Occupation Has Consequences

In the wake of the Hamas led offensive in the occupied regions of southern Palestine the world has once again decided that “Israel has a right to defend itself”. We pretend that Israeli civilians being attacked is an “unprecedented terror attack” because we want to have some excuse to ignore decades of Israeli aggression and violent oppression of Palestinians in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The insistence that nothing prior to this attack can be considered when talking about Israel is a calculated attempt to hide the full context of what led to this escalation, how Hamas even came to be, and why Israel is now seeing the consequences of its actions on a scale Netanyahu always wanted.

Christians who support Israel are the same sorts of people who love to quote verses about “you reap what you sow” when people they hate are suffering any given anguish. Many are using those verse right now as Palestinian families are exterminated by Israeli airstrikes. Yet for decades the Israeli state has understood that it would eventually have to deal with “blowback”, consequences, for its crimes against the Palestinians. That is why Tel Aviv has kept an eye on Iran and Lebanon. Because the Jewish ethno-state knows that its violent oppression of Palestinians would make it enemies among its neighbors. Leaders like Netanyahu however didn’t just know that consequences were coming, they have engineered among Palestinians the harvest they wanted all along. For Netanyahu the existence of groups like Hamas has always been politically profitable. Having a boogeyman to scapegoat whenever necessary is what all authoritarians want. And now that we know that Egypt warned Tel Aviv well in advance of this weekend, it is clear that Netanyahu saw the consequences coming. It was an excuse for the total war he wanted to launch. War being historically how Netanyahu has solidified his hold on the government in Israel. How Netanyahu has gained support among Israelis who believed their government all along when they were told they would never suffer the consequences for the occupation and apartheid policies. While Netanyahu appears to have allowed the consequences to come home to the Israelis, it cannot be ignored that the Israelis themselves went along with their government for decades under the promise that they would be shielded from accountability. What Israel saw when the ghetto walls of Gaza were breached was an uprising of people who have been denied their rights, their humanity and their homeland. As violent as this has been, this is the harvest that Israel made possible. The harvest sprouted from the seeds Israel alone spread across Palestine.

As a Jew, I am reminded of the conversations I was able to have with survivors of the Holocaust in Croatia. Partisans who used extreme violence to fight back against the Nazis and Ustaša alike. People who had participated in the reprisals that took place before Tito ended the resulting communal violence in Yugoslavia. Of the three of them, none seemed truly remorseful for taking revenge. At no point did I blame them for that hardness either. Having listened to what the Ustaša did to them, I was in no place to judge what they wanted to do in return. The Croatian fascists had planted a harvest that they believed they would never have to reap. That eventually the Jews, the Serbs, the Roma would be gone. That under the guidance of their Nazi counterparts, Croatia was going to be Catholic only. But each family member they murdered in the forests and mountains, each family member they sent to camps was a seed their fascist sins planted in the hearts of those who remained. Once sprouted, somebody had to pay. An exchange was to be made. And this part of the Holocaust, the part that came after the fascists were defeated, isn’t isolated to the stories I listened to. In Germany the survivors also put forth revenge actions. Be it poisoning SS inmates under American guard or planning to poison German water supplies, the price of the crimes committed against them carried over even after the war had ended. Many would illegally immigrate to Palestine. And many of those would use the crimes European states committed against them as reason enough to force Palestinians to pay the price.

Only in the comfort of privileged distance do we find it convenient to say that killing citizens of an occupying force, which Israel is, is morally unjustified. It has not been our families murdered by Israeli occupation. It has not been our brothers abducted by the Israeli occupation forces, and it has not been our sisters who have endured sexual assault and victimization by Israeli soldiers and settlers. We get to watch Gaza burn while pretending that each new death in this Israeli carpet-bombing campaign isn’t a new seed being planted for a future harvest of bloody revenge. By ignoring the over 80 years of violence perpetrated against the Palestinians we get to “stand with Israel” in feigned outrage over mislabeled “terrorism”. Only when we have decided to ignore Netanyahu’s fascism, Israel’s original sins and the longstanding blockade of Gaza can we get atop our soapbox and shout about how violence is never the answer.

