Michelle Malkin » State Department subsidized No Israeli Jews Allowed program

State Department subsidized No Israeli Jews Allowed program

By Michelle Malkin • September 27, 2007 08:33 PM

Update: Great. The State Department doc I linked to yesterday has a virus. See here if you opened it.

***

The State Department erases the evidence

I missed this story over the weekend of an appalling U.S. State Department-subsidized University of California business training program that explicitly barred Israeli Jews from applying. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would have heartily approved of this until the State Department reversed it:

A U.S. State Department-funded University of California program which provides business training for residents of the Middle East specifically excluded Israeli Jews - until Jewish journalists protested.

The University of California has now altered the program’s eligibility requirement that initially barred Israeli Jews. The turnaround in policy also may have saved the State Department, whose Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) finances the program, from having to provide an embarrassing explanation. MEPI also selects the participants.
The program was open to citizens of “Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel (limited to Israeli Arab citizens), Jordan…”

Jerusalem-based marketing specialist and businesswoman Miriam Schwab uncovered the bias last week when she checked into applying to the university’s San Diego branch Beyster Institute program for Middle East Entrepreneur Training (MEET). She discovered that the program was open to citizens of “Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel (limited to Israeli Arab citizens), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen.”

The Beyster Institute, which manages the program, offers three 10-day seminars, each one with 20 eligible participants. The program includes professional coaching and offers opportunities to make new contacts and “to help promising leaders realize their aspirations to build successful [businesses]… The participation of women is highly encouraged.”

The Canadian-born Schwab, who moved to Israel 10 years ago, said she was interested in the program because she employs two women in her Illuminea company in Jerusalem. “This program sounded really interesting until I got to the part about eligibility for application,” she wrote on an e-mail list.

The MEET program ostensibly “does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, age, religion, national origin, or handicap.”

In response to an IsraelNationalNews.com question for confirmation of the restriction in Israel, program manager Mona Yousry verified, “It is only for Arab Israelis.”

The blogger at the Illuminea was the original whistleblower, and in an update to her original Sept. 21 post, she observes:

In the past, if I had noticed this and wanted to protest it, I would have had to write letters and fax news outlets, politicians, etc. and hope that someone cared. Chances of making change would have been slim to none for a mother-of -five-small-business-owner sitting in Jerusalem, and if any change were made, it would have taken weeks or months. But the Internet has changed all that. I started writing about this yesterday afternoon, and in less than 24 hours the injustice was resolved. I can’t prove that it’s not coincidence, but assuming it’s not, then apparently we all have the power to make change. A single letter or blog post CAN make a difference.

Indeed.

Hat tip: Omri at Mere Rhetoric, who calls out the State Department weasels:

The State Department will begin walking this back, and they’ll no doubt insist that any applications from Israeli Jews will be treated fairly - treated fairly by the very same people who wrote an explicitly anti-Semitic application in the first place. So in addition to having a perfect example of institutional anti-Semitism, we’ll no doubt be treated to a paradigm case of nudge-nudge wink-wink “no bias against Israeli Jews here” diplomatic pretense.

State Department culture is obviously a complex and multileveled thing, but it does seem to produce officials who reflexively denigrate Israeli Jews in order to such up to Arabs and Muslims. Sure there’s all the stuff about the peace process, but we suppose that’s at least somewhat debatable. Less debatable: the time that they wouldn’t accept Israeli aid for post-Katrina New Orleans because they were afraid it would piss off Arab and Muslim donors.

Yid with Lid asks:

Where was the ACLU? How come Congressman Ellison isn’t screaming about profiling. Here we go again with another example of how the PC police only cares when things are convenient for them.

Yid was alert enough to spot and save the State Department’s application form that shows, via Word’s “track changes” feature, the deletion of the phrase banning Israeli Jews. Here’s the letter on a US Embassy website. [Link removed due to computer virus.] Click for more screenshots:

Preserved for posterity.

Shame, shame on the State Department and UC.

Posted in: Israel

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#1

On September 27th, 2007 at 8:47 pm, AlohaGuy said:

These little programs are dreamed up by University dopes, who then go looking for money. It would be interesting to see who at UC put this little deal together.
#2

On September 27th, 2007 at 9:21 pm, Jaded said:

I say it all the time new media is changing the world and in my view for the better. I applaud this blogger for pointing out this racist crap going on in the liberal State Department…..I am not shocked.

What continues to amaze me is the level of anit-semitism around the world including America. I have never understood it and I guess I never will.
#3

On September 27th, 2007 at 9:22 pm, Don Miguel said:

The State Department is full of Arabists, so something like this shouldn’t be so surprising.
#4

On September 27th, 2007 at 9:23 pm, Dandapani said:

The State Department has ALWAYS been a political entity on to itself. Colin Powell never fixed the problem (was part of the problem) and even today, it marches to its own drummer (and marches only on its LEFT foot)!
#5

On September 27th, 2007 at 9:28 pm, zorro said:

A single letter or blog post CAN make a difference.

This is a true statement, this blog, in particular has had an enormous positive impact on politics and life in general.

