Though the Sun beats down with extreme intensity upon the countries that comprise the Middle East, the almost constant barrage of troubling and often violent incidents metaphorically eclipse the golden rays from reaching the land and its people. During my latest trip to Israel in June of this year, however, I discovered glimmers of light and warmth and the potential for a brighter tomorrow.
I had the opportunity to attend a joint meeting between members of the Israeli non-governmental organization, Kav Mashve, and a group of 14 professional women from the Cleveland, Ohio area who were on an information-gathering trip conferring with women from throughout Israel. The trip was sponsored by The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA).
Kav Mashve (“The Equator,” whose masthead subtitle is “Employees’ Coalition for Equality for Arab University Graduates) was founded in October 2007 by Jews and Arabs to promote equal employment opportunities and to increase substantially the number of Arab college and university graduates in the professional labor force, both public and private, within the state of Israel. My cousin and life-long friend, Larry Tishkoff, who works at the Israel office of JFNA, organized the week-long itinerary for the women who were visiting Israel under the auspices of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
We all met in the Community Center in the small Arab Israeli town of Abu Ghosh, located approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) west of Jerusalem, a town known for its good relations with its Jewish Israeli neighbors. Its old Arabic name of Qaryat al’Inab (“Grape Village”) has led biblical scholars to identify Abu Ghosh with the ancient site of Kiryat Ye’arim.
Today, Muslim Arab residents comprise 20% of the total Israeli population. According to Kav Mashve’s informational videos, though the Israeli government has instituted an affirmative action policy of employing Arabs in government jobs, has provided financial incentives to prospective employers, and funds and staffs employment guidance centers in Arab towns throughout Israel, the employment rates, however, of Arab Israeli college and university graduates within their respective fields persists one-fifth lower than their Jewish counterparts. While approximately 7% of Jewish university graduates remain unemployed, fully 13% of Arab Israelis cannot find employment, or they are underemployed working in fields outside their educational backgrounds, such as serving as taxi drivers or low ranking secretaries. When they do find positions, on average Arab graduates earn 35% less than Jewish graduates.
Reporting on their survey of employers, Kav Mashve found that 22% replied that racism toward Arabs and 21% said that prejudices toward Arabs were the primary factors responsible for the higher levels of Arab graduate unemployment, while 25% believe that security issues account for this disparity. (http://www.iataskforce.org/kav-mashve-employers-coalition-equality-arab-university-graduates).
The obstacles of widening employment and income gaps between college graduates from traditionally dominant groups and graduates from minoritized communities are no less problematic in other countries across the planet, including the United States. For example, a study in 2008 found that the mean annual income of African Americans in the U.S. with a four-year degree was more than $13,000 less than that of white graduates with the same level of education. In addition, African Americans who had secured a master’s degree earned about $1,500 a year less than white students with only a bachelor’s degree.
In addition, according to a 2011 national survey, 47% of U.S.-Americans felt that the values of Islam are opposed to American values, 41% are uncomfortable with a Muslim teacher at an elementary school in their community, almost 50% are uncomfortable with a mosque in their neighborhood, Muslim men praying at an airport, and a woman wearing a burqa.
In Israel, Kav Mashve’s mission statement emphasizes that “Employers will gain committed qualified employees and benefit from a diversity of thought and knowledge, Arab college graduates will gain equal opportunities and a chance to realize their potential, and Israeli society will implement principles of civil equality fundamental to a democratic state.” The organization’s CEO, Yael Kohn Sharon, led the discussion by giving a short history and the purpose of Kav Mashve, and reiterated what she had stated on their on-line video that “[n]ot many employers [in Israel] are familiar with the Arab society, and they prefer employing someone they know. In the end, the bottom line is what counts: the profit.” She continued by stating what she has witnessed after successfully placing an Arab in a work position: “I can say that when an Arab university graduate is employed, the stigma gradually fades and the prejudices vanish.”
Kav Mashve provides a full range of services, from offering career training programs for Israeli Arab high school students to assist them in the college entry process and to help them in deciding on a course of study that blends their interests, strengths, and career path goals. It also runs interviewing skills training courses in the job interviewing process, and to raise awareness regarding the differences between the candidates’ home cultures and the potential business cultures that graduates will encounter.
Next to present her story was Kheir Abdelrazik, a former public relations executive in an Israeli firm and current Kav Mashve Deputy Marketing Manager. She talked about her challenges as a young women brought up in a very small Arab Israeli village, and the culture shock she initially experienced looking for work and finally landing a professional position in a large corporation in Tel Aviv, Israel’s principal and most populated business center.
