WESTERN JOURN ALISTS ABOUT RACISM IN ISRAEL
AND PERSECUTION OF RUSSIANS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1369000/1369709.stm
-------- BBC NEWS -------
== Uprising spotlights Israel's Russian immigrants ==
Immigrants feel the uprising hit them especially hard. The suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Friday that killed 20 Israelis has traumatised Israel's one-million strong Russian immigrant community.
The bomb exploded outside a nightclub popular with Israeli Russians. Its playlist of Russian pop songs draws teenagers from Israel's Russian community, which now accounts for a sixth of the country's population.
Internal tensions
But the attack also highlighted tensions that have existed over more than a decade between Israelis born in Israel and those who immigrated from Russia.
There was an angry reaction among Russian immigrants when Israeli religious leaders questioned whether three of the victims should be buried in Jewish cemeteries, as their mothers were not Jewish.
Guy Chuck, an Israeli who emigrated to Israel from Russia at the age of 14 and now runs a communications company in Tel Aviv, told the BBC that there was no "melting pot" in Israel, but that it was a multi-cultural society.
"Certainly there is some misunderstanding between the people from Russia and people who were born here," Mr Chuck said.
Russians bring their own cultural baggage with them, he said, and strive to preserve it in the new country.
Israelis were not always tolerant of that attitude, and therefore there were misunderstandings, he said.
"A lot of people in this country, I think, find it difficult to accept that the idea of the melting pot has failed," Mr Chuck said.
Secular and hawkish
The Russian community in Israel tends to be secularist, disapproving of the money given to ultra-orthodox Jewish institutions, while at the same time being hawkish on security issues.
Guardian Unlimited Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 London
Immigrants lose hope as they bury children
Special report: Israel and the Middle East
Russians feel robbed of a future in Israel
after bombing
Suzanne Goldenberg in Tel Aviv
Monday
June 4, 2001
The Guardian
Yelena and Yulia Nelimov were teenage girls consumed by teenage ambitions: to dress nicely, to have a good time, and to spend as many weekends as possible at a seafront disco that was a magnet for young immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Yesterday, on the day nine graves were dug for nine consecutive funerals at a cemetery north of Tel Aviv, dazed friends and relatives eulogised the extraordinary closeness of the sisters - Yelena, 18, and Yulia, 16, - who were among the 19 young Israelis killed by the suicide bomb attack on Friday night. "They spent all their time together," said Marina Shniper, 15, their cousin, who sometimes used to tag along. "They loved life so much. I never saw them cry; they were always laughing." But when the twin coffins draped in the Israeli flag were lowered into the ground there were screams of anguish as the Nelimovs' one remaining child, Alexei, was coaxed into reciting the unfamiliar prayer for the dead. The girls were regulars at the Water World disco on the Tel Aviv seafront. The disco, which played Russian pop songs in the heart of Tel Aviv, symbolised the existence of these young Russian immigrants straddling the boundaries of adulthood and mainstream Israeli life. Almost all those killed in the attack were from the former Soviet Union, members of an immigrant community vastly increased in the past 10 years to account for 1m of Israel's 6.3m citizens. Even before the bombing, the Palestinian uprising had claimed a disproportionate share of immigrants from this community, but this latest tragedy was too much too bear. "I was in the Russian army, in the special forces, and I saw my comrades wounded. I know what that means," the Nelimovs' uncle, Vladimir Shniper, said. "But that was the army. When it happens to children, there are no words to describe the horror." Many at Yarkon cemetery yesterday said they were no longer sure their future lay in their adopted homeland. "Now that I have seen what is happening here I have decided to leave for Canada," said Yuri Poltialov, 21. "I don't see that we have a future here; this country has been here for more than 50 years, and all it has seen is war." Arriving here as children with the promise of a better life and greater security, the young Russian immigrants watched their parents rebuild their lives from scratch, toiling at menial jobs, while the younger generation struggled to fit in. Like many of the dead, the Nelimovs were raised by a single parent: their father, who is not Jewish, stayed behind in Russia when the girls emigrated with their younger brother, mother, and grandmother six years ago. They went the same secondary school in Tel Aviv. "Today I am at my fourth funeral," the principal, Avraham Benvinisti, said, "and there are more to come." Only minutes earlier he had stood over the grave of another pupil, Irina Nepomniashy, who arrived from Tashkent four years ago and was in the business stream at the Shevah-Mofet school. Friends say she was determined to make something of her life, to rise above the conditions that trapped her father in a factory job paying less than ё500 a month. But her death brought an added cruelty. She was buried away from the other teenagers, shunned by the religious authorities because they did not consider her ritually Jewish. Her grave, heaped with bouquets and small memorial candles, stands in a cluster of oleander bushes, isolated even from the section of the graveyard reserved for the unknown dead, because the religious authorities only recognise Jews born of Jewish mothers, and Irina's mother, Raisa, is a Muslim. In the throes of their grief the Nepomniashy family did not have the reserves of strength to protest at the insult. They merely gave in to quiet grumbling after Raisa was carried from her only daughter's grave in the arms of two friends. A cousin, Alexander Nepomniashy, said the justice minister, Meir Shitreet, had promised the family that Irina would be buried with her classmates, but when they arrived at the cemetery other arrangements had been made. "She lived here with everybody together, so she should have been buried with everyone together," Mr Nepomniashy said. "As I see it now, Israel never really accepted her because it would not let her be buried like everybody else."
