No VAT, but plenty of racism

“We are not prepared to apologize for being Zionist,” Finance Minister Yair Lapid said to justify the blatant discrimination against Arabs in the new law which grants full VAT exemption to those buying a first home. Lapid’s declaration takes us back to 1975 when Israel’s UN representative, Yitzhak Herzog, standing on the General Assembly platform, ripped up the UN resolution equating Zionism with racism. In 1991, the UN rescinded the 1975 resolution, but Israel of 2014, led by the Netanyahu-Bennett-Lapid triumvirate, is again confirming that Zionism is indeed an ideology that discriminates on racial, religious and national grounds. According to Lapid, whoever serves in the army is a better and more worthy citizen. If we were to hear such a sentence from a holder of such a high office in any other country, from Eritrea to Germany (where Jews are exempt from military service), it wouldn’t take long for Lapid and others like him to conclude what kind of regime was in power there.

The Arabs are the new Marranos

Lapid’s Zionist law cannot be separated from that other law, no less Zionist, being promoted by Prime Minister Netanyahu – the law to define Israel as the nation state of the Jews. It seems the new housing law is supplying tangible content to Netanyahu’s law, which determines that Israel’s Jewish character takes precedence over its democratic character and equality. In this context, it is immediately clear that Lapid’s argument is nothing more than a transparent excuse to promote a discriminatory policy. After all, how can one demand loyalty from a citizen who, by law, is considered “second class” because of his national-religious background? How can a young Arab, who served in the army, live in a Jewish “community town” if the prime minister prevents this by legislation aimed at avoiding a repetition of the case of the (Arab) Qa’adan family, who won a High Court petition to allow them to live in the (Jewish) town of Qazir?

Lapid’s law lumps together the Haredim (the ultra-Orthodox) and Arabs in an effort to blur the discrimination against Arab citizens. Though the Haredim are not Zionist, they are certainly Jewish, so Israel is indeed their state and they have enormous political power – unlike the Arabs who have almost no political power at all even though they are represented in the current Knesset by 10 MKs. Moreover, Lapid’s demand that the Haredim serve in the army is not an aim in itself, but an attempt to get them out of the yeshivas and into the labor market. The Finance Ministry wants them to work because they are an economic burden and barrier to future economic growth. The Arabs are in a completely different situation: the motivation in their case is not economic, because the Arabs are already active in the labor market (just the men; only some 20% of Arab women work outside the home), and they receive no state support to study the Koran. The Arabs are being compelled to transfer their loyalty from the Arab people to the Jewish nation (because the High Court ruled that there is no Israeli nation), just like the Marranos in Spain were forced to convert to Christianity to avoid expulsion.

Now we’ll hear the cries of establishment liberals like Yaron London and Razi Barkai, who like to interview Arabs and skewer them with the arrogant trick question, “Why do you refuse to do national service? It’s true you can’t serve in the army, but what’s so bad about volunteering with the aged, or in a hospital that serves the Arab population?” In interviews like this, the Arab interviewee writhes uncomfortably in his attempt to explain that citizenship rights must not be conditional on duties towards the state. We have a right to housing, education and health regardless of whether we served in the army. Uri Shani, special advisor to the “housing cabinet”, added his own take: “Housing is increasingly unobtainable for an entire generation that did military service and pays taxes. During their three years of military service, the Arabs and Haredim have an opportunity to work and earn” (from Calcalist) In other words, Arabs have three years’ advantage over Jews who risk their lives in the military. But this claim too is bogus.

What about national service?

According to research carried out by Prof. Zvi Eckstein and Prof. Momi Dahan, 40% of Arab youth between the ages of 18 and 22 do not work. “The combination of the impressive rise in the number of young Arabs who study, together with the relative stability in the number of those who do not work in the Arab population between the ages of 18 and 22, is expressed in the sharp transition of young Arabs from studies to inactivity,” Dr. Dahan says. “At the age of 17, the difference between the number of inactive Jews and inactive Arabs is just 10%. This difference doubles at the age of 18, and remains steady through ages 19 to 22” (from the Caesarea Forum 2011). Indeed, most young Arabs do not work in those years because there are few jobs open to them. And when they do manage to get work in industry or construction, they’ll receive minimum wage which will keep them on the poverty line.

Dahan’s words are a partial response to journalists like London and Barkai. Volunteering is the privilege of the satiated. The hungry cannot allow themselves to volunteer – they must earn an income, which is why the proposed national service is deceptive. The Arab citizen knows well that in Netanyahu’s Jewish state, controlled by the Zionist ideology of which Lapid is so proud, he has no chance of being an equal citizen, even if he serves in the army or volunteers for national service. The government discriminates against Arabs in local government budgets, so Arabs receive municipal services some 60% below the level of those Jews receive; the education budget is 35% less for Arabs than Jews; only 8% of workers in government ministries are Arabs; and since the state was established some 700 new towns have been set up for Jews and not a single new town for Arabs. All this justifies Meirav Arlosoroff’s words, “There is no need to give preference to the Jewish majority which serves in the army, because this preference is already granted” (TheMarker, 15 May 2014).

Second class citizen

Lapid is mixing things up. Discrimination against Arabs is structured within the state’s Jewish character, and for 66 years the state has made every effort to create a gap between Arabs and Jews. Today, after generations of Arabs have suffered discrimination, Lapid has decided to give grades for good citizenship. If the government were to change direction, create jobs and industrial zones in Arab towns, increase investment in education and local authorities, and raise the standard of living of its Arab citizens, no doubt national service would be beneficial. But granting equal rights to Arabs is ideologically forbidden, clashing as this would with the state’s Jewish character. Therefore the laws being legislated now, like the nation-state law, housing law and loyalty law, give formal expression to a warped reality in which Arabs are second class citizens. Lapid and his party, Yesh Atid, are partners in an extreme rightwing government which has just brought talks with the Palestinians to a halt, extends the settlements, and deepens the occupation of the West Bank. His participation in this government is not accidental, just as Lapid’s “Zoabis” was not a slip of the tongue. The son, Yair, follows in the footsteps of his racist father, Tommy, and is not ashamed to say so. Racism has become an exalted value.

Translated by Yonatan Preminger