Haaretz had another good but disturbing story that bothered me enough to take to the keyboard. It seems the Chief Rabbinate has prepared a new bill that will close the Law of Return to those who convert to Judaism. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar wants to cut down on a problem he believes exists: people converting in order to gain Israeli citizenship.

There may indeed be cases of conversion for citizenship (not unlike marriage for citizenship in America ), but this isn’t about cutting down on Jewish conversions, it’s about keeping undesirables out of Israel . This may appear to be something small, but an avalanche also starts with a single snowflake. Israel has a problem with racism, and it is growing, judging by the number of stories that keep popping up on the subject in its various forms.

America also has a racism problem and at times it’s hard to say how much progress or regression we are truly making in this category, but we at least admit we have a problem. Israel seems to be content to sweep most of their secret under the rug and pretend it doesn’t exist in their utopia, which is denial.

The discrimination and in some extreme cases, the hate, is quite obvious and borders on being fanatical and frightening. Take for instance the issue with the gay pride parade in Jerusalem . Most people who honestly follow the Bible, Torah, and the Koran all believe in the same thing: homosexuality is wrong. It’s not sexist to state what is within the pages of a book. In Christianity, it is often taught that one should love the sinner but hate the sin and help the person overcome it. “Sin” in this case includes all sin, not just homosexual behavior.

"The Rabbinical Court has held a special session and discussed placing a pulsa danura on those who have a hand in organizing the march," Rabbi Shmuel Papenheim, editor of the Eida Haredit’s weekly magazine "Ha’eidah" told Army Radio on Tuesday.

A pulsa danura is also known as a death curse. Its roots come from the Babylonian Talmud and is tied to modern day Kabbala; depending on who you ask, it’s black magic, voodoo, or Jewish mysticism and some believe it to be quite effective. The believers routinely point to the July 2005 pull out from occupied territories, at which time a pulsa danura was placed on Ariel Sharon . It is well-known he has been on life support for nearly a year after suffering initially from a stroke.

In the beginning of November, a synagogue had its windows smashed out and was sprayed with grafitti: " If we can’t march in Jerusalem you won’t walk in Tel Aviv ". There were violent clashes in Jerusalem in response to this destruction. Anger and violence always begets more of the same, but in this case, worshippers have to pay the price. In the end, the gay pride parade turned into a gay pride stadium rally that generally took place without incident.

Speaking of the pulsa danura, it seems some are using it against their Palestinian neighbors, which I don’t think is allowed under the rules of the Torah. However, the racism is quite well known between Jews and Palestinians.

"There are two kinds of racism, there’s the bad Hitleristic racism and then there’s the fine, chosen, Godly racism," Shurin explained before his performance.

"God chose, he chose the Jews and that’s his right. That’s healthy racism. The unhealthy racism is all the attacks against the Jews just for being the chosen people."

There is no such thing as “healthy racism”, despite the claim – this is nothing more than an oxymoron as the two cannot co-exist. There’s also been a flier campaign in Pardes Katz to encourage people not to sell or rent housing to Arabs.

"Our homes have become non-Jewish. In Pardes Katz, there are hostile Arabs, not of our people, who have brought to our streets intermarriage, destruction and fear," read the flier.

"We must not agree to an atmosphere so dangerous to our souls and bodies! We cannot allow them to destroy the education of the youth in our neighborhood!"

Such overt racism does nothing to preserve a culture; on the contrary, it destroys it. No one with a reasonable mindset would want to live in such an area or patronize the business community in it. Many have tried in the past to isolate themselves, and history teaches thriving communities that do, have died out and gone the way of dust. It is nothing more than a slow death.

Such hate should have no place in the modern day world, but unfortunately seems to find minds in which to thrive. It is not the only case of discrimination that I found regarding the state of Israel .

"We, who came from Ethiopia, live in a trap. You try as hard as you can to distance yourself from your parents’ culture so that you can become Israeli, but you always end up going back to the place you started from. There’s something about Israelis that makes them unwilling to accept Ethiopians. It is very painful."

It is common knowledge Ethiopians are not accepted in Jewish society, but the sad question is why? A common religion should bring all together, but that isn’t the case. Some argue this separation is due to factors such as education, wealth, and not skin color, but whatever the truth is, Jewish is Jewish; it shouldn’t matter where you were born.

