From: backon@vms.huji.ac.il
Subject: Re: Ten questions about Israel
Distribution: world
Organization: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Lines: 134

In article <1483500349@igc.apc.org>, cpr@igc.apc.org (Center for Policy Research) writes:
>
> From: Center for Policy Research <cpr>
> Subject: Ten questions about Israel
>
>
> Ten questions to Israelis
> -------------------------
>
> I would be thankful if any of you who live in Israel could help to
> provide
>  accurate answers to the following specific questions. These are
> indeed provocative questions but they are asked time and again by
> people around me.
>
> 1.      Is it true that the Israeli authorities don't recognize
> Israeli nationality ? And that ID cards, which Israeli citizens
> must carry at all times, identify people as Jews or Arabs, not as
> Israelis ?


Although the Hebrew expression LE'UM is used, the ID card specifically states on
the 2nd page: EZRACHUT YISREALIT: Israeli citizen. This is true for all
Israeli citizens no matter what their ethnicity. In the United States most
official forms have RACE (Caucasian, Black, AmerIndian, etc.).

>
> 2.      Is it true that the State of Israel has no fixed borders
> and that Israeli governments from 1948 until today have refused to
> state where the ultimate borders of the State of Israel should be
> ?
>

Funny, I have a number of maps and ALL of them have fixed borders.



> 3.      Is it true that Israeli stocks nuclear weapons ? If so,
> could you provide any evidence ?

Probably yes. So what ?



>
> 4.      Is it true that in Israeli prisons there are a number of
> individuals which were tried in secret and for which their
> identities, the date of their trial and their imprisonment are
> state secrets ?


Apart from Mordechai Vanunu who had a trial behind closed doors, there was one
other espionage case (the nutty professor at the Nes Ziona Biological
Institute who was a K.G.B. mole) who was tried "in camera". I wouldn't exactly
call it a state secret. The trial was simply tried behind closed doors. I hate
to disappoint you but the United States has tried a number of espionage cases
in camera.


>
> 5.      Is it true that Jews who reside in the occupied
> territories are subject to different laws than non-Jews?
>

Not Jews. Israeli citizens. Jordanian law is in effect in the West Bank but the
KNESSET passed a law that Israeli law would be binding on Israeli citizens
residing in the West Bank. These citizens could be Jews, Israeli Muslims, Druze,
or Israeli Christians. It has NOTHING to do with religion.




> 6.      Is it true that Jews who left Palestine in the war 1947/48
> to avoid the war were automatically allowed to return, while their
> Christian neighbors who did the same were not allowed to return ?

Anyone who was registered (Jew, Muslim, Christian) could return. You might be
confusing this with the census taken in June 1967 on the West Bank after the
Six Day War. In *this* instance, if the Arab was not physically present he
couldn't reside on the West Bank (e.g. if he had been visting Jordan).


>
> 7.      Is it true that Israel's Prime Minister, Y. Rabin, signed
> an order for ethnical cleansing in 1948, as is done today in
> Bosnia-Herzegovina ?
>

No. Not even if you drowned him in bourbon, scotch or brandy :-)



> 8.      Is it true that Israeli Arab citizens are not admitted as
> members in kibbutzim?

Not true. Although a minority, there *are* some Israeli Arabs living on
kibbutzim. On the other hand, at my age (42) I wouldn't be admitted to a
kibbutz nor could the family join me. Not that I would be so thrilled to do so
in the first place. The kibbbutz movement places candidates under rigorous
membership criteria. Many Israeli Jews are not admitted.


>
> 9.      Is it true that Israeli law attempts to discourage
> marriages between Jews and non-Jews ?

The religious status quo in Israel has marriage and divorce  handled by the
religious courts. The RABBANUT handles marriage and divorce for Jews, the
Muslim SHAARIA  courts are for Muslims, the Christian denominations have their
religious courts, and the Druze have their own courts. The entire religious
establishment (Jewish, Muslim, Druze, Christian) wants to keep it that way.

>
> 10.     Is it true that Hotel Hilton in Tel Aviv is built on the
> site of a muslim cemetery ?

I believe it's adjacent to a former Muslim cemetary. From what I heard (and I'd
like to get feedback from Muslins  on the net) sanctity of cemetaries is not
held that sancrosanct as it is held by Jews. The current Israeli Ministry of
Trade and Industry on Agron Road in Jerusalem is housed in a former hotel that
was built by Arabs in the 1920's on the site of an Arab cemetary.


Josh
backon@VMS.HUJI.AC.IL



>


> Thanks,
>
> Elias Davidsson Iceland email:   elias@ismennt.is