Last to present was Reem Younis, owner and CEO of Alpha Omega Engineering Company, Ltd, a Nazareth Arab medical high tech equipment company in the area of neurology and neurosurgery founded in 1993, who talked about her company and her association with Kav Mashve. She talked with pride of the products invented by her world class scientists and engineers that are now utilized in many advanced hospitals, universities, and research institutions across the globe.
Both Kheir and Reem are committed to the righteous goals of Kav Mashve by talking with individuals and groups in their efforts to increase the professional Muslim Arab workforce and reduce the discrimination that often impacts their employment possibilities within Israel. Though Kav Mashve has helped to place approximately 500 Arab university graduates in companies throughout Israel, members are the first to admit that they still have far to travel to reduce the enormous problem of Arab unemployment and underemployment, which if not sufficiently addressed, remains as a major impediment to Israeli’s security and its future.
As I witnessed this forum, I was struck by the honest, open, and compassionate dialogue between these women – who represented Arabs, Jews, and Christians. Following a lively and engaging question and answer period between the U.S.-American women and the women from Kav Mashve, and just before we were due to adjourn for dinner, I discussed with those assembled that for so very long now, men have been in charge of nations and governmental relations in the Middle East with little success in bringing about a comprehensive and lasting peace. Quite possibly, I said, if women were to lead the efforts, conditions might be substantially better between all ethnicities, religions, cultures, genders, and sexualities, and we might have better results in obtaining an enduring peace. To this, the women smiled broadly and gave me a hearty round of applause.
Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld is author of Warren’s Words: Smart Commentary on Social Justice (Purple Press); co-editor of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (Routledge) and Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in the United States (Sense); and editor of Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price (Beacon Press).
above, there are too many lies & distortions to anewsr all of them. However, let’s try to correct a few of them. 1) lies regarding UN resolutions. All General Assembly political resolutions are only recommendations by definition [Arts. 10-12 of the UN charter]. This applies to GA res. 194 which is not law, does not fix “rights,” but merely recommends. Indeed, 194 imposes conditions on Arabs who want to “return.” 2) the lie regarding Geneva IV which does not forbid people from freely moving across an armistice line, not the same as “transfer.”3) the legal status of the Land of Israel as a whole. The San Remo Conference [1920] juridically erected the Jewish National Home in international law. The League of Nations, recognizing the Jewish link to the land, endorsed the JNH principle. The UN charter [Art. 80] confirmed the Jewish right to the Land of Israel. By the way, Arab expert witnesses testifying on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs at the 1946 Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine denied that there was ever such a place as “palestine” in history. Now, they eagerly use the terms “palestine” and “palestinian people” since that usage is expedient nowadays.4) the SU ignores the Arab & palestinian Arab oppression of Jews in history for more than a thousand years.5) the SU ignores Arab & Palestinian Arab collaboration in the Holocaust, especially in the person of Haj Amin el-Husseini [Husayni]. During the Holocaust, Husseini broadcast to the Arab lands over Radio Berlin. Among other things, he called on Arabs to: Kill Jews wherever you find them [see Lukasz Hirszowicz, The Third Reich & the Arab East]. Arabs also contributed to the Holocaust by pressuring the UK govt to severely limit Jewish immigration to the Jewish National Home when the Jews most needed a home [1939 White Paper]5) In the 1947-1949 Israeli War of Independence, Arabs started to attack Jewish civilians within hours after the UN GA partition recommendation. Jews were driven out of their homes in south Tel Aviv and the Shim`on haTsadiq neighborhood of East Jerusalem in December 1947. On the other hand, Arabs were told to flee their homes by Arabs govts & armies, and by Husseini’s Arab Higher Committee. Bataween is right on that point.6) apartheid in a religious form exists in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Arab states, as mentioned above.7) Since Arabs oppressed, persecuted, humiliated and exploited Jews in the Jewish homeland over the centuries since the Arab conquest [7th century], it would be just for Israel to apply “affirmative action” {corrective discrimination] in favor of Jews.8) the SU falsely insinuates that Israel prevents Muslim worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Churhc of the Holy Sepulcher. But SU does not mention that Jews are prevented from praying on the Temple Mount, a Jewish holy place usurped by Arab/Muslim conquerors.9) there is much real estate in Gaza and the “West Bank” owned by Jews, such as the Kfar Darom land in the Gaza Strip which was populated by Jews before 1948 (cf. Ignaz & Alcuin).10) the references to Tutu, Carter, Dugard & Ben Yair prove nought since these are all bigoted politicians who take “leftist” positions out of politically correct Judeophobia.Really, the LSESU is a disgrace to a country with a respected scholarly tradition.