Just this week the Ethiopian problem made another appearance in Jewish society with the Sidg holiday :

"Once a year we come to Jerusalem and pray towards the Temple Mount for a renewed building of the Holy Temple. This year there is an awakening because of the struggle against discrimination lead by the Chief Rabbinate and its treatment of Ethiopian Jews."

It is sad when a holiday that gives thanks to Israel is marred with such feelings of not being wanted and not being able to find your place in polite society.

According to a story printed in Scoop , they break down the ethic make up of Israel as follows:

“Today Mizrahim constitute around 50% of the Israeli population. Palestinian Arabs make up another 20%, so the total non-European population is about 70%. This rises to 90% with the inclusion of Palestinians from the occupied territories.”

This article also brings up an interesting point: could the discrimination be coming from European Jews who simply forgot their original Middle Eastern genes? It’s hard at times to relate to someone who doesn’t look or sound like you, but as much as that is a barrier, it can also be a blessing if one wants it to be.

I kept reading message boards where Jews were calling others “goyim” or “goya”. I didn’t understood the term and wasn’t sure I could find out the translation, so I googled it up. In the end I found the definition on dictionary.com and discovered I fit into the category. I was none too pleased to discover it is a derogatory term that has replaced a slightly more polite “gentile ” (“pagan” and “heathen” are translations I don’t associate my Christian faith with). Of course Christians have been targets of Jewish discrimination, too.

There was at least two well publicized incidents of Jewish attacks on Christians in Israel that I read about in 2006: January and June . There are conflicting accounts of proselytizing, but that is no reason to become violent. There are laws against such activities, and if they were offended or felt these Christians had stepped over a legal line, it would’ve been proper to call the police and report the group. If they were in fact innocent, then the police would’ve let the groups go and given them a warning to leave the area.

Some argue Israel , by its very nature, has many racist policies that are the root cause of the problems modern Israel currently faces. It was hard to see the initial reaction after the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon was called because it mean for Israeli Arabs, they were not going to be compensated at the same rate as Israeli Jews . That decision was nothing more than another collective form of punishment.

Those who are in charge of governing the state, do little better than the bean counters who came up with the lower compensation scheme. “ If we kill civilians, we accept blame, but when you kill civilians, you take credit; it’s a cultural thing. ” What an awful thing for a member of the Knesset to say! I could challenge this statement based upon multiple fiascos, but that’s not my focus. It just goes to show the mindset of the political elite is more comfortable with insults than diplomacy.

Finally, there’s always a waiting slap for the Germans, who could never in their wildest dreams forget what they’ve done, and if by some bizarre chance they did for just a moment, the Israelis would certainly remind them with inflammatory statements:

"It’s 1938 and Iran is Germany. And Iran is racing to arm itself with atomic bombs," Netanyahu told delegates to the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly, repeating the line several times, like a chorus, during his address. "Believe him and stop him," the opposition leader said of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "This is what we must do. Everything else pales before this."

What has this discrimination achieved? Other than entrenched negative opinions, it has given birth to an exodus from Israel . Many Christian groups do not know the money they are paying to fly Jews home is being wasted as many turn around and go back to their native lands because of the discrimination.

"I thought Israel would make all my dreams come true, but it turns out that the life I always wanted is back home," says Kovitch in his heavy-accented Hebrew. The accent, he adds, is part of the problem. "I will never be a full Israeli, people will always think I am ‘Russian’ and discriminate against me."

The idea of the regathering seems to be failing, which also means prophecy is not being fulfilled. The Christians technically know there has to be a regathering into the land before certain events take place, and by discrimination pushing immigrant Jews out, they are creating a prophetic problem most Christians have no concept exists.

I can remember my dad having a little nameplate style plaque with a simple sentence on it. “I don’t discriminate. I hate everyone.” I am thankful there are open minded and kind Jews amongst the Israeli population who are trying to make a change in societal thinking, uphill battle or not. These people have a hard job, but it’s one worth fighting and doing right the first time; there are no second chances in fighting discrimination.

quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here

socyberty.com articles can be located here

relijournal.com articles are here

picable.com photographic images are here here