The
night of broken glass was the moment in Nazi Germany that changed things for
German Jews. Not that thing’s hadn't been bad before; but Kristallnacht showed
German Jews that their future in Germany was doomed. The
orchestrated violence was sanctioned by the Nazi government openly and without
fear of condemnation from its neighbours. In terms of Kristallnacht, the rest
they say is history.
Fast
forward seventy-four years and what do we see on Wednesday night in Tel-Aviv? The
wanton destruction of property, increased talk about foreigners threatening
Israel’s social fabric and national security (said by the ‘mainstream’ Israeli
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu) and talk of deportations. Deportations. The Jewish world should
shudder when hearing the word deportations as seventy years ago the term meant
something very different.
So
why has this group of nationalist Israeli’s forgotten the very events that led
to the establishment of their state? There
are currently approximately 60,000 African refugees living in Israel (About
1% of the population). They are mostly from Sudan
and Eritrea and have paid exorbitant
amount to be smuggled into Israel ;
a state that was founded on the premise of being a tolerant and just society. Israel however
sees up to 90% them as economic migrants. This is in sharp contrast to the UK where over
two thirds of Sudanese and Eritrean migrants are granted refugee status. Israeli newspapers such as the Jerusalem Post
have suggested that the migrants have taken over neighbourhoods and harass
women and have shown no willingness to conform to Israeli society. However,
history shows that it’s only second generation migrants that really adopt their
new country’s culture and values, the first generation are too busy setting
everything up to conform. After all how many of our great grandparents spoke
anything other than Yiddish?
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