Dear Friends,
Have you ever been treated unfairly, based on prejudices, just because of the color of your skin? I have.
When people think about discrimination, they usually think about obvious incidents that are clear and out in the open. But in many cases discrimination is hidden or indirect, which makes it harder to combat. In the age of political correctness, most of those who discriminate know how to camouflage it.
If you are not wanted because you have a certain color, nationality, gender or ethnicity that is “wrong,” they make you wait in lines at clubs, stipulate your pool membership on criteria you obviously won’t be able to meet, lie to you about the availability of apartments for rent, or just forget to call you back. We are trying to combat this kind of indirect discrimination through our project “Testing Discrimination” With your help we can do much more.
As part of this project, testers working with us have already succeeded in exposing manifestations of flagrant discrimination in residential projects in Ma’alot Tarhisha, Jaffa and Lod. A real estate company marketing a new housing project in Jaffa offered apartments to Jewish clients and invited them in for meetings, while Arab clients were told none of the apartments were available.
We are making sure these stories are covered in the media and are filing petitions and claims for compensation in relevant cases. Our goal is to get the message out there: We will not accept discrimination or racism, and those who discriminate – will bear the responsibility.
We plan to significantly expand our project this year by activating more testers of discrimination in the housing market, among service providers, in nightclubs and other entertainment spots. We will also continue our legal efforts to hold businesses and service providers accountable, and raise awareness through the press and social media. We are encouraged by the responses of Israelis who have shown their support for our initiative and we invite you to keep following our project to expose and eradicate discrimination in Israel.
Yours,
Sharon
Sharon Abraham-Weiss
Executive Director
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel
