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E-mailAnd they say Israel isn’t an apartheid state!
The Hashmira Israeli Railways project sent on Sunday letters to some 100 Arab workers informing them that their contracts with the company would be terminated because they did not serve in the Israeli military.
[The Badge of a the Racist Israeli Railway Company. “Providing Transport in the Apartheid State Since 1948.” Indymedia-Letzebuerg.]
Serving in the IDF is not a requite for working in the Railway firm. The firm’s employees are 60% Arab, but are being laid off. Israel is moving more and more to the far-right and stories like this will be more and more common in an Israel that celebrates Avigdor Lieberman. Thought Lieberman or not the nation is still an apartheid state is just a matter of degree.
[Arab-Israeli MK Ahmed] Tibi described the Israeli decision as “discriminatory and racist”, and added sarcastically that the company should change its name to “Yisrael Beiteinu Railways”, referring to the party headed by extremist right-winger, Avigdor Lieberman, who openly calls for expelling the Arabs and the Palestinians. The company did not try to hide its discriminatory decisions and openly stated that “candidates must have completed military service”, the Ynet said.
And as to the charge that they should serve in the army: The decision by itself is forcing the Arab workers to be part of a military that occupies the lands of their brothers in the Palestinian and territories.
This is racism, pure and simple, and more proof that Zionism and democracy and equality are incompatible and the Zionism will end up being nothing more than a short-lived experiment that caused massive death, destruction and horror. It was always a far-fetched idea that one could establish a Jewish state in a sea of Arabs. The notion that European interlopers were going to buck the tide of Arab opposition was always a delusion, and many Zionists saw it as such but thought they could bring Arabs to accept Israel through force. This is the racist cliche that “Arabs understand only the language of force.” But as Hanna Arendt noted in the Journal of Politics when she visited Israel in 1950, “If there is one language the Arabs do not understand, it is the language of force.” And the Palestinians on whom violence has been inflicted for more than a century bear her out because they have not submitted to Zionist occupation of their country. The Zionist dream was, alas, just that: a dream. The tide of Arab opposition was never going to be held back forever. Israel may last a few decades more. But the Arab tide of justice will eventually overrun the walls of Zionism to liberate Palestine.
RSS 
Regrettably, an article’s link is broken to further broaden my knowledge of this issue, so, I urge Marco Villa to write more on employment opportunities for non-Christians, non-Anglo-Celts (Saxons) especially, not in the USA he, probably, knows a pot-or-nations are, but in British Commonwealth’s most multicultural-tolerantly-advanced places Australia is surely exemplified.
I do think that the Israel Railway (a company owned partly by the government) could have found other, non-security related jobs for these employees instead of firing them.
For a small test, I opened last Friday’s paper to the classifieds and each of the ads for security guards lists past service in an IDF combat unit as a requirement.
The railway is partly a legacy from the Turks and Brits– and was once part of the line that went all the way from the Strait of Gibraltar in Morocco up to Istanbul, along the Mediterranean coast. In Israel, it follows the ”Citrus Road” with stops at the old citrus packing houses and stops at Haifa and Ashdod ports. The ”Valley Line, which branched off to Afula, Bet Shean and once continued north to Damascus has been closed since the 1960s because of bombing attempts in the 50s and early 60s from the West Bank, then in Jordanian hands. There are branches to Beersheba and Jerusalem, with plans to have a line to Eilat in the south by 2015. It’s a nice way to travel if you’re going their way.
Be specific.
Russia is for Russian citizens, Israel-for the Jews: neither Arabs hold Israeli passport nor any, they will always look in islamists’ ass with no understanding that “fighters for freedom” prefer own tribe-men only, if even all Muslims and all Arabs all they are.
That is why the USA, Australia and NZ attract people from worldwide as countries built on ”empty lands” as Michael Kerjman had drew to attention already.
This anti Jewish racism of categorizing each Arab bigoted attack on Jews as “freedom fighting” and each defensive action by Israeli Jews as “racist”, has got to stop.
“Israel Railways fires Arab workers
By The Associated Press
“State-owned Israel Railways said Monday it had fired around 40 Israeli Arabs after deciding only military veterans could do its jobs.
“The railways said its security department changed the criteria, adding, however, that it is interested in providing veterans work in the tight economy.
“The workers had acted as lookouts at crossings to prevent trains and vehicles from colliding.
“The railway denied that it was discriminating against its workers.
“It says the new job criteria would also apply to Israeli Jews who were disqualified from the military or chose not to serve for religious reasons. Most Israeli Arabs are not required to serve in the military.”
The decision also disqualifies new immigrants who never served in the IDF, either, so it’s hard to see how the decision is “racist” or “apartheid”, unless you have objections to giving veterans a break.
By the way, Arab Israelis who have served in the IDF are not being fired… so it’s not about “race” (if you accept that “Arab” is a “race”, which I don’t), but about acceptance criteria.
Now here’s part of an article from “Ha’Aretz”, a rather left-wing newspaper:
“Kadi (one of the fired employees) says about half the monitors are Jewish, and those who did not serve in the army will be fired as well.
“Israel Railways, a government company obligated to transparency in its hiring practices, said on Sunday: ”Israel Railways views as significant the hiring of veterans and providing opportunities for these young people. Israel Railways is also reserving some 25 positions for minorities who have not necessarily served in the army.”
“The human resources company employing the workers, Hashmira, said it had no choice but to meet the conditions of Israel Railways, and said it would do everything possible to find other jobs for workers who do not meet the new criteria.”
Is this another transparent attempt to demonize Israel by lies?