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Oppression and racism: The main determinants of Jewish immigration

October 18, 2021 at 11:10 am

Israeli youths march through the Old City of Jerusalem holding the Israeli flag on 16 May 2007 [MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images]

Data recently released by Israel’s immigration minister and the Jewish Agency show that Jewish immigration to Israel increased by 31 per cent in 2021. The data shows an increase of 41 per cent in immigration from the US, compared with the first nine months of 2020, as well as a 55 per cent increase from France.

The considerable increase of Jewish immigrants from the US and France to Israel surely did not happen accidentally, but is due to pre-planned schemes for Jewish immigration policy run by the Zionist state in cooperation with the different international Jewish organisations.

Jewish immigration has fuelled the Zionist project in Palestine – forcing Palestinians out of their homes and replacing them with Jewish immigrants to create the Jewish State of Israel. However, this project, founded on oppressive pillars, has been plagued with filthy determinants that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently disclosed.

“From its founding to the present day, Jewish immigration shaped the face of Israeli society and created a unique mosaic unlike anywhere else in the world,” Bennett proclaimed in a conference last week marking Immigration and Absorption Week. “Our goal is to bring 500,000 Jewish immigrants from the strong communities in the US, South America and France,” he affirmed.

While Bennett claimed that the reason for this goal was the increasing “racism and anti-Semitism” against Jews around the world, many other Jewish observers believe that this was only a guise. “Racism and anti-Semitism run rampant across the globe,” he claimed, “this reminds us that Israel is the home of all Jews.”

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Speaking to me, Israeli writer and journalist Yossi Melman, who was an intelligence and strategic affairs correspondent for Haaretz, said that Bennett “is keeping his promises” when he encourages Jewish immigration to Israel. Meanwhile, the famous Israeli journalist Gideon Levy told me that Bennett encourages Jewish immigration “to balance the natural Palestinian growth.”

Surely, this is one of the filthiest goals of Jewish immigration to the occupation State of Israel, for several reasons. The first, is that Israeli authorities and Jewish agencies are working to make the Jewish population in Israel outnumber the Arab population in order to maintain a Jewish majority. Therefore, Arabs will continue to be subjugated to a Jewish agenda, which is always against their own interests, despite being the real owners of the land.

To do this, the Israeli authorities also adopt a discriminatory policy regarding the expansion of the Arab population, including restrictions on building new homes, dealing with Arabs as second-class citizens, easing the daily living conditions for Jews, while making everything difficult for Arabs, pushing them out of their villages and neighbourhoods to build Jewish communities.

The new Jewish immigrants are being resettled in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as in the occupied Syrian territories of the Golan Heights. Just several days ago, Bennett announced a major plan to develop the Jewish settlements in the occupied Golan Heights and said his government is planning to settle 250,000 Jewish settlers there.

Adding to this, Liran Friedmann, a Jewish journalist who writes for Ynet News, stated that Bennett’s plan to encourage 500,000 Jewish immigrants to Israel from the US, South American and France is a form of discrimination against the Jewish people in Eastern Europe whose immigrants have, according to him, contributed to the prosperity of Israel.

Referring to Bennett’s call for Jews from the US, South American and France to immigrate to Israel, Friedmann expressed: “This is not a plea for these Jews to come along for the ride, but more of a cry for help to save the country from the ‘onslaught’ of Aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel) from Eastern Europe.”

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Bennett, according to Friedmann, believes that only Jewish immigrants from the US, South America and France are genuinely and legitimately Jewish. He remarked that Bennett clearly explained this when he said: “Immigration not only strengthens us as a country, but it also maintains our continued existence as Jews in the face of increasing assimilation, especially in the United States. This is a trend that should worry each and every one of us, regardless of one’s religious affiliation or another.”

For Friedmann: “Israel, despite claiming to be the home of all Jews, still continues its racist and segregationist mentality towards the Diaspora from Eastern Europe. Those 20,000 people who immigrate to Israel from Eastern Europe every year are lucky if the state even gives them the courtesy to call themselves Jews.”

Jewish journalist Oren Ziv reiterated this to me directly: “There is a lot of racism against Jewish immigrants from East Europe and many countries like Ethiopia and India. They are of different groups. These people can immigrate to Israel and get Israeli passports, but they still face a lot of social problems and racism. The Jewish immigration system to Israel is racist as it prefers white Ashkenazi immigrants over others.”

Explaining more about Israeli racism and its relation to the Jewish immigration mentioned by Bennett, Friedman elaborated: “It is hard to be proud of so many immigrants from Moscow, Tashkent or Minsk, who have done so much for the state but aren’t as cool and hip as their Jewish peers from Paris or New York.”

Another issue, according to Ziv, is that wealth and poverty play a major role in the subject of Jewish immigration to Israel: “Jewish immigrants from the US, South American and France are wealthier than those from Eastern Europe and Ethiopia, who are poor.”

The idea of the Zionist occupation of Palestine, which is mainly based on the claimed teachings of Judaism, is built on the basis of oppression and racism, not only against Palestinians who are the owners of the land, but also against Jews who are being used as the fuel for this oppressive Zionist project.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.