[Elder of Ziyon] Media and leftist double standards on Africans in Israel

From The Times of Israel:

About a hundred Sudanese migrants living in the Arab Israeli town of Kfar Manda moved elsewhere on Wednesday following a surge in tensions with locals, Haaretz reported.

The Sudanese were said to have left by agreement after altercations broke out between them and the local population.

According to the report, three Sudanese were reported arrested earlier this week after locals complained about noise coming from an adjacent apartment and violent altercations broke out between dozens of locals and African migrants.

On Wednesday, 15 people were injured when a scuffle broke out between the migrants and locals, with townsfolk reportedly chanting "clear out the foreigners," according to Ynet news.

The YNet story from Wednesday said:

Large police forces that were dispatched to the scene were forced to use tear gas to break up the fight. Two Kfar Manda residents and a Sudanese migrant were arrested.

A police official told Ynet the scuffle erupted because some Kfar Manda residents "were not pleased" with the presence of Sudanese migrants in the village.

Following the brawl, hundreds of locals arrived at the scene and demanded that the migrants be removed from the village.

I purposefully waited overnight before posting this story, because I wanted to see if the mainstream media would cover it the same way it covers every story of Israelis who demonstrate against or attack illegal African immigrants in Israel.

When incidents like this happen in Tel Aviv, the media, egged on by the anti-Israel crowd and the extreme leftist websites that they inhabit, cover it extensively, along with quotes from activists who say that this proves that Israelis are racists. But this time, over a day after the fights and 14 hours after the Africans were forced out of the village, only the Israeli media has covered this.

Why is that?

Because Kfar Manda is an Arab Israeli village.

And the only time it is proper to scream "racism" in Israel is when you can blame the Jews.

Al Akhbar talks about "rising racist attacks by Jews against Africans, with Jewish extremists carrying out anti-African pogroms in Tel Aviv." But nt a word about Kfar Manda.

Peace Now, quoting Lara Friedman at The Daily Beast, blames not all Jews but only the right wing variety:

These politicians have a clear and compelling message: these people are diseased and unclean; they will attack us and rape our women; they are an existential threat to our people and our way of life; they are an enemy that must be shown no mercy, and anyone who helps or defends them is likewise an enemy (one Kadima MK suggested that Israeli human rights activists who are aiding the migrants "should be imprisoned and transported to [prison] camps we are building"). This message is disturbingly reminiscent of the smears used against Jews in pre-Holocaust Europe and against black people in America's pre-civil rights era. ... it is evidence of the poisonous, zero-sum atmosphere in Israel today and the brutalization and coarsening of growing segments of Israeli society within it. Failure to recognize this painful reality is self-delusion and denial, and will only result in Israel sliding deeper down the slippery slope toward authoritarianism.

Another member of Peace Now (Canada) also blames the right:

These are difficult times to be a liberal Zionist Jew. Time has forced many to come to terms with the realities of the nationalist, right-wing domination of Israeli politics and the lack of any progress in peacemaking. ...Right-wing nationalism, Israeli style, is racist to the core.

Yet none of these left-wing Jews or English-language Arab media have uttered a word against Arab "racism" against the Sudanese in Kfar Manda. It doesn't fit their narrative - in fact, it completely undermines it, because the people they consider virtuous are acting the same way as their sworn enemies.


So the story is being roundly ignored. No anguished cries about how Arabs can treat Africans this way. No realization that when normal people are faced with an unwanted illegal population of any sort in their midst they are not likely to welcome them, no matter who the residents are, or what their politics are, or who the illegals are.

Of course there is racism in Israel, just as there is racism everywhere else. But the avalanche of articles calling only Jews (or right wing Jews) "racist" for objecting to illegal immigration ruining their neighborhoods, and the dearth of articles about how Israeli Arabs act the exact same way, shows that those who are quick to cry "racism" are the true bigots.

(h/t Yoel)

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder of Ziyon at 6/15/2012 06:28:00 AM