Comments on: Those Filthy, Lying Minorities

By: aliyah06

aliyah06 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:22:49 +0000

It’s easy to call it discrimination, but OTOH, if you check a little deeper, you’ll find that the Arab municipalities are mismanaged, corrupt, that individuals pockets funds intended for the town, that a large proportion of the municipal population doesn’t pay muni taxes, nor does the municipality enforce collection.

Just recently there was a huge outcry over the water being cut off to Arab municipalities….and it turned out that it was because they didn’t pay their bill.

My water gets turned off if I don’t pay my bill, too.

And don’t start on housing permits. I live here–NO one can get a permit, not just Arabs. Getting a permit to cover a balcony can take two years in the application process if not longer, and you stand a better than 50% chance of it being denied. IF the muni inspectors find you’ve covered your balcony w/o a permit, they come out and force you to tear it off.

And someone in the Arab townships must be getting building permits, because Beit Safafa, Sharafat, Issawiya, Beit Hanina, Umm Tuba, Tzur Bahir and Beit Safafa are all mushrooming with new construction.

By: Bloix

Bloix — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:15:27 +0000

Many secular Jews in NYC hold these views about Hasidic Jews – they are dirty, they stink, and they lie.

By: Y. Ben-David

Y. Ben-David — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:06:52 +0000

Another reason for the low tax base in Arab towns is that simply they do not make the effort to collect the arnona taxes local authorities levy. Members of the ruling clan will not press fellow members to pay the tax, and the other clans try not to pay it because the Arabs, unlike in the West, don’t view taxes as something citizens pay in order to receive services, but rather as tribute paid to the ruling powers. Apparently Arabs would rather pay lower taxes and get fewer services.

By: Peter Belmont

Peter Belmont — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:09:55 +0000

A place where the government and most of the people are determined to break the law, brazenly, is an UGLY PLACE. An ugly neighborhood, if you will. See below.

A place that calls itself a DEMOCRACY when it is not is a place of LIARS. See below.

It is (presumably) not illegal for Israel to
spend more money for Jewish neighborhoods than for Arab neighborhoods within pre-1967 Israel.

However, it is definitely illegal for Israel to permit and to facilitate and to encourage Israelis (any Israelis) to live within territories occupied by Israel in 1967. And to confiscate land there for non-defensive purposes (the WALL could be inside pre-1967 Israel).

If Israelis DEMANDED that their government comply with international law (remove the wall, remove the settlers, do it now), then we might not have to be sidetracked with discussions such as the present discussion of the attractiveness of neighborhoods and whether Jews or arabs tell (more) lies. No-one would care very much.

A place where the government and most of the people are determined to break the law, brazenly, is an ugly place. An ugly neighborhood, if you will. Israel breaks the international law as declared by the ICJ in July 2004. there was never any doubt of it.

A place where most of the people call their government a DEMOCRACY is a place of LIARS if the government of that place does not allow people who are proper residents there (such as the Arabs who left pre-1967 Israel in 1948 with the intention to return) to RETURN and to VOTE.

By: Gershom Gorenberg

Gershom Gorenberg — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:07:51 +0000

The condition of a neighborhood, in a modern society, is in large part a function of resources devoted by government: How often garbage is collected, whether streets are cleaned, whether there are streetlights, whether there are reasonable public spaces where people can gather, whether there are public parks for sports.

Anyone who visits majority Arab and Jewish towns in Israel can quickly see the difference in government investment. The lack of local government spending in Arab towns is a function of tax base: Arab towns have not been allocated industrial areas, which provide local taxes.

The situation is worse in Jerusalem, as I’ve noted here:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_note_to_hillary_on_jerusalem_disunited . If the city collects taxes from residents but does not collect garbage or build sidewalks, it should be no surprise that the neighborhoods are less attractive.

This is racism twice over: Unequal distribution of resources creates unequal living conditions, and then the victims are blamed for their situation.

By: Yisrael Medad

Yisrael Medad — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:14:20 +0000

typo: Goldblum

By: Yisrael Medad

Yisrael Medad — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:13:49 +0000

Two comments.
First, as a “settler”, I fully identify with minority discrimination as I find myself trying to defend myself against claims of fanaticism, messianism, zealotry, criminality, violence, etc. Second, I recall debating Amiram Golodblum years ago when accused of depriving the Pals. of water and when I tried to point out that, factually, we do use more water – washing machines, diswashing machines, and even take more showers, not to speak of mikva’ot (apropos the article quoted by Brenner) – I was told by Amiram that I was besmirching Arabs by calling them dirty which I didn’t. But he is a liberal prgressive and can do no wrong.

By: aliyah06

aliyah06 — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:31:49 +0000

…and you’ll find the same attributes among the Eta of Japan and among inner-city African Americans in slum housing. Poverty and lack of opportunity lead to mendacity in the face of Authority.

I got an epiphany one day before a pretrial conference with the opposing counsel. “But when the cops rolled up, these guys RAN,” I pointed out, since in the middle class white mind one would only run if one had a guilty conscience. My well-respected and well-beloved African American opponent laughed out loud. “Hey, I grew up in the projects, ” he pointed out. “When the cops come, you run ON PRINCIPLE, ’cause you know they don’t care who they arrest or for what, even if you haven’t done s***.”

The cure is a long way from now–but when resources are shared and everyone’s vision respected, then you’ll see progress….but maybe not in our lifetimes, the way things are going.