Monday, June 25, 2007

Film Tries to Capture 'Truth' of Bedouin Life [Israel's democracy & Arab on black racism inside the Bedouin Muslim community]

Film Tries to Capture 'Truth' of Bedouin Life [Israel's democracy & Arab on black racism inside the Bedouin Muslim community]

http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/13325

Film Tries to Capture 'Truth' of Bedouin Life, in All Its Hues

June 21, 2007 - Carin M. Smilk, Managing Editor






Exterior of "A Step Forward" in Rahat

Nothing is ever black and white, especially when it comes to people.

Take, for example, the situation with Israel's Bedouin population, particularly in the south of the country, in the Negev Desert. There, some 180,000 Bedouin reside -- all citizens of Israel, but some black, and some white.

The so-called white Bedouin are often dark-skinned, in typical Middle Eastern fashion, like many Sephardic Jews. The black Bedouin are actually former Africans, who were kidnapped by Arab slave traders; auctioned off in Zanzibar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt; and eventually brought through the Middle East -- and into the Negev. With the establishment of the State of Israel, they were freed, and later settled, for the most part, with many of the white Bedouin in desert towns and villages.

Israel keeps no record of the number of black Bedouin as opposed to white; population figures go by ethnicity, hence all Bedouin are counted together. But a sizable community lives in their own neighborhoods in Rahat, one of seven recognized towns established in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the Israel government for certain Bedouin tribes. Less than 30 miles due north of Beersheva, modern-day Rahat is now a bustling city of more than 40,000 people -- the second largest Arab city after Nazareth in the north.







Alia Al Kamalat, headmistress of the Omar bin Al-Khatab elementary school in Rahat, Israel


But these people are not faring so well, and their hardships led a Jewish filmmaker to take a snapshot of life in Rahat, seen through the eyes of a handful of black Bedouin.

Uri Rosenwaks, originally from Beersheva, came to teach a film class to a group of women amenable to the idea, and along the way, learned a lesson or two himself.

For one, Rahat -- which means "collective" -- ranks as one of the poorest cities in Israel, with an unemployment rate of about 18 percent, twice the national average. Some 50 percent of Rahat's adult population and 60 percent of its children live below the poverty line. It boasts one of the largest birthrates in Israel, with especially low education and employment rates for women, and especially high dropout rates when it comes to boys and school. Statistics point to the blacks as having an even rougher time of it than the whites.







Documentarian Uri Rosenwaks with Bedouin NGO director Majid Al Kamalat after a screening of "The Film Class"


"Israel," says Rosenwaks, "is turning into a capitalistic jungle," and it's leaving behind some of its struggling citizens. With no previous knowledge of the status of black Bedouin, Rosenwaks took what he absorbed in 18 months and turned it into a 53-minute documentary called "The Film Class," completed in 2006 and now weaving its way through the Jewish film-festival circuit.

'An Unfounded Stigma'
Superficially, the documentary centers on women of different ages understanding the mechanics of film production, but its real value lies in the self-knowledge and ancestral history they gain from interviewing others. For instance, they learn that older women know little in the way of their family trees, reaching back only to a grandparent at best. They know little of how they even wound up in Rahat. Male subjects seem to know more, like the nearly 90-year-old man who tells of black Bedouin, both male and female, being stolen as children, dragged away to be sold.

At times, the women visibly wrestle with their reactions to the stories they hear. They also get the chance to travel to see firsthand where they come from -- the group, with grant money for the making of the film, go all the way to Zanzibar to uncover their roots and find out more about the hardships of former slaves. (They also fly to England for quite a different adventure, one that addresses a serious familial issue, but also adds a bit of levity to the production.)

And it isn't just the past that stings. In an on-air talk with Talal Alkiernawi, the mayor of Rahat, the women challenge him on contemporary issues, like the discrepancies between blacks and whites.

In that interview, the women ask him rather bluntly, "Don't you feel that there is racism inflicted upon the blacks?"

The mayor distinctly pauses before answering with, "I don't see any racism."

Look, he continues, "I am a Muslim like you, an Arab like you. We speak the same language; we share sorrows and joys. I don't see any racism."

But another response to the same question is offered by Majid Al Kamalat, the 36-year-old director of "A Step Forward," a nongovernmental organization founded in 2000 by young Bedouin professionals to help residents from the grass-roots up. Its office in Rahat serves as a natural meeting place, as well as the location for part of "The Film Class."

This time, Rosenwaks plays interrogator, referring to something Al Kamalat quietly notes on film: "When you talk about a stigma, what do you mean?"

Replies Al Kamalat: "There is a stigma about the Afro-Bedouin community -- an unfounded stigma -- that we are all thieves and criminals, that we don't care about anything, but the opposite is true. As one of the community, I think it's the opposite. I see positive things, but people tend to see only the negative."

