Shas blasts Kadima 'Ashkenazi racism'

Yishai rejects Livni's claims of "blackmail" in coalition talks; says allegations will boomerang.

By MATTHEW WAGNER
Yishai brill 248.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Yishai brill 248.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Responding to claims by Kadima MKs that Shas was guilty during coalition negotiations of underhanded tactics and extortion, Shas chairman Eli Yishai on Monday called Kadima negotiators "racists." "[Kadima chairwoman Tzipi] Livni's people say that we are blackmailers? That is a racist charge," said Yishai at the opening of a Shas faction meeting. "Interesting that when Labor demands, and gets, NIS 1.5 billion as part of the coalition agreement no one is involved in extortion. It seems that the blackmailers have a very particular appearance, with a beard," he said. Yishai said his party was under attack but added that the allegations leveled against Shas would boomerang. "If someone who tries to help sick children is considered an blackmailer, than I am a proud blackmailer. MK Eli Aflalo (Kadima), who is also Sephardi, rejected Yishai's accusations on Israel Radio Tuesday. Livni notified President Shimon Peres this week that she had failed to assemble a government coalition, setting the stage for elections that are expected to take place in the first half of February. Yishai's claims of ethnic discrimination are not new to Shas, which was created to represent the interests of traditional Sephardi Jews. For instance, in 1997 Shas chairman Aryeh Deri attempted to deflect criminal prosecution on charges of bribery by saying that he was the victim of the "Sephardi-hating" media, police and legal establishment. A year ago Shas resigned from the Knesset religious lobby after the Ashkenazi haredi daily Yated Ne'eman printed a disparaging caricature of a Shas follower that the party's MKs said was racist. The cartoon showed a man dressed in shorts and sandals wearing a kippa and trimmed black beard, representing a Shas follower, and a secular person representing Kadima dumping a rock labeled "2008 fiscal cuts" on the head of an Ashkenazi haredi man. The vast majority of Shas's constituency are Sephardim of North African or Middle Eastern origin whose traditions can be traced back to Spain and Portugal. The mass immigrations of Sephardim to Israel took place in the 1950s and 1960s. The founder of the Jewish state were almost exclusively Ashkenazi and secular. For the first decades following the establishment of the state the secular Ashkenazi elite dominated Israeli culture. To this day many Sephardi Israelis who have maintained a traditional religious lifestyle feel disenfranchised from the media and the judicial system, which, they say, is still controlled by secular Ashkenazi elites. Sociologist Menachem Friedman, professor emeritus Bar-Ilan University and a anthropologist and sociologist, said he did not expect Shas to exploit feelings of discrimination among its constituents to muster support at the ballot box. "Shas's campaign will focus on poor, sick children," said Friedman, a groundbreaking scholar on contemporary haredi society. "After all, who can be so cruel as to deny a child basic needs. I expect Shas to expand its constituency in the next elections as economic instability brings the plight of the poor to the forefront." "The Sephardi-discrimination tactic will be less successful because it simply isn't true so much anymore." Shas spokesman Roi Lachmanovitz said his party had no intention of emphasizing discrimination in its campaign. "We want to focus on the positive things Shas has to offer such as our intention to protect Jerusalem and champion the poor. "We will also point out the positive things done by Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai and Communications Minister Ariel Attias," he said.