Background courtesy of Plus 61J Media (item linked in comments):
A popular Israeli children’s entertainer apologised Saturday night after a racist video emerged in which he treats Bedouin children like zoo animals during a family trip, repeatedly asking his children, “Who wants to feed a Bedouin?”
The grandchildren of those who expelled the Bedouin have come to feed them
The Jewish family documented distributing food to Bedouin children reflects the attitude of the Jewish establishment towards the Bedouin. Just like the Bedouin Settlement Authority which knows better than us how we should live and where.
By @Huda Abu Obaid
The video posted last Saturday on social media, documenting a family of enlightened Jews giving away food and money to Bedouin children - and it is still unclear who they are and from which village - should not surprise us, the Palestinians. Four years ago, an enlightened Jewish woman refused to let me sit opposite her on a train, because my hijab gave me away as an Arab woman. At the time it seemed to me that this kind of behaviour would not repeat itself in such a blatant manner. I was mistaken.
I will not dwell on the identity of the Bedouin children, because children will always accept sweets offered to them, but it is clear that they live in a village that the Jewish state does not formally recognise and serially demolishes homes there , like in all the unrecognised villages in the Negev.
I will, however, dwell on the identity of the "enlightened" Jews who come to distribute alms to us and our children. These enlightened Jews are probably the grandchildren of other, more enlightened Jews, who in 1948 expelled the families of the Bedouin children from their and our own lands and homes. They are the grandchildren of those who concentrated the Bedouin children into the “restricted zone” ghetto during the years of Military Rule, and they are the ones who are demolishing our homes in the Negev today.
The discourse shared by members of the Jewish family is the embodiment of the notion of a chosen people, white and supreme, which views all other groups as inferior.
This discourse is similar to the perspective of The Authority for Development and Settlement of the Bedouin in the Negev (and the Jewish state in general) who supposedly wants to, out of the kindness of their heart, resettle us and decide for us what kind of lifestyle we should follow. Instead of acknowledging our ownership of our lands and instead of accepting our simple demand for farming villages, they designed small towns, which have nothing to do with our way of life, and which do not offer any capacity for economic development, for us and forced us to live in them. Towns that have become a hotbed of poverty and crime.
It may have seemed that this notion of "we know better than you what is better for you" had faded. This footage shows us that it is alive and well. This footage only reinforces the truth that many are trying to hide, that Palestinians, in this case Bedouin Palestinians, cannot live with dignity and equality under racial Zionist rule, which enacts laws that privilege one group over another, and impudently calls itself The Only Democracy in the Middle East.
"Roy Boy" and the ways of repentance
Roi Oz, known as children entertainer "Roy Boy" , has been caught out. A video taken five years ago shows him at the height of racist ugliness. He encourages his little daughters to "feed a Bedouin boy," as if they were on safari. There is no need to add more words about this dreadful educational and moral low. This abomination should not be shared widely.
On his Facebook paged, Oz apologised for the video and wrote that "this is not his way." He received hundreds of hostile comments, and rightly so. From here, there are two paths forward:
1) In two weeks time Oz will feature on the cover of @Yedioth Ahronoth entertainment magazine, 7 Nights , which his public relations team is already preparing for. He will recount his sleepless nights, and his desire to contribute even more to the children of Israel. He will say it is all behind him, because he knows himself and his family and “this is not their way”'. His career will get a boost, and at least for a few moments of glory, he will emerge from the margins into the mainstream.
2. The second way is less glamorous, but it is the way of repentance. There is a Jewish protocol for repentance. Our culture encourages the erasure of a person, for an act or deeds they have done. We are cynical about public apologies, and rightly so, and unwilling to allow correction. To many of us, Roy Oz is forever labelled as a "racist. I deleted him." End of story.
Judaism offers a possibility for redemption and repentance. A genuine one. It starts with confessing and taking responsibility for our actions, in a real way. Not through a curated and superficial PR message. It continues through making amends. A few words on a Facebook page are an easy start. From here, Oz needs to find the way to redemption. To meet with the Bedouin leadership in the unrecognised villages. To make a genuine contribution. To arrange for his children to mingle with other Bedouin children. To volunteer consistently and meaningfully within Bedouin society, not as an entertainer or a philanthropist, with a beaten broken heart as Maimonides taught us.. To contribute something to Israeli /Bedouin relations can be stops along the way. This is a difficult road. A long and short road. But, it is a genuine way. And it offers real potential for repentance.
There must be a way that we can offer the possibility for repentance even for fallen individuals. In our family. In our community. In our public. Otherwise, we condemn ourselves to eternal judgment and a culture in which the greatest sin is simply to be caught acting against the written, or oral rules.
** And one last word: there were those who compared Oz to Miki Ben Zikri, who saved four Hura residents, and then drowned I himself in Lake Zikim. I would not have imagined mentioning them in the same breath. And in any case, one does not have to be a hero like Ben Zikri, to connect with Bedouin society, which is used to absorbing slander from us day and night. It should be a matter of everyday life. It’s simple, just do it. Roy Boy, it's in your hands. Cynical exploitation, or genuine repentance.
A Facebook post by
Avi Dabush an environmental, political and social activist.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158297431863536Translated by
Yoni Molad for Middle East News Service,edited by Sol Salbe, Melbourne, Australia
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