Hapoel Gilboa Galilee, Again.

The Israeli basketball league was founded in 1954. Two major unions, Hapoel and Maccabi, sent 4 teams each and managed to pull out a league out of it. Back at the time, Hapoel was the sports union that belonged to The General Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel and Maccabi belonged to the Maccabi World Union; an international Zionist Jewish sports organization.

Up until today, the branding of each sports team goes back to the rivalry between the two associations. Clearly they almost have no connection with sports teams today, but I guess sports fans need that stimulation to keep up the interest and passion about the game.

Throughout 56 years of basketball, Maccabi Tel Aviv managed to control the league with 48 championships. Hapoel Tel Aviv, the eternal runner-up managed to prevail Maccabi 5 times in the 60s. In addition to that, Hapoel Galilee pulled out an amazing serious in 1993 and eliminated Maccabi from making it to the finals in a serious of 5 games. Hapoel Galilee won the championship that year after 23 straight championships at that time by Maccabi Tel Aviv. In 2008 Hapoel Holon managed to beat Maccabi with a winning basket and marked the second loss after another 14 straight championships to Maccabi, luckily I was present at that match with my father.

Like my father, I have learned to be a constant fan of underdog teams. I was always amazed by the amount of hatred I would say, he grasped upon to the Maccabi enterprise. It is not like he was a huge fan of Hapoel, but something about the arrogant and bragging system of Maccabi, as he would describe it, would just drive him nuts.

Gladly, I got the chance to watch this year’s final match of the final four with my dad (the system was changed in 2005 from a serious of 5 games to two days of a final four); Hapoel Gilboa/Galilee played Maccabi Tel Aviv and won the championship. I’m still trying to figure out if my joy was something I grew up with; not loving Maccabi, or is it just a matter of empathy with “The broken, the beaten and the damned” as My Chemical Romance wrote in their “Welcome To The Black Parade” song. 

I still wish it was Hapoel Tel Aviv who would actually detach that championship from Maccabi. For tonight, I think I will enjoy this sweet Gilboa/Galilee championship. After all, it was Hapoel fans that used to say in the 70s: “If Maccabi fans are against the PLO, we are in favor of it”.

Arabs in the Public Sector

The parliament committee regarding the recruitment of Arabs in the public sector published an interim report on May 04, 2010. The report shows discouraging numbers regarding the employment of Arabs in the Israeli public sector.

6% is the official number of Arabs in the Israeli public sector but obviously there is more into it. While some offices are ornamented with an honorary 0%, the committee adds a terrifying fact that there is not a single Arab in a decision making position in the Israeli public sector – not even one chief executive or legal advisor. A deeper analysis of those numbers would probably show more than 50% of those positions are engaged by political appointees and Arab party activists but the committee (lead by politicians) will never look into that.

Previous committees and decisions by various governments placed the magic number of 10%; the reality is far from reaching that “goal”. Reuven Rivlin said words of gratitude about the work of the committee and added he is looking forward to reading the final report. I am still trying to figure out the tune of his voice and whether it holds cynicism in it or not. In addition to that, Prime Minister Netanyahu said he intends to attend the committee session at its final stage.

In an attempt to understand this, I fail to see the logic behind this reality. If I had to manage a public office where 20% of my customers are native Arabic speakers, what would stop me from recruiting Arabic speaking employees? Not to mention the fact that Arab Israelis master both Arabic and Hebrew almost equally.

Better recruitment techniques of Arabs in the public sector on professional bases and not solely as an act of affirmative action, would help bridge the gap between the Palestinian Israeli citizens and the state of Israel. “Vacancies in the public sector are a state resource. They are important resources since they hold an opportunity to influence many aspects of our life, including distribution of financial resources. Thus, the principal of equality requires that all jobs be allocated by the state without any discrimination between Jews and Arabs” said the Supreme Court Judge Zamir.

The recruitment process would probably have a smoother flow if it takes place in the Universities and amongst Arab academics. The Palestinian Israelis have shown smooth integration and successes in the Israeli academic system in rising numbers, a success that is not being developed in any way into employment opportunities.

I will not go into the affirmative action and its implementation but obviously there is a state of mistrust between both sides. Some may say that there are many open vacancies, allocated for Arabs, which are not filed due to the issues of mistrust. Applications are not even reaching the public sector HR offices and the goal of 10% is a result of a long term process that the government needs to accomplish hand in hand with the Arab population.
 
This video (in Hebrew) shows the need for a severe change in the mind set to accomplish better coexistence. 




Thanks to Rotem for her enlightening information and data.

Palestinian Authority Boycotting Settlement Products

After 43 years, the Palestinian Authority finally comes up with an impressive act of boycott to oppose the rising settlement enterprise.

Just like the famous Indian independence movement boycotting British goods, the Palestinian Authority was sort of stimulated by that and decided to boycott any Israeli goods produced in the West Bank. A quick look at the list of products shows more than 900 products in various industrial areas in the occupied territories.  I doubt those companies having any ideological agenda behind this infrastructure, but why would my taxes subsidize such benefits? How come factories are shutting down in northern and southern Israel while industrial zones in the occupied territories are expanding?

Obviously, for the short term this boycott will negatively affect a lot of Palestinians currently employed in those industrial areas. On the other hand, it will bring more economic independence in the long term for a nation seeking to build its new state.

“Better an educated enemy than an illiterate friend” is a famous Arabic saying. I think that the Israeli government should appreciate that and remain silent about it, aren’t we all sick of this everlasting bloodshed? Isn’t it the time to transform our differences and debate from the battle field to the supermarket shelves and the marketplace of ideas?

