pdf
    Arab citizens of Israel have less â�œgreen spaceâ� available, even in mixed race towns inside Israel.
    http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467- 9663.2005.00474.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=tesg

13. Discrimination at airports and train stations

    Arabs are frequently taken aside at Israel�s airports and train stations and searched, often invasively. They are more likely to be detained or accompanied to the plane by security personnel. Most Jews normally travel without any difficulty, while Arab citizens of Israel often face aggressive questioning simply because of their ethnicity. There are exceptions. Israeli or international peace activists may also face delays or invasive searches, but Arabs face these regardless of political affiliation or activity. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/796747.html
    http://www.adalah.org/newsletter/eng/dec06/hra-report.pdf.
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/827861.html
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=851098
    http://www.peykarandeesh.org/noFarsi/Condition.html
    

14. Failure to Protect Arab Citizens During Wartime

    Almost all Arab towns and villages in the northern part of Israel lack public bomb shelters, even though they have been constructed with varying degrees of adequacy in most Jewish communities. Similarly, the civil defense authorities failed to ensure that Arab communities had air raid sirens to warn inhabitants of incoming fire, though these are present in Jewish towns. As a result many people in Arab villages died in their streets during the Lebanon war while most Jews waited out the war in shelters, though some of these lacked air conditioning or other amenities.
    http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/14/1358258,
    http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5703.shtml
    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173173947932&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2F
    During the war, civil defense officials issued emergency instructions to families about how to protect themselves -- on the radio and television, and in brochures -- only in Hebrew, though Arabic is one of Israel�s two official languages.
    http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5703.shtml
    

15. Failure to Compensate Jewish and Arab Citizens Equally for War Damages

    After the Lebanon war, Arab villages were denied compensation for damages, though many Jewish neighborhoods received funds. Interest-free loans of up to $10,000 were available, but only to Jewish businessmen or those who had served in the Israeli army, which excludes almost the entire Arab population.
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/763244.html

16. Destruction of Unrecognized Arab villages

    â�œThe Bedouin citizens residing in the unrecognized villages of the Negev have for many years suffered from severe discrimination and marginalization; during this past year, they were the victims of particularly harsh enforcement policies â��� aided by the amendment to the law that was enacted this year (the Public Land Law {Expulsion of Trespassers}) â��� including the demolition of houses and the destruction of crops. While the Bedouin are subject to great pressure to leave their place of residence without a viable alternative or adequate compensation, these same state authorities who are applying the pressure are allocating large plots of land to Jews only, and empowering the local Jewish municipal authorities with the authority to â�œguard the landâ� from its original occupants.â� Association for Civil Rights in Israel 2006 Annual Report on Human Rights http://www.acri.org.il/english-acri/engine/story.asp?id=244
    

17. Poisoning, uprooting of Bedouin Israeli citizens� crops

    h3 The government of Israel has sent planes to spread poison on Bedouin crops, poisoning livestock and causing health problems among the population. By some accounts, this practice was halted in 2006. More often now these crops are destroyed by Israeli authorities turning them under. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/where_we_work/palterr_israel/bedouin.htm
    
    http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde150332004
    http://www.adalah.org/eng/intladvocacy/CESCR-land.pdf
    http://www.icahd.org/eng/articles.asp?menu=6&submenu=2&article=336 (photo of plane poisoning crops)
    

18. No Constitutional Protection for Minorities

    Israel has no constitution to protect the rights of the 24.5% of its citizens who are non-Jewish. It openly declares itself â�œa state of the Jewish peopleâ�™â� though a quarter of all Israelis are non-Jewish. Many of their families lived here for generations before Israel was established. Many believe there is an inherent contradiction between Israelâ�™s claims to be a democratic state and its actions to keep it a Jewish state without defining equal rights for all citizens.
    http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/981336.html
    http://www.mossawacenter.org/default.php?lng=3&dp=2&fl=25&pg=9
    http://www.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/v5i2/html/arabmi.htm

19. Unequal application of the law to Jews and non-Jews

    â�œA dual system of law discriminates between Jewish Israelis and indigenous Palestinians based on a constructed status of â�œJewish nationality.â� This prejudicial application of law is apparent in all processes of the legal system, from the rights to information and fair trial to detention and prison treatment.â�
    http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/ngos/jointngo5-PartIII-1.pdf (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights)
    

20. Government leaders talk openly of expelling Arabs from Israel.

    Christians have lived in the land that became Israel for 2000 years, Muslims for more than 1300 years. Now these citizens are referred to as a demographic threat, or â�œthe Arab Problem.â� The most offensive of these is Avigdor Lieberman, recently appointed to a key cabinet post by Ehud Olmert. When the first Arab minister was appointed to the government recently, Lieberman called on Defense Minister Amir Peretz to resign. Another official said "This is assimilationâ�¦I call on the prime minister not to approve this appointment to protect the state of Israel's interest as a Jewish and Zionist state." Lieberman said that Israel's Arab minority was a "problem" which required "separation," declaring that Israel must redraw its map to "exchange" part of the Arab population, in order to create a more "homogeneous Jewish state." Almost a third of Israelâ�™s Jewish citizens favor transferring Arabs out of Israel, and 60% think they should be encouraged to leave.
    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/812447.html
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10522.htm