Monday, October 20, 2014

"Mundane racism in Haifa"

From Eyal in 1948 Palestine:
"(No crisis, no massacre or beating or anything dramatic, just a bit of mundane everyday racism.)

Photos:

As you probably know, the largest segments of Israeli population which are exempted from military service are the Palestinian Arabs (not including the Druze) and the ultra-orthodox Jews (the 'Haredim').

Last week I visited my home town of Haifa for the annual film festival there. I was walking along the main street next to where my screenings were held, and there were two businesses looking for employees. The first was a corner kiosk, and the other was a 'Sandwich bar'. So, they both required that candidates be "post military service". Now, this is not uncommon in Israel, and is basically illegal: An employer cannot ask you about your military service, and the courts have upheld that requiring any sort of military service background is discriminatory.
That has not made the practice go away:

"Help wanted: Post military service; energetic and hard-working; with experience in sales; preference for those with computer and editing software know-how"

While the Israeli military is involved in arms sales, I'm guessing that's not the kind of sales experience the kiosk was after.

Now, one could argue that what they really meant is someone over 21 - since military service is officially mandatory, it's a half-passable excuse (if you're willing to excuse ignoring the ~35% of the population which doesn't get drafted at all). The other place makes things clearer:

"Employees wanted for the Carmel Sandwich Bar; post/pre military service only; for details please leave your contact information."

So, post/pre military service. Here we don't have the age excuse, or any kind of experience which one could claim is related to military service.
That is, almost explicitly, you need to be from the kind of people who get drafted into the military. The only remaining question is whether their racism is more anti-Arab or anti-Haredi, or both.

Sometimes even being a low-pay wage-slave is considered too much of a privilege for you."