On December 2, the Russian Jewish Congress (RJC) aired a Public Talk show. The topic “Non-Jews in Israel” was discussed .
Non-Jews in Israel! How are you feeling?
REC President Yuri Kaner labeled the topic of discussion thus.“Non-Jews in Israel, who they feel they are and how they live“. Michael Gurevich, a member of the public council of the REC, became the host of Public Talk. He voiced the latest data from the Israel Statistics Authority. Of Israel’s 9,327,000 inhabitants, 7 million are Jews, 2 million are Arabs. About 500,000 are other nationalities or non-Jewish repatriates. Thus about a quarter of Israel’s citizens do not belong to the titular nation.
The discussion touched on the personal stories of non-Jews who became citizens of Israel. Personal stories told by Evgeniya Shustikova and Elena Kaluzhskaya. The former is a blogger and former editor of Channel One, the latter is a journalist and restaurateur. Gradually, the discussion turned to state policy issues. Policies for different linguistic, religious and ethnic minorities. Members of which are not halakha Jews for the State of Israel.
Arab-speaking non-Jews in Israel
Samir Khatib, head of the Association of Russian and Soviet Graduates, made an interesting presentation. He spoke about the self-identity of the Arabic-speaking minority in Israel. On the problems of relations between the Arab population and the State of Israel. Samir Khatib emphasized that Palestinians with Israeli citizenship have difficulty defining their identity. Israel considers us to be the Arabs of Israel. And we consider ourselves to be Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, part of the Palestinian people. He also noted that Jews do not have an understanding of whether Jew is a nationality or a religion.
Russian-speakers and non-Jews
Igor Kaminnik and Elena Shafran, representatives of the NGO “Dor Moria”, raised another problem. The problem of the treatment of the Russian-speaking minority in Israel. Problems faced by repatriates from the former Soviet Union. Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman noted – Russian speakers are “the most discriminated minority in Israel.” And it is hard to disagree with this thesis. Recognizing Russian-speaking Israelis as a linguistic minority will allow them to clearly articulate their demands. Will allow the transformation from an object to a subject of Israeli politics.
The topic raised on Public TOK has caused a public resonance. Both from the right and the left of Russian-speaking Israelis. They asked for a series of discussions on “Russian-speaking non-Jews in Israel”. Dor Moriah plans to hold similar discussions in Haifa in the near future.