http://www.russiajournal.com/weekly/article.shtml?ad=1386
RUSSIAN JOURNAL ON-LINE
and ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 18, 2002 Moscow
Immigrants give Israel a Russian flavor
Ten years on, Soviet Jews reshape Israeli society
JERUSALEM - The saleswoman at a downtown pharmacy switches from accented Hebrew to her native Russian, explaining to an elderly customer how to take a prescription drug.
Around the corner, the Arbat restaurant prepares for the evening rush of its emigre patrons. Posters at a nearby video store advertise a visiting Moscow pop star.
You can get by in Israel these days speaking only Russian.
Businesses run by immigrants - from travel agencies to non-kosher butchers to Russian-language bookstores - dot the country. Newly formed theater groups put on plays in Russian. Immigrants frequent Russian cafes and can choose from a dozen Russian-language periodicals.
In the 10 years since the Kremlin opened the gates to a Jewish exodus, 800,000 former Soviets have arrived in Israel. Adding to the 150,000 who came in the 1970s, the immigrants now comprise Israel's largest ethnic group.
(......) .
The newcomers, among them a large number of academics, doctors and engineers, have left their mark on Israel.
(.......) .
With the influx of new citizens, Israel's overall education level jumped. Immigrant professors and scientists have injected new blood into academic life and Israel's technology industry. The number of professional orchestras has swelled from four to 11.
Yet, (......) many immigrants feel they don't quite belong.
Yevgeny Soshkin, 25, who edits a magazine sponsored by the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, avoids socializing with longtime Israelis, saying they are too intrusive and unrefined.
Soshkin's transition from the Ukrainian town of Kharkiv to the Israeli desert backwater of Arad in December 1990 was fraught with pain and rejection. In his hometown, he had started attending medical college. In Arad, the thin, dark-haired youth had to go back to high school.
" I suddenly found myself in hell," he says, comparing the unruly classroom to a "monkey cage."
His parents also had to scale down their expectations. His father, a former military academy lecturer, found work as a janitor in a neighborhood of immigrants and his mother teaches biology in high school.
(..........)
The transition into Israeli society has been a bumpy ride. An initial euphoria in Israel over the wave of Soviet immigrants quickly gave way to mistrust and disdain.
Strictly observant Jews felt the immigration tide carried too many non-Jews to the country, endangering its Jewish character.
Many Israelis with roots in North African and Middle Eastern countries, who for years encountered discrimination by the European-born Ashkenazi elites, envied the privileges granted to the newcomers.
(.......)
Some Israelis felt the immigrants were opportunists seizing a way to get out Russia, but caring little for Zionist ideology.
In 1997, 63 percent of longtime Israelis polled for Israel Radio opposed encouraging more immigration from the former Soviet Union and 80 percent viewed immigrants as competitors in the workplace. About 25 percent said they associated "nothing positive" with immigrants.
Dovish Israelis were angry with the newcomers for espousing hawkish views and accused them of being ignorant of Israel's conflict with the Palestinians.
The immigrants, in turn, complained about a hostile bureaucracy and a sense of isolation. Many could not afford a decent apartment on their government stipend. About half the immigrants still don't work in their professions. Two-thirds earn less than the average Israeli monthly pay of 6,146 shekels, or about $1,540.
Some of those suspected of lying about being Jewish had to take humiliating DNA tests. The Interior Ministry sometimes refused immigration visas to non-Jewish relatives of young Russian men serving in the Israeli army.
