[lbo-talk] Dealing with the 'new anti-semitism'

[joanna]

Yes, thank you. I do understand  what you are saying and I agree. But I 
hardly take the description below to be an argument for Israel as a 
multicultural society. There is that potential, yes. But the state does 
everything in its power to suppress it, just like in the U.S.

Joanna

Joel Schalit wrote:


> Actually Joanna, there is a point to be made here, irrespective of 
> what your opinions are about Angelus' motivation for his positions 
> are, which I think Doug summed up well. Its one that tends to get 
> passed over - particularly in terms of discussions of the racism of 
> Israeli state policies towards Arabs in the territories, and in 
> regards to Arab citizens of Israel proper. It flies in the face of 
> official Israel discourses about the monocultural identity of Israel 
> too, which in its very formulation, is in denial of the cultural 
> makeup of Israeli society.
>
> Israel has over a million Arab citizens, who are functionally, and to 
> a lesser extent substantively, discriminated against by Israeli law. 
> Israel's own Jewish population can hardly be described as monocultural 
> too. Unlike the Diaspora Jewish community in the US - from which 
> American progressives largely derive their ideas about Israeli Jewish 
> cultural identity, and conversely that of Israel - the Israeli Jewish 
> population is radically multicultural - Ethiopian, Iranian, Moroccan, 
> Iraqi, Algerian, eastern European, American, Western European etc.
>
> What Zionist discourses about desiring a monocultural Jewish society 
> in Israel conceal is that there is no such thing as a Jewish 
> monoculture, in Israel, or anywhere else for that matter. What does 
> prevail in Israel is a largely Ashkenazi (read central European, for 
> our purposes) official state culture, which conceals (or buries) a 
> radically multicultural society amongst the country's Jewish 
> population, in addition to its Arab (Christian, Muslim, Druze) and 
> Circassian populations, let alone all of the non-Jewish immigrant 
> workers from Asia and Eastern Europe who've settled in the country.
>
> Best, Joel
>
> On Sep 3, 2006, at 10:31 AM, joanna wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>  Angelus Novus wrote:
>>
>>> Is Israel mono-cultural and mono-religious?  As I
>>> understand, there are substantial Arab and Druze
>>> minorities.
>>
>>
>>
>>  I can draw only one conclusion from the thread of your arguments: 
>> you are a zionist and not a very honest one at that.
>>
>>  Joanna
>>
>>>
>>
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