October 24th, 2012
A survey published in Haaretz yesterday, conducted by Dialog and commissioned by the Yisraela Goldblum Fund, exposes a sample of the racist positions of the Jewish Israeli public.  These results support the Mossawa Center's fears that Israeli election campaigns will promote views which are racist against the Arab minority.  The Mossawa Center demands that all Israeli political parties act immediately to prevent the possibility of racist remarks.
Among the most shocking survey results are the following; 59% of the Jewish respondents want preference of Jews over Arabs in admissions to jobs in government ministries, 49% of Jews want the state to treat Jewish citizens better than Arab citizens, 42% don't want to live in the same buildings as Arabs, 42% don't want their children in the same classes as Arab children, 1/3 want to bar Arabs from voting for the Israeli parliament and 69% would object to giving Palestinians in the West Bank the right to vote if the West Bank was annexed by Israel. 
The Mossawa Center remarks that the findings of this poll support the notion that racism is rampant throughout Israel and exist in many layers of the society.  First and foremost, Israeli ministers, along with many public officials, incite racism on a regular basis. At the same time, those who are responsible for preventing racial incitement, including the Attorney General, have been idle to prevent racism or penalize racist remarks by public officials. For example, the investigation of the state-supported Rabbis that authored "Torat HaMelech," the book condoning the killing of any non-Jews, was recently closed by the Attorney General on the basis that religious law does not fall under his jurisdiction. 
Adv. Nidal Othman, Project Manager of the Mossawa Center, says: "We see great potential for the roles of the Central Elections Committee and the Attorney General as key actors in deterring any form of racist election propaganda.  To this end, there is a need to redefine election campaign guidelines and to persecute those who incite violence and racism."
The Mossawa Center calls on the political and religious leaders in Israel to uphold their collective responsibility to prevent this phenomenon of racism from continuing, especially in the upcoming election campaigns. Indifference and apathy, thus enabling the continuation of this phenomenon, will lead to the failure of any initiative to create a shared future in Israel.