From: Center for Policy Research <cpr>
Subject: Hebrew labor: racist connotations


AVODA IVRIT - HEBREW LABOR
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"Hebrew labor" is a concept which has served the Zionist movement
for a long time.  It has a double-barreled message: 1) The new Jew
must learn to do physical labor, i.e. working the land; 2) The
land in this country must pass into Jewish hands, i.e. to the same
new Jew who has "learned" to work it. Both aspects of the
two-pronged concept of "Hebrew labor" have racist connotations. On
the one hand, the diaspora Jew's lack of training in physical
labor is a myth shared by Zionists and antisemites.  On the other
hand, its meaning in practice has been the displacement of the
Arab farmer from the source of his livelihood.

The occupation and the cheap Palestinian labor which streamed from
the occupied territories to the factories, orchards, and
hot-houses of Israel relegated the myth of "Hebrew labor" to the
history books and nostalgic memories of the Zionist Movement. It
has blossomed forth anew, however, as the government's answer to
problems caused by the closure of the territories. Today too this
concept has two functions: 1) to give a progressive look to the
closing of the Palestinian population.  Or in the words of
Environment Minister Yossi Sarid, "I have no tears for those who
get rich off of cheap labor". 2) to furnish an answer to the
unemployed Israeli who complains of being obliged to work for
wages that are lower than the unemployment insurance he receives.