Asylum

JEWISH PERSPECTIVE
How can we not, as Jews, have compassion for asylum seekers? We have only to look to our own history. Read more

MIZRAHI

Only because I had lurking bronchitis and reading made my eyes hurt and I’d run out of DVDs — only then did I flick on the TV to watch Israel’s first Big Brother. Only after noting my bad luck in having to witness the reality TV phenomenon take hold twice over and in two languages did I wonder if there’d be any manifestations of ethnic tension in this programme. It took around five minutes to surface. Forgive the lack of names and the paraphrasing, but basically the Ashkenazi-origin young woman was upset over the abrupt manners of a Mizrahi housemate, which were interpreted as rude and which were not apologized for so much as explained away, as the Mizrahi contestant said something like: ‘This is what you get, it’s what I am — I can’t be European.’ Bingo. Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.

Rachel Shabi is a freelance journalist. Her book Not the Enemy: Israel’s Jews from Arab Lands is published by Yale University Press in January 2009.