The daughters of the Israeli town of Kiryat Gat are being taught not to date Arab Israelis. These men are Bedouin, some of whom may have served in the IDF.
There’s a video at Haaretz, called “sleeping with the enemy”, but I can’t get it to run or download it. (It’s probably in Hebrew, anyway). Yad L’achim have a website which says quite a bit. For instance, why do Jewish girls date Arab Israelis? I’ll quote the question too, because whoever asked it found it difficult to use the word “date”:
Q: Jewish outreach workers of ours who man a booth in a major city in Israel report seeing young Jewish girls regularly entering cars of Arabs and going with them into Arab villages. Can you help us understand what leads these girls to engage in such dangerous behavior?
They are in distress, mostly on an emotional level. Some were victims of abuse as children, others witnessed violence at home between their parents. Many are the “black sheep” of the family and have never felt accepted at home. They grew up feeling that their parents didn’t understand them and didn’t love them. Unfortunately, such girls have low self-esteem and little confidence.
Many come from a low socio-economic background; all their friends have the latest-generation cell phones and new clothes, while they have nothing. These girls connect up with Arab men who are seeking to “have a good time” in a way that isn’t acceptable in traditional Arab society.
Yad L’achim gives lectures in schools, with testimony from a woman who had a bad relationship with an Arab Israeli.
(Via JSF, who did a follow-up with reference to Richard Silverstein’s blog).
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