Until Palestinian suffering is recognized, until Israel faces true consequences for its crimes, the Western world will have to get comfortable playing the role of hypocrites. That is unless we somehow decide to start telling our governments to withdraw support for Israel and end financial backing of its murderous campaign against Palestinians. Let Israel face the horror of what occupation looks like. Force Netanyahu to come outright with his desired crimes against humanity so he and the rest of Israel’s leadership can be tried like the Nazis at Nuremberg. But given the Democrats’ current response, appeasement of the genocidal government in Israel, the status quo, seems more likely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Bullet In The Chamber

(A Bridge Too Far series)
(PLUCK series)

(Every Word Has The Power To Wound)

No matter how well I articulate my position on Palestine and Israel I will always be seen as a "Zionist". Of this much I'm certain.

Religion is a vile and despicable construct that has served no other purpose but to divide those G-d created so much alike. Poison from the lips of imams and scholars has taken it's toll upon the moderates' minds. Venom that drips like honey, so as to hide it's bitter ends, flows from those who claim to preach peace in the name of a G-d that has apparently turned His gaze away. Their decorated temples and houses of thieves bring in the sheep to the slaughter. Yet a devout mass makes no attempt to question their masters as they raise the axe above their bowed heads.

Yes, I will always be considered a vile and ill-mannered "Zionist". But not because I hold organized religion in such contempt. No, I am "the enemy" because of my lack of apologies for supposed sins I have never once committed.

For it is not Islam that I hate. It is not Judaism which I hold such abhorrent views of. It is the perverse twisting, the manipulating, of faith in the name of politicized religion. This placement of an imagined devotion to a religion rather than the G-d it allegedly is supposed to serve. This is the source of my discontent.

On the battlefield for the survival of Israel or the "reconquista" of Palestine the main line of battle forms along religion. It is across this barrier that the two sides use the propaganda they have been fed as they release volley after volley of hate filled rhetoric. Yet both claim to be after peace? Both sides claim to be hanging their hats beneath the banners of religions that preach love and yet this is where they decide to mount their attacks from?

All my life my faith has been at war with the religion to which it is supposed to belong. Under the mislead guidance of "men of G-d" I have had to bow my head. Years of internal combat finally broke the shell and released my repulsion with every pit of snakes we so elegantly call houses of G-d. No longer could I tolerate the manipulation of holy words to serve the desires of a few. No more could I tolerate the lies that come with crosses, crescents, or stars.

For years now I my faith has been signified by the kippa atop my head. My only temple to which I retreat is that of the shadows beneath the cover of my tallit. For my faith does not need a scholar, a rabbi, an imam, or a preacher. My G-d does not need a church, a temple, or a mosque in which to confine me. My brother, my akhi... my sister, my ahoti... these are not confined by those who pray to G-d by the same name as I. The world is my alter and the persistent service of my fellow man my religion.

This is faith.

Faith cannot be used to strike at another with hollow attempts at advancing ourselves. It leaves us defenseless before the world. It places us in a state of servitude to those who most need it. In faith we step out onto a battle field where everyone carries loaded guns. Yet faith offers us nothing with which to fire back.

When we use religion to attack one another we are void of the faith to which we supposedly cling. Religion provides us a series of ritualistic defenses to hide our vulnerability. It shelters us amongst a multitude so that we become faceless... nameless. We become Muslims... Jews... we however do not become unique.

Unique talents of the individual are only highlighted in organized religion if they serve the desires of those pulling the strings. These talents that would otherwise be valuable contributions to mankind as a whole are hoarded for the selfish advancement of a few. Thus creating in situations like that in Israel an arm race of sorts that utilizes man as ammunition rather than valuing us for who we are.

The most damning part of religion playing a role in Palestine and Israel's conflict is just how effective it really is.

Through the application of "the Jews" as a blanket statement a political statement implicates not just Israel but an entire religion as a whole. The interchangeable use of Zionist with that of Jew or Jewish makes this connection between politics and faith that much more difficult to break. By utilizing these words, this ammunition, the words of a few place an entire people within the cross hairs.

No matter how moderate or rebellious the individual might be these few words can trigger a reaction based on religious devotion rather than one that might arise out of faith alone. For my faith would guide me to look beyond the words alone and toward the pain from which they originate. And yet the sting of being implicated with the masses instead of being taken as an individual brings forward only hostility. And this is from where a person will draw their reaction to such blanket statements.

