Education Seminar #4 - immigrants and refugees in Israel

In amongst the new years madness, on Sunday we had another educational seminar, this time on immigrants and refugees in Israel.  Coming from Australia, immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees are constantly front page news (well they used to be until Tony thought that transparency regarding asylum seekers arriving by boat wasn't required), but in Israel you don't hear anywhere near as much about the issue.  

We started the day with a talk from a lady who works in the immigrant / human rights sphere in Israel and she spoke to us about the different types of immigration in Israel.  First and foremost, immigration is split into two very clear categories: Jewish and non-Jewish.  Jewish means you can immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return.  It's fairly easy as long as you can prove you're Jewish and then you get a lot of assistance from the Government to make the move here.  However, if you're not Jewish, moving to Israel is extremely difficult.  

One of the biggest types of non-Jewish "immigration" to Israel is migrant workers.  Historically migrant workers were Palestinians but following tensions in the mid-90's, international migrant workers were preferred.  The first wave of migrant workers was in the early 000's from Ghana and Nigeria.  Apparently groups of Christian tourists would come from these countries and then stay illegally to work.  These groups built small communities in Israel however in the preceding years were deported.  

Israel has a legal framework for migrant workers whereby they come to Israel on a working permit however these permits attach specifically to a job and an employer, not to the worker, making the worker vulnerable as:

• If their job ends (for instance if you are a caregiver and the individual you are caring for dies or if you are working in agriculture and it is the off season for the produce you are working with) you must leave Israel.  This means the continuity of these jobs fluctuates;
• It is difficult to enforce your rights as a migrant worker because your visa is not personal.  This is seen commonly with Thai workers who work in the agricultural industry.  There are documented cases of them working 12 hour days, 30 days a month.  They are unlikely to report this because if they infuriate their boss, they will be fired and required to go home;
• If you have children while you are working in Israel, these children are deemed to be illegal and can a) not access social services and b) could also be deported with you even if they attend an Israeli school.

The lady spoke to us about xenophobia in Israel - a phrase new to me coming from multicultural Australia.  She stated that in Israel, there is no discourse on diversity and multiculturalism; this I have picked up on myself.  It is a fairly homogenous society with everyone being Jewish and Middle Eastern or of European decent (not counting Ethiopian-Israelis who are Jewish but they suffer from a whole other bag of issues that I will discuss in another post).  Because Israel is homogeneous society, and a Jewish state with the objective of keeping a strong Jewish majority, (my opinion here) Israel is not interested in being multicultural.  In turn, the government isn't interested in introducing a discourse against xenophobia and I think this is a real shame.  To me, Australia is a fantastic country because it is multicultural and I feel like Israel is really missing out.  It's also a bit of an oxymoron seeing as Israel is this big Jewish melting pot combining Jews from hundreds of different countries and cultures.

We then moved onto the part of the day where we discussed asylum seekers in Israel.  The majority of the asylum seekers in Israel come from North Africa, the two most common countries being Sudan and Eritrea.  These individuals come on foot through the Sinai Desert usually with the assistance of Bedouin Smugglers.  The route is very dangerous and extremely difficult, so difficult that it is more often than not only done by men.  Egyptian border guards are also ordered to shoot on sight if they see an asylum seeker on foot, making the journey to Israel even harder.

Once these asylum seekers arrive in Israel though it isn't all milk and honey.  For asylum seekers who have arrived in the last two or so years, they are detained in detention centres in the South of Israel for the purposes of assessing their asylum seeker application but because of systematic refusals to grant people asylum, are usually then deported.  I should note that the High Court keeps striking down the laws that allow for these detention centres but the Knesset keeps tweaking the law so that they don't get closed (the beautiful circle of democracy I guess).

However, there is a substantial group of asylum seekers living in Israel on temporary residence visas (usually for only a month at a time). These are those from Sudan and Eritrea.  Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Sudan and there are various international agreement prohibiting countries from deporting asylum seekers back to Eritrea so Israel has to let them stay.  We were told that there are about 47,000 asylum seekers currently living in Tel Aviv, mostly in the South of Tel Aviv near the central bus station.  South Tel Aviv is known as probably the sketchiest neighbourhood in Israel even though it has the central bus station.  We were advised by our program not to visit the central bus station alone at night.  The living standards there are very low with a lot of males loitering in public spaces during the day and night.

