Why are you wasting your time with Israel, an open democracy?

Because you specifically listed Israeli human rights organizations and claimed that there were nothing of the sort for Jews in the Arab world, a region of tyranny and brutal dictatorships. Israel being an “open democracy” means any organization concerning human rights can legally exist there, it’s not the same for the Arab world, so why ask such questions? It’s irrelevant and illogical.

I’m not “wasting my time” with Israel, simply refuting your claims.

That is to say, can a Jew walk freely in the street with a skullcap on without being beaten up? I doubt it.

You’re wrong. There are plenty of visible Jews here who coexist with their Muslim brethren, unlike Baha’is and other persecuted minorities.

Jews cannot be themselves

No one can be themselves here. In many instances within the region not even women can be themselves. Why you expect Jews to be treated better than any other average citizen is truly beyond me.

And I wish you would focus more on minority rights where people are not free, Esra’a, because that’s where your efforts are most needed.

Do you even understand my projects? I focus on minority rights where people are not free. Seriously. Baha’is and Kurds in Iran – they’re not free. I run projects to secure their rights. Migrant workers – they’re not free. I run a project to secure their rights. The same with Yezidis and many other faiths that we consistently discuss here. I focus on minority rights where people are not free, so why are you wishing for what I already do?

I have no idea who you are – Esra’a obviously knows you, but I do not. Let me say that I am, as I already stated, a Jewish Israeli. I have to add the word “Jewish”, because my status and my rights here are different from Arab Israelis and completely different from Palestinians who have almost no rights at all. I would like that everyone stops to talk about Israel as if it were a democracy. It’s a democracy for Jewish Israelis ONLY. Right now an Arab Israel student of Hebrew University in Jerusalem (where I live) is in big troubles because he refused to shake hands with Shimon Peres who appeared suddenly in the University Library.. He’s risking his right to study.. Since when is it a crime to shake hands with your fellow citizen? Who is Shimon Peres?? Is he something MORE than Ali Baher whom he encountered?? Both are Israeli citizens and both are human beings. If I had been at Ali’s place I would not shake Shimon Peres’ hand either (especially after that incident), but is there a law anywhere that says you have to shake hands with an elected public servant? I would maybe get called into the rectors office, maybe newspapers would talk about me, but nobody would dare to throw me out of the campus, as they try to do with Ali. Because I am Jewish and he is Arab. If we have the need to have Btselem and Adalah and other organizations it’s precisely we have a problem here! Israel is clearly NOT a democracy with equal rights for all it’s citizens – I could write pages about all the disciminatory laws that limit Arab Israelis in their “equality”. Israel is not a democracy, it’s an ethnocracy where Jews are on the highest level, Arab Israelis on a little lower level and Palestinians have – as I said – no right at all. Israeli settlers in the West Bank are a special kind of citizens as well. They don’t live in Israel but they are subjected to Israeli law, while their neighbors who just live a few miles away are subjected to Military Law which is pretty severe and arbitrary. And they have even more rights than me!! They can come and go wherever they want while they can order the police to stop me from coming into their settlement. I’m not kidding, it has happened to me 3 times and it’s happening all the time. Just STOP to talk about Israel as a democracy. It claims to be a democracy but it is NOT!!!
Best regards to all from Jerusalem!

Why are you wasting your time with Israel, an open democracy? It is precisely in Arab countries that you need to focus your energies. That’s precisely my point. Much harder, much more challenging, you need to be much braver – and that you are Esra’a – but there are so many others content to deflect attention from the behaviour of Arab countries on to Israel and wallow in victimhood.

Bahrain is one of the more enlightened Arab countries,granted, but does it pass the Kippa test? That is to say, can a Jew walk freely in the street with a skullcap on without being beaten up? I doubt it. Jews cannot be themselves, and I know this from several friends born in Bahrain who still have relatives there. The king is protective of the Jews but you know as well as I do that the situation cannot last. He is a minority Sunni sitting on a Shia powderkeg.