For every time that I take up the position to defend Palestinians' most basic of human rights there will always be this familiar sting. As long as there are those who would defend their religion in spite of those who might otherwise align with them... I'm nothing more than a supposed "Zionist". It is this familiar sting that drives many back to the trenches their religion has dug for them and off the position their faith has guided them to hold.

This is the miserable reality of religious perversion on both sides of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Entire masses so eager to die for a flag designed for them not by G-d but by the hands of perverse leaders. This is what breaks the heart of a G-d who lives not in Jerusalem but rather in the soul of every man.

Another Brick In The Wall

Breaking Through The Noise... Violently
(A Bridge Too Far Series)

In the 1930's the German people were sucked into a political ideology that knew no boundaries. Religion that they thought they knew was abolished and replaced with a rabid form of Christianity that the world was far from prepared for. It was so vile, so perverted, that even those who first thought they knew what they were buying weren't ready for what came next. They were sold a bill of lies that was prepared for them by a man, by his cronies, with no discernible faith of his own. In affect, it was the abolition of faith. It was the creation of a new world to which my family did not belong.

From the mid 20's Hitler had begun leaking his hate filled propaganda into the mainstream of German society. Rejected at first, Hitler didn't back down. With a relentless perseverance the architect of the Holocaust began to lay the foundation for his master plan. With every drop of his poison the well from which the German people drank became even more bitter. Yet the taste of taste of the antisemitic taint wasn't stopping the Germans from lapping it up.

The end result was a German society that was not just complacent in the Holocaust but a society which fought tooth and nail to defend the destruction of European Jews. When faced with the opportunity to abandon the Nazi's ranks the German people routinely decided to take up their rifle and fight to maintain the status quo. It took decades of dealing with their sins before the majority of German citizens would even admit that what they helped Hitler accomplish was wrong.

 

"If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed."

~ Adolf Hitler

This path to power is a well traveled one. A dictator doesn't take control through force that often. It is most often accomplished through coercion and feeding the poison with some honey. In the case of the Germans the honey was a long standing strain of antisemitism that had predated Hitler. The long history of Europeans scapegoating Jews was a strong cornerstone for Hitler's propaganda. It wasn't a far leap from England's 13th century expulsion of the Jews to Spain's Inquisition. All Hitler had to do was follow the cobblestones upon which his predecessors had built. 

Today the long history of European antisemitism is clearly visible in the Middle East. Where Hitler had made progress with a German audience the dictators of Arab societies find inspiration. When Goebbels depicted Jews as rats the world ignored it. When Arab cartoonist depict Jews as rats the world once again ignores it. When the Nazis spread the image above depicting Jews as a giant spider drinking the blood of "non-Jews" the world looked the other way. When Arab artist depict Jews as spiders in the scarfs of Hamas guerrillas and make cartoons depicting blood libel... well the world once again looks the other way. 

The cartoons are often childish and make no distinct argument when standing on their own. But that is the reason Hitler liked this form of propaganda. It allowed the viewer to cast their own bias upon an image that was characteristic of party policy. It allowed a bond to be formed through playing to the emotions of the audience rather than encouraging intellectual debate. This was the method of Nazi propaganda because it doesn't permit the viewer to think for them self. Instead it desires to replace the thoughts of the individual with the suggestions of the masses. 

Over time the hatred for a targeted group (either ethnic, religious, or political... ext) can be built up by allowing the viewer to assume that they have control. Yet over time the control of the audience's thoughts and emotions is handed over to the regime. Through the power of suggestion the party is able to replace the citizen. Through the power of playing to the least common denominator the group commits it's first murder... the death of the individual. 

Goebbels was a master at murdering the senses of the individual. Portraying small crowds as giants in the minds of the onlookers he was able to make the individual believe that their life would be made meaningful if only they succumbed to the influences of the masses. When Goebbels finally did have enormous audiences to film he turned the tables and began to depict the minority. Switching the bait, Goebbels knew that the individual was already dead to their own senses. All Goebbels had to do was mold the bricks so that they would fit into Hitler's plans. 

Once the bill of lies was sold there was no turning back. Hitler could build up his empire with a nation of useful idiots. What had once been a nation of individuals was now a country of numb (scared) masses. They would act as one. They would kill as a group. This was Hitler's pack of wolves now. Those who would not fall in line were subjected to cannibalism. Like dogs, the weak were made to roll over so that their throats could be gashed. Nazism is a brutal ideology in this light. 