We spoke to an Eritrean asylum seeker who made this dangerous journey 7 years ago.  He spoke of the people smugglers and how thankful he was to make it to Israel where the soldiers at the border gave him clothing and food.  He has been in Israel for 7 years and lives on a month to month visa working as a caregiver at night.  He told us about how he hopes for peace in his country and that as soon as that happens, he will go back home.  He also spoke about how he wishes to see his mother again before she dies but doesn't know if that will happen.  It was a really moving story.

To end the day we visited a school in Southern Tel Aviv that caters to migrant worker's children and asylum seekers (kids described as "survivors").  The school has students from nearly every country and religion throughout the world, a really rare occurrence in Israel.  The school does a lot of cool things with project based learning and alternate teaching techniques because of the issues that these kids face.  They also assist families with Hebrew and parenting classes to help them acclimate to Israel.  It was a really inspiring place to visit.

It was a really interesting day that taught me a lot about the asylum seeker and immigration issue in Israel but like all education days, created a billion more questions I need to sit and think about.  For me though, when it comes to asylum seekers, it shouldn't matter whether they are Jewish or not.  They are fleeing their country of origin for their life.  We are all humans and our number one priority should be to take care of each other, irrelevant of religion and race.

Basically how I felt after the seminar

MM x

Educational Seminar #3 – the Arab minority in Israel

Yesterday I took a break from holidaying with my Mum to join my fellow ITFers on our third educational seminar day.  The topic was the Arab Minority in Israel.  In my opinion, this is a massive internal issue that Israel is dealing with that touches on related issues such as history and narrative, racism, human rights and coexistence.

In terms of background, there are around 8 million people in Israel and 20% of these are Arabs.  The term ‘Arab’ is a fairly general classification, and it covers Arab Muslims, Arab Christians and Druze communities.  It is important to note that not all Arabs identify as being Palestinian. 

Our trip yesterday started in Haifa at Beit ha-Gefen – a centre that aims to foster co-existence between Jews and Arabs (Muslim and Christian).  The centre runs mixed activities like art projects, hikes and international travel and it was really great to be shown a place that solely focuses on something that I think is missing in Israel society. 

Our guide talked to us about how Haifa is a leader in co-existence in Israel.  Haifa is one of nine mixed cities in Israel; ‘mixed’ referring to Jews and Arabs living under the same municipality.  The term 'mixed city’ surprised me.  In Australia, we don’t have mixed cities.  You can live wherever you want no matter where you’re from or what nationality you identify with.  Certain suburbs in cities may have more people from a certain religion or nationality living there but everyone happily lives together and is thankful if they live in a certain area that identifies with another culture because it probably means the food is more delicious.  Israel is a different story though.  Because of history, cultural differences and religious disparities, towns are usually either Arab or Jewish.  These towns may be located side by side but they do not mix.

Haifa works extremely well as a mixed city.  The most predominant reason for this is that it has no real religious significance to any religion, unlike say Jerusalem.  To me, this makes complete sense.  When religion gets involved, people can easily loose sight of reason.  They are dealing with a higher purpose so there’s no compromising or negotiating.  That’s why I am such a big advocate for the complete separation of religion and state (although BiBi defs does not agree with me on that one).

Our guide also said there is more tolerance in Haifa, for instance, there are some buses on Shabbat whereas in other cities in Israel, there are no buses on Shabbat (grrrr haha).  There is also a massive Christmas Tree and Menorah in the German Colony in Haifa whereas in other cities, even mixed cities like Akko, chief Rabbis have refused to have symbols of other holidays.  I myself have seen this at my school where we were told we cannot teach the kids about any Christian holidays.  Query Israel being democratic…

Our guide talked about the racism that Arabs have to deal with in Israel even though on paper, Arabs have the same rights as any other Israeli citizen.  For instance, the inability to rent an apartment after you give your name if it's an Arab name. Although these landlords may reject you for other reasons, it is fairly obvious that they don’t want an Arab renting out their apartment.  To me this is horrible.  I couldn’t imagine that happening in Australia.  I feel like if it did happen, it would be all over the news and the anti-discrimination commission would be involved.  However in Israel, it seems to be a different story.

We then met with a Druze family and had lunch.  The Druze are a really interesting Arab community in Israel.  Wikipedia tells me the Druze are a monotheistic religious and social community found predominately in the Middle East.  Druze are known to form a close knit community but they also fully integrate in their adopted homelands and are very loyal.  In Israel for instance, Druze men serve in the army and all Druze are considered to be very nationalistic and patriotic.

