Arab Regimes, Not Israel, Are Guilty of Racism...

It´s an upside-down world, as the old saying goes. At the conference on racism, in Durban, Arab delegates and their allies accused Israel of racism and human rights violations - yet it is the Arab world that is rife with government-sanctioned racist practices, human rights abuses and mistreatment of women.

Jews are continually victimized by Arab racism. The Palestinian Authority, with the active support of the Arab countries, bombs, shoots, stabs and stones Jews for one reason only - because they are Jews. The PA and the Arab regimes insist that the residents of every Jewish community in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and much of Jerusalem must be expelled, for one reason only - because they are Jews. And Jewish holy sites such as the Tomb of Joseph and Jericho´s ancient Shalom al-Yisrael synagogue have been destroyed by the Palestinian Arabs for one reason - because they are Jewish.

Anti-Jewish racism is the theme of the culture of hatred and violence that is promoted in Arafat´s official media, school text books ("One must beware of the Jews, for they are treacherous and disloyal," according to the text Islamic Education for Ninth Grade), speeches by PA officials and sermons by PA-appointed clergymen (in one recent sermon, "Allah decreed that in our lives, we are to humiliate the Jews sooner or later...the Jews are the enemies of Islam"). In PA summer camps, Arab children are taught how to slit the throats of Jews. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, leader of Reform Judaism, recently denounced the PA´s "neo-Nazi language" and warned that the PA is raising an entire generation of children to hate and murder Jews, for one reason only - because they are Jews.

Black Africans are also the victims of Arab racism. The Arab government of Sudan, for example, sponsors militias that massacre and enslave blacks. The Arab government of Mauritania likewise permits blacks to be enslaved.

Christians, too, are systematically persecuted by the Moslem regimes. U.S. courts have even granted asylum to Palestinian Arab Christian refugees on the grounds that they would be oppressed if they return to the PA areas. In PA-controlled Bethlehem, Muslim mistreatment of Christians has caused a steady stream of emigration, with the city´s Christian population having dwindled from 80% to just 20%. U.S. Senator Connie Mack and a delegation of Zionist Organization of America leaders met in 1999 with Palestinian Arab Christians who described, first hand, how the PA routinely harasses Christians, arrests them on false charges and prohibits them from building or renovating churches. Christian cemeteries are frequently desecrated by Palestinian Arab Muslims.

The Coptic Christians in Egypt are subjected to government-sanctioned discrimination in employment and university admissions, as well as occasional massacres by Muslim terrorist groups. The Maronite Christians of Lebanon have been slaughtered and suppressed by Yasir Arafat´s terrorists and the Syrian Army. Saudi Arabia prohibits Christian worship and even objected to crosses being worn by the American soldiers who defended Saudi Arabia against Iraqi aggression during the 1991 Gulf War.

While the Arabs falsely accuse Israel of human rights violations, in fact such violations are rampant throughout the Arab world. Torture of political detainees is "widespread" throughout the Arab world, according to a July 2001 report by the Cairo-based Arab Organization for Human Rights. The PA itself has tortured to death at least 16 Palestinian Arab dissidents. In addition to torturing prisoners, the Arab regimes engage in "repression of peaceful protest, massive arrests, restriction of freedom of the press, closure of newspapers and detention and imprisonment of journalists."

Not one Arab regime has a free press. Not one Arab regime has free, democratic elections. Not one Arab regime permits complete freedom of speech. Convicted criminals are routinely subjected to cruel and unusual punishment in the Arab world. In Saudi Arabia and Libya, thieves are punished by having one hand cut off. Public whippings or beatings are common in many Arab countries.

The treatment of women in the Arab world is likewise appalling. In Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and Palestinian Authority areas, women suspected of violating Muslim fundamentalism´s moral code are often murdered by relatives seeking to avenge their "shame." Such "honor killings," as they are known, "are regarded with leniency by the law" in PA territories, according to Daoud Kuttab, a prominent Palestinian Arab journalist.

Throughout the Arab world, women are routinely treated as second-class citizens or worse. In Saudi Arabia, women are prohibited by law from driving cars. The Palestinian Arab newspaper Jerusalem Times recently reported that sexual harassment of women in the PA territories is worse than in many other parts of the world, because of "the wide spread of the phenomenon, the lack of laws against it, and the feebleness with which laws that do exist are implemented."

Throughout the Arab world "workers face serious violations of internationally recognized worker and trade union rights," the Jewish Labor Committee reports. For example, unions are illegal in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman; collective bargaining is prohibited in Libya, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen; and taking part in a strike is punishable by death in Sudan.

Yes, racism and human rights abuses are terrible problems in the Middle East - not in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, but in Gaza, Amman, Cairo and Damascus. It´s time for the leaders of all civilized countries to speak out about where the real racism is to be found - in the Arab world.

These Arab Islamic regimes are the cornerstones of a bigoted and racist structure which has lasted for over thirteen centuries. They got a bonus when, after hundreds of years of dhimmiizing the Jews, they kicked them out and stole their property without compensation.

This is how the Jews were being treated in Arab lands as well as in Jerusalem when the Ottomans were in control (very small sample).

