Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released numbers today which show that almost a third of the population is under 15 years old.
What can we expect from the next generation?
A new poll reveals how deeply entrenched bigotry is in Israel.
A survey of Israeli teens revealed that most believe that Palestinian Israelis do not currently enjoy equal rights and, according to most of those holding that view, should not be granted equal rights.
Among those 15-18 year old Jewish Israelis polled, 50% said they would object to being placed in a classroom with one or more Palestinian Israelis. 32% do not want to be educated alongside students with special needs and 23% said they would not want gays or lesbians in their class.
96% of the teens want Israel to be a Jewish and democratic state and although almost a quarter of Israelis are not Jewish, 41% of those polled said that Israelis who are opposed to their nation being defined as a Jewish state, should be stripped of their citizenship.
Any glimmers of hope? 24% said they would refuse to perform military service in the West Bank.
Does that reflect significant opposition to the occupation? I suspect not. More likely it is mostly simply another expression of an aversion for Palestinians.
As for reports that Israel’s demographic make-up might be changing due to a surge of new immigrants, it turns out that only 14,572 arrived in 2009, contributing to a modest 1.7% growth in Israel’s Jewish population. At the same time, Zionists who perceive a Palestinian population controlled through occupation as a “demographic threat,” will find no comfort in the fact that Israel’s own Muslim population is growing at 2.8%.
I remember that bigotry among us teenagers in 1950s England was normal and quite thoughtless. It applied to ‘Wogs’, ‘Dagos’, and any other unfortunates born on the ‘wrong’ side of the English Channel. I believe it was quickly dispelled when we grew up.
A very brave Egyptian student teacher came to our school and gave a talk about the justice of turning over the Suez Canal to Egypt — this must have been in 1951 or 52. We could not have been more outraged, and bewildered at the crazyness, if he’d been advocating eating babies.
I guess it helped when Egypt got the Canal, and the last of Britain’s imperialists failed to get it back in 1956. I suspect a swift dose of reality for Israel’s little bigots would rapidly change their attitudes.
To Christopher
“I suspect a swift dose of reality for Israel’s little bigots would rapidly change their attitudes.”
And how do you propose to achieve that goal respectively what “dose of reality” do you see fit?