Focus on Issues a New Wave of Ethnic Tensions?

The current investigation into alleged irregularities at the Ministry for Religious Affairs; and specifically into the activities of the Religious Affairs Minister, Aharon Abu Hatzeiro, has revived almost-forgotten tensions between the Ashkenazic and the Sephardic communities in Israel.

Soon after the media began bombarding the public with major headline stories about the investigations, Asher Lazimi, a close friend of Abu Hatzeiro, called a press conference at which he claimed that the Minister of Religious Affairs, who is of Morocco origin, was being subjected to discriminatory procedures stemming from the very fact that he is Sephardic. Lazimi’s “proof” of this allegation was the police “raid” on the Ministry of Religious Affairs, when hundreds of files were confiscated.

Lazimi claimed that the massive confiscation of the Religious Ministry’s documents, carried out without the prior approval of either the Premier or the Interior Minister, demonstrated the hostile attitude of the investigations toward Abu Hatzeira.

PUBLIC STATEMENTS AND ACTIONS

Lazimi’s accusations were followed up by other public statements and actions that reflected ethnic solidarity with Abu Hotzeira.

In the Knesset, various members of different political parties — all of them of Oriental origin — formed an of hoc lobby. Its aims seemed to be to express sympathy with the Religious Affairs Minister and to examine the possibility of changing the judicial process in its application to members of the Knesset.

A group of Sephardic rabbis met with Premier Menachem Begin and urged him to stop the “persecution” of the Sephardic leadership.

In a number of towns with large Sephardic communities, mass receptions were organized in honor of Abu Hatzeira.

Several Sephardic leaders from Europe and the U.S. rushed to Israel to meet Begin and discuss with him the investigation and its impact on the non-Ashkenazic population.

Jaques Amir, the Mayor of Dimono, a member of the Labor Alignment Knesset faction and himself of Moroccan origin, called upon the civil authorities to “cut down the hand daring deliberately to hit the esteemed Abu Hatzeira family.” Later Amir denied that he had voiced this call.

AFFECT ON SEPHARDIC COMMUNITIES

President Yitzhak Navon, himself a Sephardi, and Begin immediately reacted to the ethnic allegations by calling upon the Sephardic leadership to stop them and by assuring the public that the police had no ethnic motivations in investigating the Ministry of Religious Affairs. But tension has already flared up.

There are signs that the allegations of discriminatory treatment against Abu Hatzeira, of unwarranted police persecution of him, have left their mark on many in the non-Ashkenazic communities. People of Sephardic origin — among them many whose families have lived in Israel for generations — feel sympathy with the young minister and admit that they cannot control their suspicions that the investigation has the character of an “Ashkenazic plot” against the Sephardic leadership.

People of Sephardic origin say that the allegations similar to those against Abu Hatzeiro have been a common phenomenon in the religious establishment for many years, and as they had never been subject to police investigation before (when Ashkenazim served as ministers), they should not be investigated now.

Others believe that Abu Hatzeiro is an innocent victim of a political plot launched against him by some of the Ashkenazic politicians in his own National Religious Party who decided to challenge his leadership. Some people of Moroccan origin have warned that whether Abu Hotzeira is innocent or guilty the investigation must be bolted immediately.

INCREASING ANGER

Among the Ashkenazim, meanwhile, there is increasing anger at what is interpreted as a deliberate attempt to stop a vital investigation. Many in the Ashkenazic community believe that Lazimi and other friends of the Minister of Religious Affairs are using the ethnic cause as a means to bring pressure on the police to stop the investigation.

In coffee house and street corner debates Ashkenazim can be heard reminding their Sephardic friends that in the past police investigations were conducted against various important politicians — all of them of Ashkenazic origin — and no one dared to stop them. The press (most of it is run by Ashkenazim) emphasizes the principle of equality before the law and rejects the attempts to for ethnic emotions against the background of the Abu Hotzeira affair.

The extent to which the ethnic arguments have affected sections of the Sephardic population is still undetermined. The police investigation continues. Should Abu Hatzeira be brought to court, no one can predict what the socio-ethnic repercussions will be. But the affair has already provided a somber reminder that prejudices, ethnic stigmas and deep complexes still prevail in the relations between Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities in Israel.