To: Mani1 who wrote (3131 ) 9/5/2001 12:28:42 AM From: LV Read Replies (1) | Respond to Semantics aside (Jews and Palestinians are mostly the same race), I don’t see Israel as a racist state. You must differentiate between two Arab populations, those who are Israeli citizens and those who are not. Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy all the same rights as Jewish citizens. They are eligible for the same land subsidies as Jews. In the eyes of the Israel’s law there is no difference between a Jewish and an Arab citizen. That does not mean that there is no prejudice. Arab communities, for example receive smaller per capita fund allocations than do Jewish communities. That could be explained partly by prejudice of bureaucrats who allocate the funds, and partly by the fact that Arab communities are generally poorer. Many prosperous Arabs move out into large cities, and those that remain behind often want to preserve the traditional lifestyle. But Israeli government works very hard to correct some of these problems and to develop industry in Arab towns to help them to catch up to the rest of the nation. Of course, recent events exacerbated tension between Arabs and Jews, and that does not help.
