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Israel is anything but a monochrome Jewish state
The media should open its eyes to the complex, vibrant, imperfect, multi-denominational mosaic of life in the Middle East's only democratic nation
Criticism of Israel, as a sovereign, democratic nation, is of course legitimate. In current climate when Britain’s Greens propagate Jew-hate by declaring Zionism is Racism it is totally unacceptable.
In my local town centre, in upmarket Richmond-upon-Thames, one must navigate a pro-Palestinian stand claiming genocide on a Shabbat or Yom Tov stroll. The ignorance and appropriation of the language of the Shoah on our quiet, supposedly civilised streets provokes profound alienation and nausea.
There is an unchallenged view in much of the media, that Israel is a monochrome Jewish state. This is a total misconception. Despite the claims often made for the Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948 when there 700,000 Palestinians allegedly were driven from their homes, Israel is home to more than two million Palestinians voting citizens.
The Palestinian minority itself has a complex make-up of Bedouin in the South, Druze in the north and is multi-denominational. Yet, the degree of social cohesion in many of the mixed cities, notably Haifa, is remarkable. Due to the work of the Abraham Initiatives (TAI), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which seeks equality for Israeli Arabs the tensions which followed the October 7 in 2023, and Netanyahu’s Gaza campaign have been remarkably subdued. TAI has worked tirelessly with Arab social activists, communities and elected and local representative to calm friction.
Among Palestinian Israelis there are deep pockets of poverty notably in the ‘unauthorised’ Bedouin towns in the South. There is also a dangerously high level of domestic crime in some Arab villages and towns another issue TAI is addressing. Similarly, the organisation is involved in ending educational disparities between Israeli-Jewish and Israeli Arab schools and seeks to bridge the gap with programmes encouraging much more interaction between students and faculties.
In health care Palestinian Israelis are vital providing almost half the colleagues involved in hospitals and pharmacies. Some 25% of the nation’s physicians are of Arab origin. The Irish football team seems blissfully unaware that at least 20% of Israel’s national squad, treated so disrespectfully, are drawn from Muslin, Arab-Christian and Druze minorities.
The very notion of Israel as a right-wing nation populated by European and American extremist colonialists is rubbish. Jews from Arab lands, ranging from Iraq to Morocco and Egypt, expelled from Israel’s neighbouring home countries form, a substantial minority.
They together with communities from war torn Yemen, Ethiopia and Uganda mean a rich mosaic population. In the coming elections a leading power broker is likely to be Mansour Abbas, who already has served in government, and is the main mover behind the United Arab List.
None of this is to suggest that broadcasters, social media influencers, Labour party activists and the mixed-up Greens leader Zack Polanski should be silenced when addressing bad behaviours by West Bank settlers. But if they insist on bringing Middle East politics to Britain – in search of the Islamic vote – one could at least expect a more informed knowledge base rather than grotesque anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
Broadcasters need to be much more forensic in their questioning. During the recent party conference season Palestinian advocates are frequently go unchallenged and broadcast questioners let the word genocide pass, without interruption, when it comes to Gaza. Events in Gaza, where Israel’s military machine has sought root out and destroy an entrenched enemy responsible for a horrible massacre in Israel, is nothing like the organised industrial killing of the Nazis in the second world war.
Nor does it compare in scale to the killing and suffering in Sudan or the ongoing killing and dispersal of the minority largely Muslim Rohingya population from Myanmar. The latter has resulted in the death of 100,000 adults and children and the creation of 3.7 million refugees.
Yet the word genocide is lightly glossed over when it is uttered by advocates for the Palestinian cause. It is deeply disturbing especially when the broadcaster concerned, the BBC, is wholly funded by ordinary citizens through the licence fee. The free ride given to ill-informed users of such language is an abomination. It infects the public discourse and has seeps into the sinews of Israel’s most voluble haters. That can never be right.
- Alex Brummer is City Editor of the Daily Mail and a former chairman of The Abraham Initiatives (UK)
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