Both Israel and Palestine have toyed with the art of recreating the sins committed by Goebbels. Neither can hide where they have played the role of propagandist. While Israel attempts to erase the individualism of the Palestinian the Palestinian Authority attempts to dehumanize the Israeli all together. Settlers, occupiers, invaders... Terrorist, jihadist... the hate between the two states is more than just a war of words. It is a vile contempt for the existence of the other.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin

In Israel the state is more open about it's propagandizing. Painting the settlements as vital to the security of the state the creators of this propaganda play to the fear of losing security... the lack of control. While here in America we are often prompt to remember the words of Benjamin Franklin we too get sold that same lie time and time again. For Israel however the fear of insecurity is rather real and palpable. It is highlighted every time a rocket comes over the border. And it is for this reason the propaganda that is created to capitalize on this fear is so effective. 

As long as Israel is capable of being manipulated into selling it's morality and liberties for the belief that tyranny will somehow bring security they will have to live with insecurity. There is not a population of people on the planet that would tolerate the police state like presence that has been imposed upon the people of the West Bank, Eastern Jerusalem, or Gaza. Barbed wire, concrete walls, landmines, and trenches don't make good neighbors. In the case of Gaza, fences don't make good ones either. 

If Israel is to find safety in the face of a foe that has threatened it for so long they will ironically have to soften their appearance. A human being is not designed to trust another when they have to look at them through barbed wire. It is just that simple. 

Yet at the same time Palestine has to break with it's long history of propaganda against the "Jew". If it is to exist in any form it will have to distance itself from groups that would paint the descendants of Holocaust victims as modern day Nazis. This slur, above all others, is the quickest way to bring back up the bricks and build back up the walls. There is simply no rationalizing with a people that would pick at old wounds till they can draw fresh blood. 

However cantankerous these past few paragraphs may have come across they are just the tip of the iceberg. The decades of propaganda must be deconstructed. The lies that have been woven into the fabric of Israel and Palestine must be pulled apart thread by thread. If they are not there will never be a lasting peace. We are not designed to forget what has not been banished from the present. As long as one of the two is ready to rehash past offenses there will be no moving forward. The grudge can't be our building block for a common future. 

In future post these lies will be picked apart without relent. For these are issues that have created some of the most heinous crimes of our time. These are the lies that have pitted brother against brother. These are the lies that have led us to kill Abel over and over again. For this reason we will painfully rip them apart and uncover that which they were designed to hide. We will explore why the history of two peoples has been slandered to the point that most can't recognize their own past. We will discuss why the state and the stateless are at war with one another. And we will take a brutally honest look at the resulting atrocities of this conflict. 

We ask that you stick with us. We ask that you leave your bias behind and join us as we attempt to walk through this field of landmines. We ask you to do what our predecessors have failed at... leaving the partisan ranks and walking out under a white flag. 

Jews, Muslims, Palestinians, Israelis... those titles don't matter to us here. We will not be just more bricks in the wall that divides us. Are you ready to stop being lied to?

The Reality of Marriage Inequality in Israel

Ethnic and Religious Based Restrictions On Marriage
(A Bridge Too Far series)

In 1935 the Nazis Introduced the Nuremberg Laws

Creating Marriage Restrictions On European Jews.

I have been told that to start this post I should clarify that I myself am Jewish and do have ancestors who died in Croatia during the Holocaust. I never felt compelled to make such a distinction before yet while writing a much longer post from which this article is taken it was pointed out to me such a distinction should be made. This is in part due to the fact that many of our readers seem to be under the impression that I am either Christian or Muslim. Though I have no problem with either religion, I don't belong to them. So with that said I do not take it lightly when I talk about Israel or the Holocaust. Both are dear to me and it is due to that love that I can't tolerate what I see as wrong in my beloved Israel. 

With that said, here is the portion of this new series dealing with marriage in Israel and the segregation the current system enforces. 

Marriage in America is depicted as a right that all citizens should be granted to enter into freely. Though we should not take it lightly and the current system in America may not reflect that view we are forcibly pushing for change in our homeland. It has been during this battle over equality in marriage that I could not help but look across the sea at my beloved Israel with weary eyes. For despite America's failures in removing the church from a state regulated legal contract we have at very least removed race and religion as disqualifications for marriage. This is something that I could not say about Israel. 