Thank God this wrong created by our State Dept. was made right.
#6

On September 27th, 2007 at 9:34 pm, greenfairie said:

Disgusting…Judenrein policies on our tax dollar. I’m glad they were busted on this, but it makes you wonder what else is going on that we don’t know about.
#7

On September 27th, 2007 at 9:59 pm, hadsil said:

I thought universities were all about “diversity”.
#8

On September 27th, 2007 at 10:10 pm, bvw said:

Amazing. Evil. Kleptocratic, almost surely.
#9

On September 27th, 2007 at 10:50 pm, bear1909 said:

Condoleeza Rice has got to go.
#10

On September 27th, 2007 at 10:52 pm, heroyalwhyness said:

State Department subsidized No Israeli Jews Allowed program

is not the same as

limited to Israeli Arab citizens

.

Now, I’m not one to carry water for the State Dept. . .. but there are many Israeli-Arab Jews too. As a matter of fact, a significant percentage of the Israeli Jewish population are from Arab origins . I recommend the film by Pierre Rehov, “The Silent Exodus”.

In 1948 nearly one million Jews lived in Arab lands. But In barely twenty years, they have become forgotten fugitives, expelled from their native lands, forgotten by history and where the victims themselves have hidden their fate under a cloak of silence.

A people whom legend have always associated with “wandering” many of these Jews from Arab lands had lived there for thousands of years and accepted their fate, through good times and bad times.

But 1948, the beginning of their exodus, also saw the birth of the State of Israel.

And, while the Arab armies were preparing to invade the young refugee-country, the survivors of the Shoah were piling up in rickety boats. Meanwhile a few hundred thousand Arabs from Palestine were getting ready to flee their homes, convinced that they would return as winners and conquerors.

Soon - by a terrible twist of fate they, as well, began to fill up refugee camps and passed on their refugee status to new generations.

The Jews, however, did not receive refugee status.

They had just rediscovered the land of their birthright.

And if they came from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq or from Yemen, if they had lost everything, even their relatives and their cemeteries, they were ready to rebuild their lives in the West and for many - in Israel - and try to forget their past.

Without ever asking for compensation or the right of return, or even wishing that their story be told…

***

Edot HaMizrah (communities of the East) are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East. Mizrahim today reject this (or any) umbrella description and prefer to identify themselves by their particular country of origin, or that of their immediate ancestors, e.g. “Iraqi Jew”, “Tunisian Jew”, “Persian Jew”, etc.

***

Even though the eliminated text does not eliminate all Jews. . .only those not from an Arab ethnicity, the fact that the State Dept. issued an immediate retraction indicates that the choice of wording was specifically designed to elimate Jewish applicants.
This immediate reaction should result in further investigation and significant repercussions - just as if “African Americans” or “Hispanic Americans” or “Native Americans” or any other minority were singled out and informed “need not apply”.
#11

On September 27th, 2007 at 11:21 pm, nbarry said:

herroyalwhyness

You can split hairs over this for the rest of the night, but the message was unmistakable: Jews need not apply. That the State Department reversed this after their discrimination was exposed only confirms their original intent.
#12

On September 28th, 2007 at 12:09 am, heroyalwhyness said:

nbarry - split hairs? Actually, we are in agreement (admittedly, I took my time getting to that point) . . .I did state the following:

Even though the eliminated text does not eliminate all Jews. . .only those not from an Arab ethnicity, the fact that the State Dept. issued an immediate retraction indicates that the choice of wording was specifically designed to elimate Jewish applicants.
#13

On September 28th, 2007 at 1:56 am, blues said:

Well,what is the problem? every good liberal knows that Joooooos are genetically bred to be good at business; they were just trying to be FAIR.But of course there is no RACIAL PROFILING involved.This kind of sh** makes me sick.
#14

On September 28th, 2007 at 7:05 am, herself said:

One should also note that the file on the State Department web site shows the deleted section when simply opened with OpenOffice under Linux. (I refrained from opening it under windows. LGF reported that it was infected with a piece of malware.)

{^_^}
#15

On September 28th, 2007 at 8:54 am, Boomer said:

Dept. of State needs a complete purge of the Clinton-era appointees along with CIA and parts of the Pentagon. I’ve had it with tax payer’s dollars funding this type of garbage. Great way to reduce the deficit is to greatly reduce some of these bloated agencies and get their none functional employees off the public tit. It would be great to watch some of them try to compete in the private sector.
#16

On September 28th, 2007 at 9:28 am, Lan Astaslem said:

I agree that this post shows the amazing power of the internet, and I also agree that it is wonderful that the selection process was changed, but the most telling statment is:

The State Department will begin walking this back, and they’ll no doubt insist that any applications from Israeli Jews will be treated fairly - treated fairly by the very same people who wrote an explicitly anti-Semitic application in the first place. So in addition to having a perfect example of institutional anti-Semitism, we’ll no doubt be treated to a paradigm case of nudge-nudge wink-wink “no bias against Israeli Jews here” diplomatic pretense.

So nothing really changed… Real change will only happen when the players involved are removed.
#17

On September 28th, 2007 at 3:34 pm, 24Klady said:

Ms. Rice has been in over her head since the day she took office. She is book-smart but seems to lack common sense. Too bad. Had she been able to gain control of her staff and lop the heads that clearly subverted her and the President, I’d have voted for her in what ever job she chose to run for in Washington. Sometimes gifted people just don’t get it.