One such positive is the career of Al Kamalat's wife, Alia, who serves as headmistress of the Omar bin Al-Khatab elementary school -- kindergarten to grade six -- in Rahat. A working mother of three, Alia Al Kamalat represents one of the very first female Bedouin principals, though several more have followed in her footsteps. At 35, she is setting a trend for a new generation.

As is her husband, who notes that he appears in the film "for the future of the children," meaning all of the children in his city and elsewhere. And because of his own young daughter, he says he wants to further opportunities for women in general.

Those in the film class mention the exact same thing. They are empowering themselves and their families. They are undergoing an awakening of sorts. Be it operating the camera, setting precedents for their children, contemplating higher education or, for a few of the younger women, dabbling with the idea of marrying someone white, the assembly of students winds up earning an "A" -- for awareness.



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Sunday, April 01, 2007

Arab Reformist: You Know You’re In An Arab Country When…

Arab Reformist: You Know You’re In An Arab Country When…

[ http://infidelsarecool.com/2007/02/27/arab-reformist-you-know-you-in-an-arab-country-when ]




Arab Reformist: You Know You’re In An Arab Country When…



February 27th 2007



Via MEMRI:



  • “When you cannot find a single garden in your city, but there is a mosque on every corner - you know that you are in an Arab country…

  • “When you see people living in the past with all the trappings of modernity - do not be surprised, you are in an Arab country.

  • “When religion has control over science - you can be sure that you are in an Arab country.

  • “When clerics are referred to as ’scholars’ - don’t be astonished, you are in an Arab country.

  • “When you see the ruler transformed into a demigod who never dies or relinquishes his power, and whom nobody is permitted to criticize - do not be too upset, you are in an Arab country.

  • “When you find that the large majority of people oppose freedom and find joy in slavery - do not be too distressed, you are in an Arab country.

  • “When you hear the clerics saying that democracy is heresy, but [see them] seizing every opportunity provided by democracy to grab high positions [in the government] - do not be surprised, you are in an Arab country…

  • “When monarchies turn into theocracies, and republics into hybrids of monarchy and republic - do not be taken aback, you are in an Arab country.

  • “When you find that the members of parliament are nominated [by the ruler], or else that half of them are nominated and the other half have bought their seats through bribery… - you are in an Arab country…

  • “When you discover that a woman is worth half of what a man is worth, or less - do not be surprised, you are in an Arab country…

  • “When you see that the authorities chop off a man’s hand for stealing a loaf of bread or a penny, but praise and glorify those who steal billions - do not be too surprised, you are in an Arab country…

  • “When you are forced to worship the Creator in school and your teachers grade you for it - you can be sure that you are in an Arab country…

  • “When young women students are publicly flogged merely for exposing their eyes - you are in an Arab country…

  • “When a boy learns about menstruation and childbirth but not about his own [body] and [the changes] it undergoes in puberty - roll out your prayer mat and beseech Allah to help you deal with your crisis, for you are in an Arab country…

  • “When land is more important than human beings - you are in an Arab country…

  • “When covering the woman’s head is more important than financial and administrative corruption, embezzlement, and betrayal of the homeland - do not be astonished, you are in an Arab country…

  • “When minorities are persecuted and oppressed, and if they demand their rights, are accused of being a fifth column or a Trojan horse - be upset, you are in an Arab country…

  • “When women are [seen as] house ornaments which can be replaced at any time - bemoan your fate, you are in an Arab country.

  • “When birth control and family planning are perceived as a Western plot - place your trust in Allah, you are in an Arab country…

  • “When at any time, there can be a knock on your door and you will be dragged off and buried in a dark prison - you are in an Arab country…

  • “When fear constantly lives in the eyes of the people - you can be certain that you are in an Arab country.”



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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Only Racism Motivates anti Israel "racism" charges - Constant campaign by racist Arabs

Only Racism Motivates anti Israel "racism" charges

Constant campaign by racist Arabs


Anti Israel fascism: Holding Israel to a standard, NO COUNTRY can.

Just after pluralistic multi racial Israel has nominated it's Arab minister...

No matter what Israel does -- the very democratic Israel that is enabling for Arab-advocacy & Arab propagandists to flourish, such groups that have a job of 'silencing real racism, hatred & terrorism by Arabs inside/outside of Israel', via crying 'racism' on ANYTHING, good hearted Israel that faces imminent danger from a sea of fascism, Islamofascism or plain Arab racism, usually both combined -- it just can never "satisfy" the charges of "racism".
The Arab racists know that, which is why they know they can go on & on & on about it.

How can we racis-ize Israel more?