On August 1st of 2003 those in charge of Israel found it fitting to expand upon the ethnic bylaws for marriage in Israel. After rushing a new law through the government in Israel offered a it's Arab citizens a new set of laws that would ban the marriage of Israeli citizens to Palestinians. Arabic citizens who chose to marry Arabs from the West Bank or Gaza would therefore be forced to move out of Israel or live apart from their new spouse. The law had dictated that even when married to Israeli citizens Palestinians could not gain citizenship or residence within Israel. 

Marriage in Israel has always been something of a contentious subject. Jews in Israel are not permitted to marry non-Jews if they want their marriage recognized by the government. Jews who are not considered Orthodox are also banned from marriage to Orthodox Jews in the fact that the state of Israel will not recognize the marriage. This was highlighted in story of Rita Margulis when she, having served in the Israeli armed forces and lived in Israel since the age of four, was denied a legal marriage by the state.

For me it has been these two main parts of the laws governing marriage in Israel that has taken my mind back to the days where we Jews were faced with similar restrictions on our decisions to marry. We all know the laws to which my mind wanders. Yet far to often it seems Jews around the world try to avoid the reality of how Israel treats marriage and how we as a people were once treated in the same light.

In 1935 the fascists in Germany introduced a series of laws that would live in infamy for the rest of time. Under Nazism the Jews of occupied Europe were officially from that point on banned from marriages with non-Jews. Any marriages that existed from that point on were considered void. The offspring of all these marriages were considered "tainted" and thus Jewish. It didn't matter in reality what amount of blood was Jewish or not, children from these marriages were targeted just the same.

"Marriages between Jews and Staatsangehörige (Germanic citizens) or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad."

~Nuremberg Laws, Section 1: Article 1

The laws regarding marriages between Jews and Germans (or non-Jews) was so important to the order of Hitler's Europe that it was the first part of the new race laws. The need to discriminate against the Jews in the aspect of marriage was so important that it couldn't wait for economic policies or property ownership to be addressed first. This was in part due to the genocidal efforts of the Nazis and the desire to limit the ability of Jews to reproduce. It was also due to the idea of "blood purity" that perverted the Nazi view of marriage.

These laws had direct effects upon the Jewish population of Germany from the very moment they were implemented.

"They also, at the same time a law took effect that did not allow a Jewish person, male or female, to go with a gentile person, male or female. At that time, I was going with a nice young lady that I had gone with for some time, and we were out camping, I remember very well. I had a kayak, and we went out camping near Hamburg, and there was a fellow and, next to us, near us, in another little camp with a tent, we slept in tents. He wanted to make a date with this young lady that I was going with, and she didn't want any part of it. He reported me to, to the Gestapo, and I was arrested for going with a gentile girl. I got six months in prison, solitary confinement in 1935."

~ Edward Adler, Born 1910 in Hamburg Germany

In Israel the laws regarding the marriages of Jews to non-Jews may not word for word reflect the harshness of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, yet the spirit of the law does. Despite the notion of being the one true democracy in the Middle East the reality remains in question when such laws are permitted. If the letter of the law is allowed to be interpreted in such a manner that it denies citizens basic human rights then the spirit of the law is dead. And without spirit the nature of democracy crumbles.

When we add in the laws that deny citizenship, revoke citizenship, or restrict the rights of certain citizens due to the religious or ethnic heritage of that citizen the spirit of democracy is faded even more. A democracy cannot tolerate the denial of human rights to any member of it's society if it desires to be a vibrant and healthy democracy. Yet in Israel, a purported beacon of democratic values, the spirit of Nuremberg taints the letter of the law when the state approaches marriage from this angle.

The most basic answer to this problem is the lack of "civil marriage" instead of Orthodoxy governed marriage is the disbanding of the Orthodoxy's monopoly upon the state sponsored establishment of marriage. For us in the United States this was supposed to be solved through the separation of Church and State. For Israel however the state is nearly governed by the Orthodoxy in the fact that despite being a democracy Israel is a Jewish state. It is an aspect of the relationship between Orthodox Judaism and the state that has long hindered any such separation.