Druze generally live in their own communities and are a fairly secretive society.  In fact, to be Druze, both your mother and father have to be Druze.  There is no way to be a Druze unless your parents are Druze and if you choose to marry a non-Druze, you will be ex-communicated from the community.  However, the Druze lady that we spoke too stated that the Druze do not want their own country.  She said it would be too much work and that Druze are happy being a minority in Israel.  

After this, we went to an Arab community in the Galilee and visited an Arab school to speak with some students.  That was probably the most interesting part of the day.  We discussed what it’s like to be an Arab in Israel, whether if a Palestinian State was created these kids would move, whether the kids had any Jewish friends and what things they liked the most about Israel (with the answer being health insurance and the retirement pension).  It was fairly confronting but also a really amazing opportunity to speak with people from the other side of the argument.

The key thing I learnt is that Israel has a long way to go.  Being an Arab is Israel is hard.  You are discriminated against, people are scared of you and it’s hard to get a job, rent an apartment and live as an equal citizen.  

I could honestly go on about this all day but the point I keep coming back to is that Israel is a democracy.  It's a Jewish State but first and foremost it is a democracy.  Democracy means equality for all.  Arab schools shouldn't get less funding, all cities should be mixed cities, all holidays should be celebrated and all cultures should feel like they can call Israel home.  But it's extremely hard (because of history and because this is the only Jewish state in the world).  This is why Israel and it's inhabitants / neighbours are still trying to attain peace after more than 60 years.  I just think the Government could start to help this by doing a little more to incentivise coexistence and improve human rights for all people who are considered Israeli citizens.

Also my thoughts and wishes are with those people back home dealing with the crazy gunman in the Lindt Cafe in Sydney.  For real man, why the Lindt Cafe? Chocolate ain't ever hurt anyone ever.

My coffee that morning had a pomegranate in it! Hurrah!

MM x

Education Seminar #2 - Start Up Nation

Doing ITF means I get the pleasure of attending a number of educational seminar days throughout the year.  Today's was entitled 'Start Up Nation' and was in my fav city of Israel - Tel Aviv.

If you haven't read Start Up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer you should probably stop reading this blog and get yourself to a book store immediately, buy it and read it.  

I read the book a few months ago while I was in Asia and it was a seriously good read.   Very basically put, it discusses why Israel has been as successful as it has in the high-tech / start-up industry with all its threats and weaknesses.  It's a real page turner and I can't recommend it enough. 

We started off today with a talk from a business development and marketing professional at BDO.  This guy was on a whole other level of passionate (yelling and hitting the white board kind of passionate) so good thing his talk was really interesting. 

He spoke about Israel being this massive social experiment that's had to deal with waves of mass immigration and a precarious geo-political situation.  Remarkably though, Israel has had continued GDP per capita growth since the 1950's.  Talk about killin it!

One of the things that stuck out to me was his discussion on the biggest weaknesses in Israel's economy.  These being: 

• low participation in the economy (most prominently from Arab women and Hasidic men);
• inequality and centralisation which leads to monopolies and low competition; 
• a degrading competitive advantage (China and India are producing quantity while Israel produces quality); and 
• poor public service (of which I have already experienced in my time here).

Notice how conflict didn't feature on his list.  That stood out to me.  But, I guess Israel has never had concrete peace with all of its neighbours so it's become fairly good at just getting on with it.  Props to you Israel.

He also spent time discussing what about Israeli society makes it so good at start-ups.  Compulsory army service in Israel is one of the big ones.  This leads to Israeli society being informal, direct, energetic, filled with copious amounts of chutzpah (an inability to accept no) all while being warm.  He gave the example of an Israeli queue (of which I have seen many) which is basically a triangle of people with the pinnacle of the triangle being the start of the line. Grossly inefficient and mildly angering but informal, direct, energetic and filled with loads and loads of chutzpah!  If you're not on your A-game here you will basically never get want you want ever.

Ultimately though, it's all about the creative energy, of which Israel has plenty.  And I guess this is something I hope to take home with me - more chutzpah (not that I need it) and more creative energy towards whatever it is I decide to do with my life.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on a walking tour through Tel Aviv focusing on how it has changed from sand dunes to one of the best start up capitals in the world.  

All in all, a superb educational seminar showcasing how bomb Israel is, specifically Tel Aviv and how I sort of wish I was an entrepreneur living in Tel Aviv walking around dishing out chutzpah like it was going out of fashion ... a girl can dream I guess.

Meet the ITF groups of Rishon and PTK

MM x