Arab NGO report says Israel racism doubled in past year

The report documents 465 alleged racist incidents from March 2015 to March 2016, which represents almost a doubling over the previous two years.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Updated: MARCH 22, 2016 13:23
Demonstrators in Tel Aviv gather to protest racism and police brutality, May 18, 2015 (photo credit: BEN HARTMAN)
Demonstrators in Tel Aviv gather to protest racism and police brutality, May 18, 2015
(photo credit: BEN HARTMAN)
A new report against racism by the Mossawa Center – an Advocacy center for Arab citizens in Israel – to be published in the Knesset on Tuesday found that racism doubled in the past year.
“We will present the report to MKs in the Knesset with the hope they will do something. We explain that if the government doesn’t do anything, more and more organized racism would be committed by gangs that attack various weak groups of society,” Jafar Farah, director of the NGO Mossawa Center told The Jerusalem Post on Monday evening.
“We call for the creation of a governmental commission against racism that will coordinate between the various governmental institutions,” he added.
The report documents 465 alleged racist incidents from March 2015 to March 2016, which represents almost a doubling over the previous two years.
In a statement the Mossawa Center called for an increase in financial penalties in lawsuits against discriminatory organizations. The NGO also accused the government of failing to deal with racism and not enforcing existing laws.
Within the period under study, the report also noted 38 alleged incidents of racial incitement by public officials.  Of them, 33 were against Arabs with other incidents against a Mizrahi Jew, and another against a Russian speaker, as well as foreign workers.
There were 103 alleged racist incidents of state institutions, businesses, and private organizations, according to the report.
Most of the cases were against Arabs with others against Ethiopians, Russian speakers, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Mizrahi Jews.