Mikhail Weiskopf, a prominent author who settled in Israel in 1972, says it was easier during the first, smaller wave of immigration.
"We were also met with some hostility, yet there was much less of it," he says. "Integration seems to have been easier in those days."
Squeezed into the same tiny country, the immigrants and longtime residents - themselves one-time immigrants or children of immigrants - largely appeared to coexist without trying to understand each other.
(........)
By SERGEI SHARGORODSKY / The Associated Press
OTHER SUPPLEMENTS
Mrs. Marsha von Duerckheim
Consul General Embassy of the United States of America
THE MODERN SLAVES - KEEPING PEOPLE
AGAINST THEIR WILL
IN ISRAEL
Dear Madame,
In the 19th century, the British navy pursued pirate ships, which were involved in the slave trade. Equally, the modern world has to stop the present Russian equivalent of slavery, a move which I heartily applaud.
In continuation of our conversation from 17.02.2000 at seminar on fundraising, I have to let you know the following: THE DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM. In our work we met five categories of people kept under compulsion in a foreign country.
1. Women of former URSS, used for prostitution, brought here forcibly, or, that is the majority, came here by good will and sold afterwards, kept under compulsion in houses of prostitution or sold to somebody's use. Today there are 23 girls in women prison Neve Tirtza meant for deportation, 22 of them from former USSR. Most of them declared that they were kept here under compulsion. According to our information most of these girls are from former USSR or East Europe. Also, there are known cases of bringing "live goods" from Brazil and Dominican Republic; case of keeping in slavery Israeli women and emigrants from former USSR and Ethiopia.
2. Children brought to Israel against their will or against the will of one of the parents.
3. Children sent by their parents to Israel in the frame of the Zionist upbringing program and unwillingly being kept there. Also, boys and girls that are slipped out of school and made slaves in youth gangs.
4. Old people brought here to get state assistance, mortgage or allowance and left to the fates and without possibility of returning.
5. People brought here by deceived promises of work and then criminal elements used them as means to get money.
WHO ARE WE?
My name is Michael DORFMAN. I'm one of the leading specialists in public organization and public relations in the Russian community in Israel. During 8 years I edited and published a newspaper, was engaged in publicity. I guided the Russian headquarters of the association "One nation - one mobilization" which worked to support Barak's law for mobilization of yeshiva's students. I was political consultant of Jacob Terner, the present city mayor, to Russian questions. I have much experience working in commercial advertisement and public relations. I'm the press secretary of the association "Le Merkhav". We differ from other non-profitable organizations in that that we act within the Russian community. We have much experience in publicity companies, pressure groups. We have found ways of instilling and spreading information among different groups of population.
WAYS OF SOLVING.
Accordingly to the accumulated information our organization' "Le Merkhav" has worked out the following projects: Public relations and installation of advertisement in houses of prostitution and other places of sex-business. 1. Advertisement material and PR penetration to the world of isolated teen-agers. 2. Using the 12 steps model of Anonymous Alcoholics in solving problems of people kept by force. 3. Organization of shelters for slaves. It's a shame that the only place where people are kept before departing from Israel is a prison. 4. Assistance in leaving. Today people are expelled like criminals, they are too frightened to ask for help.
BACKGROUND.
1. During my work as a publisher, an editor of a local weekly magazine "Negev" in Russian language there fell into my hands varoius information about women and children kept in Israel under compulsion. In 1994 I undertook to write a report on the topic, collected information about the group of girls in houses of prostitution in Beer-Sheva and Ashkelon in barrack-like style. The girls were not allowed to get out alone, they were brought to the beach, restaurants and shopping places under escort of 2-3 watchmen. To buy a bottle of water, the girls had to pay a watchman 50-60 NIS a bottle. I managed to establish a connection with one of the girls in order to prepare a report. Several people came to my office and threatened my family and me. Finally I didn't make the report, so as not to prevent the girl from escaping from Israel. The information I gathered was sent to the police. It was enough to make a court-case against the owner of the houses of the prostitution, the watchman and other criminals for threatening, extortions and inveigle into prostitution the new immigrants from former USSR.