For people like Rita Margulis this means that even being a Reform Jew in Israel means having fewer rights than those who subscribe to Orthodox Judaism. As for the Arabic Israelis, such laws add further pressures upon a portion of the population who was polled in 2007 as being 47% "less than patriotic". Such laws undoubtedly do not help create more patriotic Arabic citizens or even promote pride in "Jew-ish" citizens. And yet these laws continue to be enforced and thus help to segregate Israeli society.

Now, while I do understand that the comparison to Nazi laws may be considered offensive, this undeniable haunting reminder of such laws is meant to make you think. In a modern society should we accept the notion that religion or race should have anything to do with whether two people are permitted to marry one-another? Or should Israel be forced to rethink it's position upon marriage and the approach the state has taken to the issue thus far?

As for Alder's Ledge it is a sad reality that such laws still persist in a country where the values of liberty and freedom are espoused by both citizens and politicians alike. We would wish to see Israel take this step as one of many initial steps toward reconciliation with our Palestinian brothers and sisters. For we cannot see a future ahead where lasting peace is established and sustained when such laws are permitted to exist. Legalized discrimination, in this form and all others, will forever be a thorn in our side as long as we continue to willingly suffer it so.

Want to learn more about this subject and others covered by Alder's Ledge? 

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Source Documents
(Note: not all sources listed)

Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/israel-civil-marriage-ban_n_3429764.html
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-uri-regev/why-is-it-so-difficult-for-jews-to-marry-in-israel_b_3196200.html

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/media_oi.php?ModuleId=10007695&MediaId=2711

Romani Of The Holy Land

The Fight For Citizenship In Israel

(Amoun Sleem, Romani woman in her home in Jerusalem)

Europe has long had an issue with the citizenship of the Roma within their countries. For France it has been an issue of where the Roma can be deported to. For Germany it is a historical soft spot in the nation's relationship with this minority. The further we venture east the worse the situation for the Roma gets. In Romania the Roma are culturally banned from calling themselves Roma and are forced to be called Gypsies. And in the Balkans the Roma are forced to live on the fringe of society while the rest of the population ostracizes the Roma amongst them. It is almost impossible to overlook the genocidal intentions of countries like Hungary and the Ukraine.

That is why I found it odd that the state of one of the world's most neglected people in my beloved Israel isn't much better than it is in France. An estimated 2,000 Roma live in Jerusalem alone. There they live in areas around The Lion's Gate area of the Old City. And for some time now the Roma in Israel has long been the most impoverished population in Israel. Even the Palestinians in Gaza have opportunities made possible to them that Israel's Roma do not.

In Israel the Romani people are predominately Muslim. However the Roma of Israel do not identify with the Arabs or the Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank. This is in part due to the fact that Arabs throughout the Middle East do not treat the Roma as citizens or even human at times. The fact that the Roma in this region have taken on Islam as their religious identity does not separate them from the overt racism that plagues many of the surrounding nations. And that is why it is disheartening to see Israel still denying the Roma their citizenship rights.

(Barkat visiting the Roma in East Jerusalem)

In October the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, became the first Mayor of Jerusalem to step out in the public eye and visit the Romani community in East Jerusalem. Barkat has begun the process to integrate the Roma into Israeli society. These are the first steps to helping the Roma become a meaningful part of the Israeli community. It will help Jews and Arabs alike if they are able to see the Roma as more than just "Gypsies".

With the same rights as other Israeli citizens the Roma can get better jobs. The Roma could begin to move up in society and may even become vital members of the Israeli Defense Force. Their rich heritage, their language, their art, and their culture can all become enriching parts of Israeli society. But the Roma can't do any of these things without first being full citizens of Israel itself.

So while Israel may not be attempting to deport the Roma it is failing to do the right thing. After all, the Romani people suffered just the same as the Jews in Nazi Europe. Roma were targeted by the Iraqi's during the Nazi years just the same as the Jews of Iraq. The Roma were oppressed by the Communist even worse than our Refuseniks. Now Israel has to do what is needed... give the Roma equal rights and equal opportunities.




Source Documents
(Note Not All Sources Cited)

Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/Features/InThespotlight/Article.aspx?id=289581

Al Monitor
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2012/11/the-gypsies-of-jerusalem-are-see.html