The Arab media has been intensely interested in the demonstrations by Ethiopian Jews in Israel. They love framng the rallies in terms of proving that Israel is a racist state.
Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm made this explicit, with an article entitled “Experts: The Arabs should exploit Israel’s violations against the Falasha Jews to expose their ugly face.”
It canvassed a couple of academic “experts” on Israel on how to best exploit the demonstrations.
Tariq Fahmi, a professor of political science at the American University of Cairo, stressed that Arabs need to convey the image of Israel as a racist state to the international public opinion through the Western media through op-eds and the like.
A director at the Salman Zayed Center, Ibrahim Matar, said, “The Arab League should condemn the violations against the Falasha Jews and reflect the image of the international community.” He added that Arab and Palestinian communities in Europe and the United States should bring the issue to international public opinion through human rights networks, organizations concerned with democracy and the elimination of discrimination, and “pro-Palestinian lobby groups such as J-Street.”
Yes, the Arabs have lots of partners who are more than willing to portray Israel as a racist society. It is instructive that while J-Street claims to be pro-Israel, even the Arabs don’t believe that.
The irony of course is that Arabs are deeply racist against blacks. Egyptian police killed at least 23 Sudanese migrants – including children – peacefully protesting in a park in 2005. Observers have noted Egypt’s anti-black racism for years. In 1984, Egyptians were insulted that a black actor played Anwar Sadat in a Hollywood movie.
Earlier this year a pan-Arab MBC comedy show had an actress dress in blackface on an Egyptian bus speaking with a fake “Sudanese accent” to see reactions from the commuters.
Arabs aren’t offended by racism, and most “human rights” groups aren’t offended by Arab racism. But they all fall over themselves to condemn Israel no matter what the excuse, and racism is as good an excuse as any.
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