• Hello, this is your aunt, Sarit.
- Yes. How are you, Aunt Sarit?.
• Good. You're a journalist, right, that's what your mother always says, that you work in the media.
- Okay...
• I want you to write about how Arabs get on the bus I take to Bnei Brak every day. Every morning, at about 6 and also in the afternoon, the bus is full of Arabs.
- Right.
• This is impossible. This is something that should not happen. How can we let these murderers walk around on our buses, sit next to us. They can pull out a knife at any given moment. How? Does that make sense to you? If you are a journalist like your mother says all day, you have to do something.
- I also called the municipality, they told me to call the 'Kavim' company, I called, until they answered me. They referred me to the police, does that make sense to you?
•
So it's not very logical. The basic desire to see every Arab as a terrorist, and every Muslim as a murderer is nothing less than pure racism, with all due respect to Aunt Sarit.
The simple meaning of the word stereotype is an image and characterization of traits, usually simplistic and superficial, that characterize a person based on their ethnic origin or group.
The thought of a 'regular' Arab as a terrorist, or the superficial statement that 'everyone would like to slaughter us', is exactly equivalent to the statements from the beginning of the last century that all Jews are extortionists, exploiters, manipulators, and control the entire economy in Europe, which, by the way, was true in some cases.
So why do we use stereotypes? Why are all Lithuanians cold and scheming, all Spaniards warm and cuddly, and all Arabs murderous?
Because that way it's easier for us to deal with processing such a large amount of information that flows to us. It's hard for us to form an opinion and impression about every new person we meet, and using a stereotype is a kind of 'mental shortcut'.
Is he a Mizrahi from Tirat Carmel? He and his language have no place in Ponibez. Is he a Hasid with a long coat? Does he have less hygiene. Is he an Arab with a curved mustache? He's just waiting for the moment when he can murder us.
Only then does Professor Ahmed Eid appear, director of the Department of Surgery at Hadassah Mount Scopus, who saved the life of Naor, the 13-year-old boy who was stabbed in the murderous attack in Givat Zeev – and destroys the stereotype, destroys the prejudice, disables the stigma.
What a shame.
Join the Haredim 10 Facebook page >>
Join the X page of Haredim 10 >>
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