Anti-Israel groups such as "Adala" (by racist Arabs supported by some Israeli Jews saturated by extra-guilt) is even resorting to such ridiculous "complaints" as to why Israel does not promote 'Muslim holy sites' as much as they do for Jewish sites... wow! How is it "racist"? Well, that doesn't really matter much, just as long as they can even remotely claim the desired "racism" word, that WORKS for them.

"Palestinian" Arabs: If you dare defend yourself, I will call you a "racist"

How can one expect to survive fascist Arabs inside Israel that conspire to slaughter innocent non-Arab Israelis?

How can anyone criticize security measures in the war on terror?

Why is it that a checkpoint on Jews is quite OK but a checkpoint for Arabs have to be connected to "racism"? Is this double standard not racist?

Last but not least, Don't forget the good ol' Arab occupied UN that jumps on any "racism" charge, old or new, the body that would never voice anything on real racism by the entire Arab world on ALL it's minorities, without any explanation of 'fighting terrorists' insight.


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Now let's take a look at real racism, no argument here, by Arabs inside Israel, Israeli Arabs' fascism


Israeli Arabs' deny Shoah
Totally Jewish, UK
http://www.totallyjewish.com/news/world/?content_id=5895
More than a quarter of Israeli Arabs believe the Holocaust did not take place,
according to a new survey conducted by Haifa University. ...

The Enemy Within
Strategy Page
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/israel/articles/20070321.aspx
March 17, 2007: There is a growing problem with loyalty of Israeli Arabs, who make up 20 percent of the population. A recent opinion survey of the Israeli Arabs

Israeli Intelligence: Israeli Arabs A Long-Term Danger To Israel's survival
http://www.zoa.org/2007/03/israeli_intelli.htm
Zionist Organization of America (press release), NY - Mar 15, 2007
Some 40% of the Israeli Arabs involved in terrorism originated in Judea and Samaria but were permitted to come to pre-‘67 Israel and receive Israeli ...


Radicals taking over
http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=36787

Half of Israeli Arabs justify Hizbullah kidnapping
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3378086,00.html
Ynetnews, Israel - Mar 18, 2007
Prof Sammy Smooha from Haifa University finds surprising support for Shiite organization among Israeli Arabs. 'The Katyusha rockets endangered them too,'


48% of Israeli Arabs Say Hizbullah Rocket Attacks Justified Israel Hasbara Committee (subscription)
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=2/a/vii/190320071

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Israeli Arabs caught fighting with al Qaeda ...
Mar 18, 2007
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=3948
Captured in Baghdad Saturday, March 17, were two - some sources say three - Israeli Arabs, who told their American interrogators they came from the northern ...

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Related:

Israelis aren't 'racist' - they're worried http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467807212&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

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"Double Standard"

By Mindelle Jacobs

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Columnists/Jacobs_Mindelle/2007/02/26/3668039.html


A United Nations anti-racism panel is once again examining the human rights records of various countries and Israel, of course, is being characterized as particularly malevolent.

Last week, Israel was before the committee to answer to allegations of discrimination against its Arab citizens in areas such as education and housing, and the disparities in incarceration rates between Jews and Arabs.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination also questioned Israel about accusations that the Jewish state doesn’t sufficiently protect sites considered holy by other religions.

This issue was prompted by a report to the committee by an Israel-based NGO called Adalah, which promotes the rights of Israeli Arabs.

Since 1948, about 250 non-Jewish places of worship have either been destroyed or made inaccessible because of neglect or security concerns, according to Adalah.

Some were razed because of development in the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv corridor and others have simply been left to crumble because of lack of funding, the NGO asserted.

“Jewish sites take high priority, Christian sites come second and Islamic sites a distant last,” Adalah declared.

The group also complained that tourism officials promote the city of Safed as the centre of Jewish mysticism or Kabbalah, even though the city also has a Muslim past.

Well, the Ottoman Empire is long gone and Israel is a Jewish country. It would be peculiar if it didn’t use Safed’s ancient link to the Kabbalah to draw visitors.

As for the destruction of non-Jewish places of worship, I suspect most were sacrificed for the sake of urbanization.

Racism likely played a part in the closure, conversion and neglect of some mosques and that’s unsettling. Israel also has a troubling history of discriminating against its Arab citizens.

But let’s keep things in perspective. All citizens of Israel have full civil and political rights, including freedom of religion. Israel isn’t perfect but it is at least striving to improve.

And Israel has the rule of law to keep the country on its toes. Elsewhere in the Middle East, however, it’s racism as usual – typically state-sanctioned.

In Saudia Arabia, for instance, all citizens must be Muslim and the public practice of other religions is banned.

Non-Muslims who gather in homes for religious practices are supposed to be protected. However, this right isn’t always respected, according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2006 International Religious Freedom Report.

