Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 16, 2017

During the course of a Knesset session discussing the proposed law to revoke funding for educational institutions that are proven to reject students on ethnic bases, referring to haredi Ashkenazi schools that allegedly do not accept Sephardi girls, MK Meir Cohen(Yesh Atid) caused a commotion when he shouted at MK Moshe Gafni: "Shame on you, racist.. Get out! Sometimes racists need to keep a low profile. Shame on you, racist that you are. It's time it was explained to racists like you that your place is not in the Knesset. I am Moroccan and you don't accept girls from my family, racist that you are." Gafni responded by calling him a "hypocrite."

The law was submitted by the Yesh Atid party who claimed that haredi schools discriminate against Sephardic girls and do not automatically accept them to their schools based on academic ability.

Deputy Minister of Education Meir Porush said during the course of the discussion that "in the brief period that Yesh Atid served in the government, you didn't discuss the question of ethnic motives because you removed summer camp budgets from all schools which are recognized by the ministry although they are not state schools - without checking whether there were Ashkenazim or Sephardim in them. Why? Because they are haredi."

"You didn't just cancel the summer camp budgets, you also revoked special incentive hours and augmenting hours from haredi schools. You revoked the haredi special children's allocations simply because they are haredi. Why do I mention this? This is the ideology of Yesh Atid, this is their agenda. Maybe you should propose a law which funds schools in accordance with the level of violence or alcoholic beverages in them?"

Shas attempted to evade voting on the proposal and did not participate in the discussion. Before the vote however a number of Shas members entered the plenum and voted unwillingly against the proposal.

After the vote Shas presented a united front with UTJ and said that "the proposal submitted today to the Knesset was brought by the same party which invented ethnic discrimination, which cut the most vital funds without compunction and without distinguishing between Sephardim and Ashkenazim. This proposal is meant to embarrass the government, but the government will continue to exist and Shas will continue to fight discrimination in educational institutions."

The proposal was rejected by a majority of 43 to 38.

Behind the scenes there was considerable drama when Shas refused to vote against the law and it was feared that the Yesh Atid proposal would pass but at the last minute UTJ managed to drag some members of Shas into the plenum to vote against the proposal.

After the vote Gafni rose to speak and shouted at the Yesh Atid MKs: "You are the racists! You try to make political capital via the Sephardic girls. You are liars, cheats, impudent. My granddaughters learn in a school with 65% Sephardic girls and I'm proud of this. You wouldn't even give these girls summer schools! you are hypocrites."

See original here:
One MK yells at another: 'Racist, get out of here.' - Arutz Sheva

Category: Ashkenazi
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