Anti-Racism Caucus Established in the Knesset
Anti-Racism Caucus Established in the Knesset
On Tuesday, July 14th, a special event was held in the Knesset to mark the establishment of the "Anti-Racism Caucus", which is headed by MK Aida Touma Sliman (Joint List, Head of the Knesset's Gender Equality Committee) and MK Michal Biran (Meretz).
The event was attended by numerous MKs, civil society activists as well as by the EU Ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, and included unveiling of two reports: the first is the annual research conducted by the Coalition Against Racism in Israel. The report shows a significant rise of 47% in the number of racist incidents against Arab citizens of Israel within the last year when compared to previous year's report: Over the past year there have been 237 racist incidents, 160 of them during the war, the report states. It cites 192 anti-Arab incidents, compared with 113 in 2013. Facebook and the Internet in general have been a locus for racism, but the report discusses both physical and verbal incidents, including racism in Knesset bills and comments by elected officials.
The summer Gaza war and winter election campaign increased the incidence of racism in Israel, including anti-Arab acts, stated the Coalition Against Racism – 67% of all incidents documented in the report occurred during these two periods.
According to the Coalition: "The most significant rise – over 90% - was registered in the sphere of racism and discrimination in inter-personal relationships between citizens. A more moderate but still significant increase of 40% was registered in the sphere of racism and incitement by public officials and opinion leaders. However, in the sphere of racist legislation we registered a decrease – from 16 bills of racist character [last year] to 9 bills [this year]".
The second report was presented by the Religious Action Center of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism. The report called "The writing on the WALL", unveils for the first time comprehensive research on racist incitement against Arab population in Israel on the web. According to this report conducted between July-October 2014, 30% of racist incitement called for violence against Arabs or expressed support for such violence and around 40% called to boycott businesses owned by or employing Arabs.
“We are living in this country and are aware of the increase in racist violent incidents, but the report uses statistics to confirm the deep sense and danger,” said MK Aida Touma-Suliman.
Read more:
Coalition Against Racism Annual report
Haaretz article (in Hebrew)