On racist phenomena
Hello Rabbi,
What do you think about this article:
http://www.maariv.co.il/journalists/Article-551622
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0 Answers
It is said that fools do not drive.
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Asks:
After the slanderous post by the waiting woman, we can all be calm. There is no racism in the country. A week ago, the head of the Lower Galilee Regional Council announced on the radio that he would not let Arabs enter a regional pool because they are dirty!. Very conservative rabbis are calling not to rent apartments to Arabs and not to buy in their businesses. But apparently it doesn’t bother Kalman that much…
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Rabbi:
On the other hand, it bothers Zandberg too much. So each to their own.
By the way, I don’t know what the factual truth is (and I’m not sure you do either), but maybe the Arabs really are dirtying the pool there? Have you checked? It’s true that even if they are dirtying, we need to think about how to act against the dirtyers without harming innocent people, but if this is a general phenomenon, then it might be very easy to criticize the head of the council from the armchair, but we’ll see you offer a different solution. In any case, if this is the situation, it certainly isn’t easy to talk about racism here. For example, the park in Ramat Gan (I forgot its name) near Bnei Brak, which was closed to the Haredim from the Bnei Brak side. There too, it is a generalization, but if indeed the Bnei Brak municipality and the Haredim do not take care of their own citizens and build yeshivas and corruption instead of parks and exploit the investment of the Raqqa municipality to evade their duty to their citizens, and especially if the Haredim pollute the park due to their lack of awareness (if indeed this is the case), then there is certainly room to understand the anger and the steps taken by the Raqqa municipality against them, unless we are sitting comfortably in an armchair. The same is true in the case of Didan (if, for example, the local Arab authority does not build pools for its residents and builds on the neighboring pool and sends the polluters there). All of this is hypothetical, of course, but it is worth examining the facts before making a firm decision.
And as for the call not to rent apartments or buy from Arab businesses, it has nothing to do with racism. It is a national struggle and the Arabs are acting in this matter in a much more wild way than the Jews. These rabbis in many cases are just trying to balance the picture (just guess how many Jewish residents there are in Umm al-Fahm or the Arabah. And see the facts as Libeskind reports on the benefits and compensation that Bedouins receive for illegal construction).
By the way, I published a strong letter in the press against the ruling of Rabbi Eliyahu and his other rabbinical friends on renting apartments to non-Jews, as this is truly racism. Towards Arabs it is not racism in any way, although I also oppose generalizing statements against them.
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Asks:
You’d be surprised, but I checked! The regional council doesn’t have a pool! He was speaking in general terms. I understand that you’re a man of logic. My logic is much more primitive. When talking about some ethnic collective, I put the word “Jew” in place. For our example: “I won’t let Jews into the pool because they make it dirty…”
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Rabbi:
1. Indeed, primitive logic. Formal logic operates on the structures and ignores the content, meaning it doesn’t matter whether it’s written Jewish or Indonesian, as long as the translation is done consistently. In addition, this is also the morally correct analysis, because we are against racism. Therefore, even if a Jew was listed, I would write exactly the same things (under the same factual assumptions, of course, namely that Jews are dirty). I am not a racist and I also try not to deviate from logic because of emotions. Contrary to the common (!) emotions, such deviations do not make someone more moral.
2. Do you mean that their regional council doesn’t have a pool and they go to the other council’s pool? So that’s exactly what I wrote.
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