2. In 1995 I was in Kharkov (Ukraine) with a mission from the Ministry of Interior (Bureau of connections with Jews of USSR "NATIV"). There I've obtained information on marketing "live goods" from East Ukraine to the East Mediterranean countries including Israel. Also I followed there several dealers recruiting women for work and for becoming prostitutes. I'm aware of seven cases where girls were taken by force. Besides this when I was in Kharkov, I received information about a girl by name Helene Diatchenko, who after her family members testimony, was invited to Israel as a musician, but lately kept in Israel by force. I sent this material to "NATIV", but I have no knowledge about her fate.
3. In 1996 I received information about tourist agent Leonid N. from Beer-Sheva and his employer a certain Alexander from Ashkelon who dealt with illegal import of workers from Ukraine. I met them in order to find out their method to get details. In addition I understood that they were involved in the export of girls who were kept there under compulsion.
Among other things I was told about the fate of girls named Slava and Ira from West Ukraine that were used as sexual objects in houses of prostitution in Ashkelon, Beer-Sheva and Tel-Aviv and later on sold to Egypt. I understood also that the company made a business of export of children for adoption and selling girls according to individual orders. I sent the information to the manager of the South department of struggle who Fraud commissar Misha Shauli ( later police attache in Moscow). He sent me a detective Ziv to whom I reported. But the criminal activity was not stopped. 4. In 1997 I was a line producer and in cooperation with the Russian TV company "Top secret" participated in creation of a film about the Russian Jew Gregory Lerner, which was kept in Israeli prison. Also, we made together a series of reports about Russian Mafiosi, which were under trial or in prisons of USA and Switzerland Alexander Taranzev , Mikhailov etc. At that time the question of export of "live goods" against their will was arising repeatedly and we even decided to make a project on this subject. Unfortunately, the finance crash of Russian economy in 1997 put an end to our plans. All collected materials and documents remained in Moscow. 5. In 1998 I was the leader of the Negev department of the movement "Alternative" that assisted individually the emigrants from former USSR. In 1999 we created the south non-profitable organization "La Merkhav". "La Merkhav" assist children-victims of racism and ethnic violation in Southern schools and in the army. "La Merkhav" sponsors four groups of encouragement of racial victims, acting according to the principle of twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. "La Merkhav" opened the hot line for solders and schoolchildren, who suffered from displays of ethnic violation. Besides it, we help the children of illegal workers and other people living in Israel illegally to get into kindergartens. We came across the cases when people, especially children, were kept in Israel by force. We provided these data to police and welfare organizations, but we have no impression that the police possess adequate instructions and necessary tools to act properly.
Given my insufficient knowledge of English it's preferable to provide an interpreter in case of our meeting.
Sincerely, Michael DORFMAN.
UN HIMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE
Israel: 1) In that document UN Human Rights Committee expresses deep concern about Israeli basic laws:
they do not match international (UN and other) standards and are in contradiction with democratic principles
2) The UN Human Rights Committee expresses concern over the situation of women who continue to face discrimination in many aspects of life, including in military service and in religious institutions, and that they are underrepresented in the conduct of public affairs.
3) The Committee regrets that women brought to Israel for purposes of prostitution, many under false pretences or through coercion, are not protected as victims of trafficking but are likely to be penalized for their illegal presence in Israel. Such an approach to this problem effectively prevents these women from pursuing a remedy for the violation of their rights under article 8 of the Covenant. The Committee recommends that serious efforts be made to seek out and punish the traffickers, to institute rehabilitation programmes for the victims and to ensure that they are able to pursue legal remedies against the perpetrators.
4) The Committee express a deep concern about the Levy-Landau law, which legally allows tortures in Israel
5) The Committee regrets that the authorities appear to be placing obstacles in the way of family reunion in the case of marriages between an Israeli citizen and a non-citizen who is not Jewish (and therefore not entitled to enter under the Law of Return). These obstacles, which include long waiting periods for entry permits, a "probation" period of over five years' residence to establish that the marriage is genuine and a further waiting period for citizenship
6) The Committee is concerned at the preference given to the Jewish religion in the allocation of funding for religious bodies, to the detriment of Muslims, Christians, Druze and other religious groups. The Committee recommends that regulations and criteria for funding be published and applied to all religious groups on an equal basis.
