Racism in Israel: How Ugly Acts Have Played Out on Twitter

There have been many ugly acts of racism in Israel in recent years, including the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens in summer 2014. That incident escalated tensions into a 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in which thousands of people were killed on both sides.

Racism in Israel between Jews and their Arab neighbors is more evident on social media outlets such as Twitter, where the hate is publically proclaimed.

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After the deaths of the three Israeli teens, some voiced support of those who committed the crime. A flurry of people, including children, posted pictures of themselves holding up three fingers in salute to the criminals. Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, noted in the World Post, “Those in the international community who are truly concerned about ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot ignore or excuse the culture of hatred among Palestinians.”  

The culture of hatred that causes racism in Israel is not just in one direction. While the Palestinians are often vocal about hating Jews, the feeling appears to be mutual, according to David Sheen, a journalist living in Israel. Sheen noted that many Jewish Israeli teens tweeted negatively about their Arab neighbors. Sheen did a twitter search for the Hebrew word for “arabs” and collected some of the hate-filled statements from young female users, including, ”I wish a painful death to Arabs,” and "In the end there will be no more Arabs, God willing." Another post read, “Arabs are not human, they're beasts."

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About 75 percent of Israeli citizens are Jewish, and 25 percent are non-Jewish, which is primarily an Arab population, according to the CIA World Factbook. About 300,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and nearly 200,000 in East Jerusalem.