At the conclusion of yesterday’s
presentation, the Israeli-Palestine conflict surfaced to the top of our
discussion in discussing the shift of racism towards including not only
physical and culture practices but religious beliefs as well. With the tension
and violence between the Israelites, a people of the Jewish faith, and their Palestinian
counterparts growing rampantly so has a new sense of racial tension between the
two populates.
I ran
across an article the other day reporting a new line of buses released by
Israel government in West Bank for “Palestinians-Only”. Apparently, the Israeli
government sent out several buses from a military check point for the private
use of Palestinian inhabitants. The Palestinians seem pleased with this new bus
line because they claim the riding the buses with the Israelis was so
unpleasant that they would actually prefer to have secluded bus services. They
also added that they understand the Israelis don’t want them riding with them
on the same buses anyway. One man stated that riding with the Jewish settlers
was humiliating and involved a lot of suffering.
I could not help but think back to the Jim Crow Era of the
American South when I was reading this article. African-Americans were subjected
to separate dining facilities, water fountains, schools, and other public
spaces as long as the separate facilities were “equal”. While most of the rift
between African and White Americans stemmed from predominately physical
features, the wedge growing between Palestinians and Israelis seems to
transpire from a more religious background perspective. The Israeli government
is implementing social division mechanisms that are only furthering the
distinction between “them” and “us”.
What do you think about this new line of buses? Do you feel
as though this social division resembles old ideas and/or practices of the U.S.
in the past?
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/04/accusations-of-racism-as-israel-launches-palestinian-only-buses-in-west-bank/
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