“There is absolutely no deliberate discrimination against North African immigrants on the part of public and state institutions,” a parliamentary inquiry commission, probing the series of riots by North African immigrants in the Wadi Salib quarter of Haifa, declared in a report made public here last night.
“If, on lower levels, there are de facto situations of inequality and discrimination, there exists on the planning and policy level a genuine desire and clear tendency to give special care and priority to Oriental immigrants, and attempts to integrate them in all areas of Israeli life,” the report emphasized.
The commission, headed by District Judge Moshe Etzioni, was appointed by the Israel Parliament after the first of the Haifa riots during the night of July 8. Other members of the commission were Prof. Shmuel Eisenstadt, a sociologist, of the Lebrew University. Yaakov Klebanov, a member of Parliament representing the General Zionist Party; Rabbi Yitzhak Abu Hatzira, of Ramleh, who is of Moroccan origin; and Ram Salamon, an attorney, of Haifa.
The report found that the first incidents, on the night of July 8, were spontaneous. “This spontaneity gradually disappeared,” the commission added, “and, from the next morning on, reactions were largely shaped by one or several organizers.” The commission did not, however, accept the contentions that “any public or political bodies were behind the disturbances.”
As to the situation among the North African immigrants in general, the commission found that “despite equal conditions offered all citizens and all immigrants, some of them are, de facto, unable to compete on an equal level with other citizens, particularly in the field of primary education.”
The report summarized the general social, economic and cultural background of all Moroccans, and the situation in the Wadi Salib quarter specifically. It found the Wadi Salib area a “densely-populated slum, where living conditions are very difficult, most of the population is unskilled and, therefore, the employment situation is poor.”
FEELING OF INEQUALITY AND BIAS FOUND AMONG MOROCCAN JEWS
Among large sections of the North African immigrant population, the commission continued, “especially in the Moroccan community, there exists a deep feeling of inequality and discrimination, even a feeling that discrimination is deliberate.”
The report stressed that it would be wrong to identify North African immigrants in general with the Haifa disturbances. “Only a small handful of Wadi Salib residents participated in the riots, “the report emphasized. Among the rioters, stated the commission, “were women, children, teenagers and, at all times, there was a criminal element among them.”
The report charged that organizations of North African immigrants “contributed considerably to the feelings of discrimination, basing themselves not on efforts to improve social and economic conditions among the North Africans, but on developing a sense of inequality.”
The commission, in passing, had high praise for the work of integrating all Israelis done by the Israeli Army. “Not even the most vehement of witnesses,” “stated the commission, “charged any discrimination in the Army.”
After submitting its findings the commission recommended that current efforts in the fields of housing, education and establishment of new settlements be speeded. The group urged that priority by given to the elimination of slums and maabarot (temporary transit camps). It enjoined Israel to give special assistance to immigrants from under-developed areas to aid their “speedy attainment of the ability to utilize equal opportunities.”
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