Israeli drive to prevent Jewish girls dating Arabs
Israel has announced that it is establishing a special team of youth counsellors and psychologists whose job it will be to identify young Jewish women who are dating Arab men and “rescue” them.
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Hostility to intimate relationships developing across Israel’s ethnic divide is shared by many Israeli Jews, who regard such behaviour as a threat to the state’s Jewishness.
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Since the state’s founding in 1948, analysts have noted, a series of
legal and administrative measures have been taken by Israel to limit the possibilities of close links developing between Jewish and Arab citizens, the latter comprising a fifth of the population.
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In addition, civil marriage is banned in Israel, meaning that in the small number of cases where Jews and Arabs want to wed, they can do so only by leaving the country for a ceremony abroad. The marriage is recognised on the couple’s return.
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“Separation between Jews and Arabs is so ingrained in Israeli society, it is surprising that anyone manages to escape these central controls.”
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Petah Tikva’s hostility to Arab men mixing with local Jewish women is shared by other communities.
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The girls were shown
a video titled Sleeping with the Enemy, which describes mixed couples as an “unnatural phenomenon”.
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The girls’ involvement with the Arab youths has
revived general concern that a once-firm taboo against interracial dating is beginning to erode among some young people.
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The Jewish soul is a precious, all-too-rare resource, and we are not prepared to give up on even a single one,” says the website.
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