7) The Committee is concerned that the application of religious law to determine matters of personal status, including marriage and divorce, and the absence of provision for civil marriage effectively deny some persons the right to marry in Israel, and result in inequality between men and women. It is also concerned that the minimum age of marriage for girls, fixed by law at 17, may be reduced by the religious courts, and that no minimum age is fixed for men. The lack of provision for civil burial is also a matter of concern. The Committee urges early implementation of measures currently under consideration to facilitate civil marriages and civil burial for those who do not belong to a religion. It recommends that the State party take into account international standards for the age of majority in its current review of the minimum marriageable age for men and women.
see the whole document on next kunk (below): http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord1999/documentation/tbodies/ ccpr-c-79-add93.htm
http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord1999/documentation/ genassembly/a-54-184.htm
http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord1999/documentation/ commission/1999-5.htm
http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord1999/documentation/ genassembly/a-54-182.htm
http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord1999/documentation/commission/ 1999-5.htm
UN Human Rights Reports Search for "Israel" Results:
http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord1999/search.asp?target=
Israel&Scope=%2Ffortherecord1999%2F&maxhits= 1000&goButton=+Search+&navEvent=Top
(Amnesty Internationsal links): http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1997/MDE/index.html 1997 Amnesty
International Reports on Middle East and North Africa
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1997/SUM/51500397.htm Administrative Detention: Despair,
Uncertainty and Lack of Due Process
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/countries/indx515.htm Publications on Israel (the State of) and the Occupied
Territories
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1997/SUM/index.html Summaries of 1997 Amnesty International
Reports
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1997/MDE/51500397.htm Administrative Detention: Despair,
Uncertainty and Lack of Due Process
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1994/MDE/150294.MDE.txt Hostages taking, detention without trial,
tortures and killings
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1994/MDE/150194.MDE.txt Medical concerns
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1994/MDE/150394.MDE.txt Israel is a country, where tortures,
batteries and murders of imprisoned people are officially permitted!!!
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1994/MDE/150594.MDE.txt Mordekhai VANUNU case
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aireport/ar97/MDE18.htm Lebanon - Israeli war crimes
http://www.amnesty.org/news/1995/Israel.96.02.26.txt Killings of Civilians
http://www.amnesty.org/news/1995/Israel.96.02.12.txt Security is Not an Excuse For Brutality
http://www.amnesty.org/news/1995/ai.96.02.05.txt Massive Condemnation of Israel
http://www.amnesty.org/news/1995/Israel.95.10.05.txt End the Tortures!
http://www.amnesty.org/news/1995/Israel.95.09.13.txt New Killings
http://www.amnesty.org/news/1995/Israel.16.08.95.txt All World Call to End Tortires
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1998/MDE/50100298.htm Israel is listed among the most brutal
countries
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1998/MDE/50100798.htm Israel takes civilian hostiges
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/countries/indx515.htm Summary
(Derechos Links:)
TORTURES
http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/isr/250598.html?Israel#first_hit Israel: Fear of torture of 15
detained person, including two children
http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/isr/ 030697.html?Israel#first_hit Israel: Petition to stop torturing
Omar Ghanimat denied by High Court
http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/isr/040698.html?Israel#first_hit Israel: Hebron man tortured
http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/isr/060798.html? Israel#first_hit Israel: Detention and torture of
Palestinian student
http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/isr/1.html?Israel#first_hit Urgent Action Israel: Threats against
Human Rights NGO Director
http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/isr/160798.html?Israel#first_hit Israel: Arrest and possible torture
of Palestinian man
http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/isr/161198.html?Israel#first_hit Israel: Arbitrary Arrest and
Ill-Treatment of Two Elderly Lebanese Case ISR 161198
http://www.derechos.org/omct/actions/isr/220797cc.html?Israel#first_hit Israel: Ibrahim Tawfiq Abu
Ratima Shot and Killed by Israeli Soldiers
Derechos search for "Israel": http://www.archivos.org/search/wwwwais/wwwwais.cgi
http://www.archivos.org/search/wwwwais/wwwwais.cgi?keywords=Israel
http://www.millenniumforum.org/
http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord1999/ http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/impu/tpi/helms2.html
http://www.derechos.org/human-rights/actions/ot/para1.html
http://193.135.156.15/html/69b6685c93d9f25180256498005063da.html
http://www.birzeit.edu/press/1996/961117.html http://www.birzeit.edu/press/1996/torture.html
http://www.umn.edu/humanrts/catIsrael94.htm
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1998/MDE/ai_israel_nov1.html
http://www.amnesty.org/cgi-bin/aisearch http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?sc=on&hl=on&q=
Russians+in+Israel&kl=XX&pg=q&search.x=27&search.y=8
