PALESTINIANS SUBJECT TO WIDESPREAD DISCRIMINATION
Tel Aviv, 30 Jumadil Awwal 1435/31 March 2014 (MINA) – A recent poll conducted by Israeli occupation Economy Ministry suggests that a large number of Israeli employers discriminate against Palestinian workers.
According to the survey published on Sunday, 42 percent of Israeli employers “would prefer not to” hire Palestinian men, while 37 percent had the same feeling about male Haredi Jews, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Forty-one percent were also not willing to employ Palestinian mothers of young children.
Besides looking into hiring practices, the survey found that among both employers, and employees, 46 percent were reluctant to work with a Palestinian man and 28 percent preferred not to work with a Palestinian woman.
The poll, commissioned by the Economy Ministry’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, questioned 500 Israeli respondents, most of whom were holding higher degrees.
“The survey data raise serious questions regarding the public’s attitude in general and employers’ attitudes in specific regarding employees from different populations,” Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner Tziona Koenig-Yair said.
Koenig-Yair noted that despite their education, the respondents largely relied on prejudice and stereotypes when it came to evaluating whether to hire Palestinians.
Nearly one in four of Israel’s 1.6 million schoolchildren are educated in a public school system wholly separate from the majority. The children in this parallel school system are Israeli citizens of Palestinian Arab origin.
Their schools are a world apart in quality from the public schools serving Israel’s majority Jewish population. Often overcrowded and understaffed, poorly built, badly maintained, or simply unavailable, schools for Palestinian Arab children offer fewer facilities and educational opportunities than are offered other Israeli children.
This report is about Israel’s discrimination against its Palestinian Arab children in guaranteeing the right to education.
The Israeli government operates two separate school systems, one for Jewish children and one for Palestinian Arab children. Discrimination against Palestinian Arab children colors every aspect of the two systems. Education Ministry authorities have acknowledged that the ministry spends less per student in the Arab system than in the Jewish school system.
The majority’s schools also receive additional state and state-sponsored private funding for school construction and special programs through other government agencies. The gap is enormous–on every criterion measured by Israeli authorities. (T/P04/E01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
