Hatred by Hated People: Xenophobia in Israel

Abstract

Israel is a state with a large (some 80 percent) Jewish majority. Jews were victims of prejudice and xenophobia for two millennia. They constituted a minority in their countries of residence, and were subject to discrimination and persecution. The founders of Israel pledged, in the state's Declaration of Independence, to establish a society free from hatred, a society where all citizens enjoyed equal rights. The horrors suffered by the Jewish people during World War II consolidated Israel's pledge to erase hatred. Yet the country is imbued with hatred towards three distinct groups: Arabs, foreign workers, and Ethiopian Jews. The Arabs are hated in the setting of the ArabIsraeli conflict; foreign workers may be resented on account of economic rivalry; Ethiopian Jews are probably shunned because they are different in skin color and have customs from the majority of Israelis. This article attempts to examine hatred in contemporary Israel, addressing the following questions: (a) What is the scope of hatred? (b) What factors induce hatred? (c) Is there a linkage between a specific set of factors and a specific type of hatred? The article is based on a survey of a Jewish urban population.