By: Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 13:25:33 +0000

My wife and I experienced the blockade on Monday night as we were returning to Australia from Ben Gurion airport. The “protestors” attempted to block all access. Our trip to the airport from Jerusalem took an extra hour and a half. As our flight was leaving late we were (at the end), only moderately inconvenienced. The blockade involved some hundreds of cars, bedecked with Israeli flags and one or two occupants, who were having a “jolly” time, blowing the car horns. This was the first time that we were able to see, close up, the actual protestors. It became obvious that their overall, composition was of middle class, un-kippahed, “white”, Ashkenazim, whose link was NOT, potentially unfair (to them) changed laws, but feelings of distrust through to hatred, for religious and/or “dark” – kind word, Israelis. It was about their perceived loss of privilege and control of the many bureaucratic aspects of Israeli society. For example, we know of a case of a gifted girl, not being able to study medicine, because she is Sephardi from Shomron – that is, she is religious and one of the dark, others, and worse, a “settler”, while, as a display of their “fairness”, many Arabs are admitted on far less qualifications. So more than 50% of Jewish Israelis who are looking for fairness in treatment by courts and institutions, are treated as dangerous and uncivilised. The protestors, who are nearly all, only cogs in the system – “dupes”, and their powerful manipulators, must realise that the time for evening up has arrived, and accept their joint, as opposed to superior, positions in Israeli society – and move on. NB. My family in Israel, through my Ashkenazi daughter, her Sephardi husband and further marriage of daughters to Sephardi and Mizrachi men, is totally mixed – an example becoming ubiquitous – particularly, in Jerusalem, deserves. equal treatment by Law and Bureaucracy.

Comments on: Protesters face off with police at Ben Gurion airport

By: Michael Lewis