Jews of Baghdad (1877)

...The anguish of our hearts has brought us to make our suffering public to our people. Indeed, our brethren in Baghdad still
dwell in humiliation and turn their cheek to the hand of those that smite them. They are satiated with scorn and the oppression
of the Muslims who inhabit the city and continue to accost us with the words "turn aside, you impure (one)"; and they greet us
with reproach and spit in our faces. Whenever a Jew passes in the street, "wolves" gather around him to hail him with pieces
of refuse an cover his head with dirt. If he be an important person wearing a smart turban, then they scheme in their jealousy to
downgrade his elegance and knock off his headgear so that it rolls in the mud and dirt....So we beseech our brethren, guardians
of our deliverance....to watch over their brethren that they should look kindly upon us to put an end to their beatings and
persecution from these savages...

(Rabbi Solomon Bekhor-Husayn (1842-1892) - printer, community leader and journalist in Baghdad)

Jews of Morocco (1888)

...I felt as though I were in an evil valley whence mercy had been banished. Full of bitterness, I lamented over the plight of my
brethren, who suffered such affronts in this miserable land. For the Jew is considered here as an object of disgust. If he is
molested, his very hair being pulled out from his scalp or if he is struck a mortal blow, even though he is supposedly protected
by the authorities, his assailant is no more rebuked than if he had struck a dumb animal....Such is the plight of my brethren in this
savage land. I can only beseech the Rock of israel [God] that He deliver them from their prison, and that He redeem them from
the darkness, so that they can go up to Zion, their heads at last crowned with joy and light.

(Rabbi R.A. Shimon (1848-1928))

Jews of Tunis (1888)

...It is a fact that religious fanaticism obliges Muslims to act unpleasantly toward non-Muslims, for it is a principle with them that
the latter must be considered as infidels. Our brethren have thus suffered great tribulations, which the Muslims have heaped
upon them, so much so that many were converted to islam, or have been driven out of their minds. Then there are all those who
have disappeared outside the city or in the wilderness, while others have been assassinated in broad daylight. Some have been
executed as a result of false accusations...and another as done to death for having insulted the Islamic faith (the Europeans have
made great endeavors in this respect to obtain greater freedom and conditions of life that are more civilized, and have nearly
succeeded). The Jew is prohibited in this country to wear the same clothes as a Muslim and may not wear a red tarbush. He
can be seen to bow down with his whole body to a Muslim child and permit him the traditional privilege of striking him in the
face, a gesture that can prove to be of the gravest consequence. Indeed, the present writer has received such blows. In such
matters the offenders act with complete impunity, for this has been the custom from time immemorial...Consequently, the Jew is
the target for all manner of vexation, for this has been the lot of the wandering Jew in the lands of his exile.

(Fellah)

Jews of Palestine Before 1847

O brothers of Israel, how can I convey to you the hardships of the yoke of exile that our brethren living in Palestine suffered
prior to the year 1847? Even were I to relate everything, would it be credible?...I shall recount some of the suffering of our
brethren in Hebron, Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, which my ancestors have related to me or which I have seen with my own eyes
and which has remained in my memory....It was was a great danger to Jews to venture even a few yards outside the gates of
Jerusalem because of Arab brigands. Alas, woe to him that fell into their hands for he would be [as one] struck dead. They
were accustomed to say Ashlah Yahudi, that is: "Strip yourself, Jew," and any Jew caught in such a predicament, seeing their
aggressiveness and weapons would strip, while they divided the spoil between them and sent them away naked and barefoot.
They call this spoil: kasb Allah, that is, Allah's reward.....If a Jew encounters a Muslim in the [narrow ] street and passes on the
latter's right, the Muslim says ishmal, that is, "pass on my left side." If he touches him or bumps into him, and especially if he
stains his clothing or shoes, then the Muslim attacks him and strikes him cruelly and finds witnesses to the effect that the Jew
insulted him, his religion, and his prophet Muhammed, with the result that a numerous crowd of Muslims descend upon him and
leave the Jew practically unconscious. Then they carry him off to jail where he is subjected to terrible chastisement. When a
Jew passes through their market, stones are thrown at him, his beard and earlocks are pulled, he is spat upon and jeered at and
his hat is thrown to the ground. The poor Jew is so in fear of his life that he dares not question their conduct lest they murder
him, so he runs for his life as one would from wild animals or from the lion's claws and thanks God that at least his soul is saved,
and all these tribulations he is ready to suffer for love of the Holy Land. When a Jew buys anything from a Muslim and inquires
its price, if the Jew tries to barter as is the custom among traders, they attack him and spit in his face and give him fierce blows
until he is obliged to buy the object for the original price....When they need to have something carried from the market to their house they wait around until by chance they see a Jew, even an elderly man. Indeed, they make no difference between a rich man or a scholar, but they strike him to their merriment until he is forced to carry the burden on his shoulders to their house

On one occasion they happened upon the saintly Rabbi Isaiah Bardaki, who day and night was engaged in study and good deeds and had been a devout person since his youth. When they saw him they forced him with their blows to carry a heavy load on his back to their house. If they see a Jew dressed in green they take hold of him violently and strip him of his garments and have him imprisoned, claiming he had mocked their religion...There are many more such sufferings that the pen would weary to describe. These occur particularly when we go to visit the cemetery [on the Mount of Olives] and when we pray at the Wall of Lamentations, when stones are thrown at us we are jeered at.

(Moses b. Menahem Mendel Reischer, 19th century Polish traveler)

(Bat Ye'or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam)

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