Of course Jews have it better than Bahais, but just as a blog for Bahais has a narrow focus on Bahais so a blog like mine about Middle Eastern Jews must deal primarily with Jews.This does not mean I do not take a keen interest in what is happening to the Baha’is, the Copts and the Kurds. We are all in the same boat. And I wish you would focus more on minority rights where people are not free, Esra’a, because that’s where your efforts are most needed.

Name me one rights group fighting for Jewish rights, name me just one.

So many people have refuted your arguments in the past but I have no issue refuting it entirely once again. Here is the answer to your request:

1) You said that Israel is an “open democracy.” That is exactly why organizations for minority or human rights are not shut down. In the Arab world, we don’t live under “open democracies.” Human rights organizations are aggressively shut down, its leaders often get imprisoned or murdered. Anyone with a basic understanding of the Middle East will see why such organizations cannot function visibly, so you praising Israel for such organizations is both ironic and pretty illogical, because it shows a lack awareness about our issues and the type of governments we live under, and what it truly means to be a human rights activist. We ourselves do not have our human rights, free speech, the right to establish NGOs. Why do you expect NGOs for Jewish rights to exist? We can’t even get an NGO set up to fight for some of our most basic rights that no citizen has, let alone any minorities.

2) Another reason why your claim is illogical is because Arab Muslims themselves face a horrific amount of oppression, and civil disputes are not uncommon. Many Muslim activists are imprisoned, detained and killed. The majority prefer to fight for their own rights first before they fight for anyone else, just like you only fight for Jewish rights and not the rights of any Muslims or any other minorities.

3) Just so you can be aware of the status of Jews in the Gulf (with the obvious exception of Saudi Arabia, where even women don’t have any rights) – a human rights organization in Bahrain that has been associated with the government was led and established by a female Jew who is now representing our country as an ambassador to the USA, the first Arab country to have a Jewish ambassador. We also have Jews in Parliament and who work closely for or with our local and regional governments. The same cannot be said for Baha’is or Kurds or, who don’t have as many rights as Jews currently do. Jews, by the way, even in Iran, have their faith fully recognized as opposed to other minorities whose faith is not recognized and as a result, get killed for it. So you tell me, name me one organization in Israel that effectively fights for them. “Just one.”

Jews have had a tough history, but there are other minorities suffering more abuses in our current day, minorities that you rarely even mention in any of your posts. I’m tired of people claiming that Jews have no rights when even in the Arab world they are becoming established leaders of our society. Yes there are problems, but such problems are relevant to all of us in terms of human rights, some of us even come from persecuted sects; we are not free. It doesn’t take much to read and understand the issues before making incorrect and dangerous claims. To be frank you obviously don’t understand the situation in the Middle East and what it means NOT to live in an “open democracy” like Israel. You don’t have licences or approval from the government to do this, so stop asking where these organizations are. I personally dare you to come start one and see what challenges and risks you will have to face, if not death or a lifetime in prison. Almost no NGO here is legit and despite that, people risk their lives to lead them, that’s more than what any Israeli can say, so your praises of Israel don’t move me. NGOs in Israel are a piece of cake compared to what we have to deal with here.

But your minority rights projects list doesn’t include Jews, Esra’a. We might as well forget about Jews, shall we? There are so few of them left anyway.

This is frankly offensive and it very sad to see you resort to such self-serving remarks. MEFaith.com, our first project, was built centering around the inclusion of Jews in interfaith events in the Middle East. You’ll see many posts concerning Jewish rights in the Muslim world, many of them from your own blog, so how can you make such a ridiculous and ill-informed claim?

That aside, on MideastYouth.com we have Arab Jews or Muslims writing about Arab Jews. How many posts did we cover about Jews in the region? Recently we even conducted an interview with a film maker whose film was about Jews in Iraq, and now we are organizing for it to be screened by regional Universities.

Bataween, your comments here are extremely ill-informed and painfully one-sided. Someone like you shouldn’t be preaching about minority rights when you get so defensive as soon as someone rightly fights for minority rights in Israel, which you never, ever fought for in any of your posts. Therefore, you’re the last person I would take “advise” from concerning minority rights. You made it painfully clear to all of us here that you don’t actually believe in it.