In compensation cases, male Jews or Christians only get half of what male Muslims receive. Other men are granted one-sixteenth of the amount a Muslim gets.

And the government, which observes Sunni Islam, doesn’t finance the construction or maintenance of Shia mosques.

In Egypt, non-Muslims need a presidential decree to build churches and synagogues and the neighbouring Muslim community must give its approval.

The construction and repair of churches is typically delayed for years.

Israel’s missteps are mild in comparison, says Aurel Braun, professor of international relations at the University of Toronto.

“Among the tricks here,” he says, “is to set up a standard that no one can meet and then hold Israel alone to that standard.”

mjacobs@edmsun.com


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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Humane Israel multi-racial democracy to grant legal refugee status for Sudanese escaping Arab-Islamic APARTHEID

MKs pledge to grant legal refugee status for Sudanese prisoners
By HAVIV RETTIG

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359887840&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

One must wonder how Musa sees the world. A black Muslim refugee from the Sudan, Musa's refusal to be drafted into the Sudanese army to fight the Arab janjaweed militiamen led to the burning of his village and the murder or disappearance of his 16-member family.

Yet those who carried out the retribution killings were not government forces, but Arab militiamen themselves, armed by the Sudanese government, the very men whom the Sudanese military was trying to defeat.


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Just Remember that Darfurians are Muslims, not Jewish... in fact, they are black Muslims, kudos to Israeli democratic pluralistic multi-racial heroes of (that small little beautiful country "David", struggling to survive against the sea of "Goliath" terror surrounding it only to wipe it off) accepting the victims of the racist Arabs, escaping the Arab-supremacists comitting the genocide on non-Arabs in sudan.

Heard that Arabist Jimmy Carter the faslsifier, the pro Islamic-apartheid liar??

Heard that Arabist Jimmy Carter the faslsifier, the pro Islamic-apartheid liar???
The one that had a hand in the Islamic evil apartheid totalitarian Iran republic & it's current menace on the world. no wonder that such a twisted guy will use the term "apartheid" rather where it's never justified.

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Monday, February 19, 2007

Activist blasts Muslims, Arabs over Darfur stance

Activist blasts Muslims, Arabs over Darfur stance

Web posted at: 2/20/2007 2:7:51

Source ::: The Peninsula / By MOBIN PANDIT Mohamed Adam Yahya

Doha • A human rights activist from Darfur yesterday blasted the Arab and Muslim world for what he described as its hypocritical stand on the troubled region in Sudan.

He said Muslims from the rest of the world should be ashamed of their indifference towards fellow Muslims being persecuted in Darfur.

Ironically, it is the Jews and Americans who are supporting the 'innocent Muslims being targeted' in the region and providing food and shelter to nearly 250,000 Darfur refugees who have fled to neighboring Chad, said Mohamed Adam Yahya.

Yahya is the founder and executive director of the US-based ‘Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy’, a body committed to preserving human rights and ethnic communities in Darfur.

Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the US-Islamic World Forum here, he said: "The silence of the Arab and Islamic world on the Darfur issue is not only baffling, it is shameful. Do the Arabs and Muslims have any right to criticise America?"

Situated in the west of Sudan and spread over an area of 173,000 square miles, Darfur is double the size of France and has seven million people, mostly 'black' Muslims, living there.

According to Yahya, Sudan's total population is around 36 million and 26 per cent of the people are of Arab origin. They have been dominating politics, education, military, government jobs as well as business and the economy ever since the country attained freedom in January 1956.

Even though ‘black Muslims’ account for 75 per cent of Darfur's population, they do not enjoy any freedom. They are denied opportunities of education and cannot enter politics. They cannot become religious leaders or take up higher posts in the army or even become teachers.

“All a black Darfur Muslim can hope to become is a soldier in the Sudanese army,” said Yahya. "The Arab Sudanese consider themselves as superior. They have been discriminating against us for long."

Earlier, Yahya's scathing criticism of Muslims for their alleged silence on the plight of fellow Muslims in Darfur at the concluding session of the US-Islamic World Forum at the Ritz-Carlton yesterday was greeted with hearty applause.

The problem in Darfur actually began in 1991 with violent clashes between 'black and Arab Muslims' taking place. Taking advantage of the widening cleavage, the present government in Khartoum began supporting a local Arab militia, called the 'Janjaweed', with arms and funds. The problem was aggravated.

Yahya said that over the past four years alone, some 450,000 people have been killed in the region and another 250,000 have become homeless. They have been forced to take refuge in neighbouring Chad. “There is a genocide going on in the region and the Jews and the Americans are opposing it, while the Arabs and Muslims have chosen to be conveniently mum. It is ironical that Muslims are killing Muslims there,” said Yahya.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=February2007&file=Local_News200702202751.xml

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