Racism: It's all about the packaging

The first 'news headline' I spotted this morning was about a kibbutz near Kfar Saba named Nir Eliahu having announced the admission of its first Arab Muslim member.

Like most people I tend to decide, based on the headline, whether to read the story.  But since this didn't really seem to qualify as 'breaking news' I skipped over it and instead read the more pressing stuff about Olmert trying (in vain, I hope) to keep his Kadima party in power with primaries... Labor and Shas lying about claiming they will vote with Likud to disband the Knesset (while giving themselves plenty of wiggle room for when they eventually renege)... and how the security cabinet has decided to shelve the pointless 'medium operation' in Gaza in favor of a complete surrender to negotiated truce with Hamas via Egypt.

But when I'd finished with all the 'real news' my mind went back to that odd headline:

"First Arab Muslim accepted to kibbutz"

That seemed like a strange precedent to trumpet.  I couldn't resist... so I clicked over to see what all the fuss was about.

It turns out that most of the article was made up of statements from various kibbutz movement representatives making it perfectly clear that this was not a trend they hoped would blossom, but rather a one-off fluke. 

Apparently this all came about when an Arab Muslim woman began working on the kibbutz as a nurse.  She eventually moved to the kibbutz (as a non-member) with her sons, and they were apparently well liked by the kibbutz members to the extent that a decision was finally made to offer her (and her sons) full membership.  A heart-warming story, right?

I'll be honest... the first thing that popped into my mind was the social aspect of a single Muslim woman and her sons living on a kibbutz.  Who are her sons going to date?  Is she still in the market for a husband?  I'm sorry... for someone who moved to Israel to increase the odds that his kids would marry Jews, that's where my mind goes.  I can't help it.

I live in a nominally 'mixed' community (meaning there are religious and non-religious Jews), but assuming that my kids were to end up dating someone from our town... or even if they meet someone in the Army or university from elsewhere in Israel, there is still an excellent chance that I'll one day be bouncing Jewish grandkids on my knee. 

Assuming that Jewish continuity is important on a cultural, social  and/or religious level, this would be a positive outcome and something to strive towards, no? 

But if I were living on that kibbutz, the introduction of non-Jews into my kid's immediate social circle would obviously mess with the odds a bit.  And what about this woman and her sons?  For a single Muslim woman and her sons in a kibbutz environment... well, you'll have to admit that the odds are better than average that they will end up marrying Jews. 

With all this in mind, this news article was just chock full of cognitive dissonance.

First and foremost is the odd fact that the [secular] kibbutz movement - a vast bastion of liberalism - took so long to admit an Arab member.  After all, during the heyday of the foreign volunteer craze in the 70s and 80s, there was nary a kibbutz that didn't have a few non-Jewish Scandinavians or Europeans as full members as a result of kibbutz members marrying foreign volunteers who were just too tempting to leave alone.  So why all the fuss over an Arab?

Then in re-reading the article an odd paragraph jumped out as a possible explanation:

"The kibbutzim were always very Zionist Jewish communes. The left-wing ones tried to encourage Arabs to build kibbutzim for themselves - but they never admitted Arabs. The purpose [of the kibbutz movement] was to create a Jewish working class. The Arabs were irrelevant to that... Although times have changed, that that mind-set persists to the present day. "

Oh, I see now... according to an expert on the secular kibbutz movement, Zionism means keeping Jews and Arabs apart.  Fascinating!  I sure am glad it wasn't a guy with a kippah who said that!  Can you imagine the scandal?  The outcry!? 

From my point of view, an Israeli Arab (of any religion) should, on paper, be an easy 'fit' for most kibbutzim since there are far fewer personal and cultural hurdles to overcome than with say, a typical European or Scandinavian:

• They already (presumably) speak fluent Hebrew. 
• They already understand the subtleties of middle-eastern politics and social interaction. 
• They are far more likely than a European or Scandinavian to come from an agrarian background. 
• They are less likely to stand out physically from a typical kibbutznik.

Given all of these things (and I'm sure you can think of many more), the real news story should be that it has taken this long for an Arab to be made a full member of a kibbutz! 

Of course... if you scratch a 'liberal' kibbutznik, you're likely to find someone just as conservative (and apparently 'racist') as I am.