I do hope that the boycott applies only to merchandises produced in the settlements and not just any made in Israel products. This will allow Israelis to join hands with such a boycott and give it a greater effect, not to mention an even wider international boycott.

Champs you Chimps!

The joy is just indescribable. Hapoel Tel Aviv won the Soccer Premier League championship in Israel after a nerve-racking thriller last Saturday.

Hapoel had an amazing season in which we lost only one match. Maccabi Haifa, the runner-up, managed to add the mark of Cain to this championship by doubting the legitimacy of the pointing system. I am personally not a big fan of the current system, but hey, the rules apply to everyone. That’s how things are!

Come to think about this, in the 2009 Israeli election Kadima won 22.47% of the votes while The Likud reached 21.61% percent only. We all know how it ended up with Shimon Peres asking Binyamin Netanyahu to form the coalition. So why are you surprised from this Championship? It’s pretty simple, if you read the book.

With all the respect I have for the club of Macabi Haifa, this championship was well deserved by Hapoel. I can still see Macabi Tel Aviv players playing-not against Macabi Haifa so that they will lower their rivals' Championship chances. I can still see Beitar Jerusalem crashing the boards in the last season game in an attempt to win Hapoel. Gladly, Macabi Haifa’s last game was against the boys from the Tikva neighborhood – Bnei Yehuda, who actually played in an honorable way and pulled a tie from Macabi Haifa allowing Hapoel to control it's own fate.

Bottom line, Hapoel won Beitar in their home court in Jerusalem and succeeded to win the championship and the cup after a champion less decade.

Congrats Reds!

Naomi Chazan | The Freedom of Speech

My class in Research Methods was canceled. I was walking back to my car to drive home and noticed a flyer in the elevator announcing a conference titled: "The Academic Freedom of Speech in a Disputed Society". I took a quick look at the names of the speakers and saw Prof. Naomi Chazans' name in the list. I attended one of her visiting lectures in my Knesset class by Salim Brake last year in Haifa University and her vast knowledge tempted me to go listen to her again.

I started walking to Tubovich Hall in the Law faculty and when I finally got there, it was almost full. It was mainly journalists covering the whole conference, retired folks who probably live in Ramat Aviv and a few Meretz youngsters who still dream about the old days of Prof. Chazan.

Prof. Dan Jacobson started with short opening remarks and Prof. Chazan was the first to speak. Prof. Chazan has lately suffered aggressive assault, mainly by IM TIRTZU and other extremists, about her activity in The New Israeli Fund and the contribution to the Goldstone Report. The “well known” picture of Prof. Chazan with horn on her forehead was distributed by IM TIRTZU.

Prof. Chazan opened by stating that the basic foundation of modern democracy is the disagreements within society. The latest events are not a reality of the last couple of months; it is a process of years, a reality that puts the Israeli democracy at great risk. The reality where anyone criticizing Israel becomes automatically subversive and anti-Israeli is a reality of these days. Prof. Chazan declared that she woke up to a reality where she has become a “Disturber of Israel”. After devoting all her life to fix our society? What is happening today? How did this come to be our reality? Whose interest is it? How do we protect our freedom of speech? Where do we draw the line?

Prof. Chazan states that there are groups within the Israeli society, claiming they are safeguarding it, when they are actually ruining it. Next, she states two main points that we need to pay good attention to:

1. You are not to call for hate on any group based on their ethnicity
2. You cannot incite for use of violence

Violation of these two clear points is purely against democracy. So how did we get to the point of a constant attack on the freedom of speech? An attack we witnessed first against the Palestinian citizens of Israel and the peace movement then attacking Human Rights movements and now even civic movements and the media. NGOs that were seen as completely legitimate in the eyes of the public are being cut back on their freedom of speech.

Who is leading this attack?

Public figures are pushing these organizations aside and are constantly attacking NGOs that took the leading role to improve our civil and human rights. The attack is clear and intense with constant repeating methods of slander and exclusion and limits the borders of the political debate. The actions are well-timed and in great intensity.

It starts by doubting the intentions of those NGOs. While those NGOs main purpose in democracy is to criticize and act constantly on assessing our democracy, it is almost impossible for them to make the public “like” them.

Another way of action against those NGOs is to distrust their donors. Somehow the European Union and the Ford Foundation became a suspicious source of funding with hints about Anti-Israeli activities by them. The laws in Israel are clear and every organization has to declare and state their source of income, every source of income. We could all visit The New Fun website and examine that.

In addition to all the above mentioned, attacks on the freedom of speech are bringing to doubt any of their findings. Again, the purpose of it is not popularity; it is simply a reassessing process of our democracy. No odd claims that such criticism is serving the enemies of Israel.

Protesting and objecting in a democracy is constructive; undermining the existence of the state is destructive. These are boundaries to be examined over and over. Otherwise, we are throwing half of our population out of the political and social participation by making them enemies within – nothing tears our society more than this.

The point where our disagreements become acts of incitement is a frontal assault on democracy, an assault leading to violence and hatred for political reasons.

We need to keep all discussions open within a pluralist society, tolerating each others’ ideas and thoughts, equality and obedience to the law. We have come to the point where we are uncertain and afraid of ourselves. We are unable to take responsibility of our own actions and thus find ourselves delegitimizing anyone who asks us to do so.

Prof. Chazans’ last point was that the freedom of speech must be within clear boundaries to keep this reality away from civil rebellion. In addition, we cannot continue to declare that we will renounce our democracy for the sake of the physical existence of the state of Israel.