Anti-Black Racism among Jewish Israelis [and Recent Asylum-Seekers]

Israel, officially formed in 1948 under the United Nations Resolution 181,⁴  has a population of almost 9.3 million people that is composed of Jews (73.9%), Arabs (21.1%), and other ethnic/religious groups.⁵ Early Jewish inhabitants of the modern state came primarily from Eastern Europe, many of whom were escaping racial/ethnic othering.^6,7  In the years following, Israel has experienced waves of Jewish immigration from the Middle East, Ethiopia, the Former Soviet Union, and more recently, non-Jewish asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan. 

From the 1950’s through the 1970’s, anti-Black discrimination and Black identity were directed toward and metaphorically claimed by Mizrahi Jews from Middle Eastern countries, many of whom were of Moroccan and Yemenite descent.^6,7  Over the past few decades, anti-Black racism in Israel has been primarily directed towards Ethiopian Israelis, part of the Jewish Beta Israel community, who number about 155,300 people in Israel (1.7% of Israel’s population),⁸ and non-Jewish asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan who constitute less than 1% of the population.⁹  Experiences of anti-Black racism are well documented, in both research journals and the media, and consist of police violence and racial profiling of males,¹⁰ overrepresentation in military and civilian prison,² discrimination in employment and housing,¹² and everyday interpersonal discrimination.¹³

With each new wave of Jewish immigration to Israel, Israeli concepts of race within a national state, which were largely derived from French, British, and German colonial efforts, have expressed themselves as an ever-shifting, anti-Black racial hierarchy.⁷ This is demonstrated by the continual processes of “whitening” and “blackening” of different geographic origin-defined groups within Israel over time.^6,7 For example, among Jewish Israelis, Ethiopian Jews (who arrived beginning in the 1980’s) are seen and treated as more Black or “less than” compared to Mizrahi Jews (who arrived primarily in the 1950’s-1960’s), who are in turn seen and treated as more Black/less than Ashkenazi Jews, both in symbol and in phenotype.^6,7 Thus, Israel’s uniquely fluid racial boundaries over time are emblematic of the arbitrary and contextual nature of racial hierarchies.^6,7