Viewpoint: When ideology discounts reality

Carmel Gould
Just Journalism
25 July '10

Scathing critiques of Israeli policy are the bread and butter of Guardian writer, Rachel Shabi. However, in her latest contribution, ‘Israel turns upon its own,’ published in print and online, she goes much further than the facts will carry her.

Depicting an alleged descent by Israel into ‘long-incubated racism, both institutional and incidental – a casual, acceptable prejudice’ she blames not Judaism but ‘the Eurocentric cornerstones of the country: the belief, expressed by Israel's founding fathers and still current, that the nation should be a bastion of the "enlightened" west in the heart of the supposedly savage Middle East.’

However, her attempt to illustrate Israelis’ apparent rejection of all things Arab – and presumably Muslim – only serves to highlight the gap between anti-Israel fantasy and a slightly more mundane reality.

Shabi claims that Israel is ‘the sniffy neighbour of the Middle East,’ explaining why ‘The ban on travel to most Arab countries is of no consequence to the majority of Israelis, who could not be less interested in the region.’ True, Israelis are banned by Israel from travelling to countries such as Lebanon and Syria, but Shabi omits to mention that they are also banned by the countries themselves. Even if a non-Israeli has so much as an Israeli stamp on their passport, they will be denied entry to Lebanon.

But what about Arab countries from which Israelis are not banned? Every year, tens of thousands of Israelis travel for tourism purposes to Egypt and Jordan - both countries with peace treaties with Israel - indicating that where they are welcome in the Arab world, Israelis will travel.

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