CURRENT ISSUES FOR OUR IRAC COMMUNITY

We are in the midst of the Days of Awe, with Rosh Hashanah behind us and Yom Kippur approaching. At this time of heshbon nefesh, a time for personal and collective reflection, I find myself deeply troubled by one of the most abhorrent phenomena in Israel today: anti-Arab racism.
 
IRAC has played a leading role in the struggle against racism for years, especially through our Legal Department and dedicated Racism Crisis Center. We tirelessly raise a voice against hatred, reminding Israelis that Judaism calls us to love our fellow human beings and respect all people as created in the image of God.
 
Yet the most racist government Israel has ever known has normalized and legitimized incitement, unleashing both national leaders and extremist religious authorities to traffic in hate. We refuse to remain silent in the face of such horrific statements that embolden racist acts.
 
Just before the holiday, we learned that our demand to prosecute Rabbi Meir David Shmueli – who teaches Torah at an ultra-Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem and in communities throughout Israel – for vicious racist statements against Arabs has finally borne fruit, and he has been indicted for incitement to racism.
 
Rabbi Shmueli is only the second rabbi to be prosecuted for incitement in the past decade, despite numerous complaints we submitted against inciting rabbis. Both cases have been the result of our efforts.
 
We demand action against rabbis because it is crucial to hold public figures accountable for their incitement, to send the message that such statements are illegitimate, especially when voiced by those who claim to be spiritual leaders.
 
The case of Rabbi Shmueli is particularly egregious. In a class he taught in December 2023, he voiced the outrageous claim that Arab doctors in Israeli hospitals deliberately kill Jewish patients, “even more than Hamas” and cannot be trusted. His remarks caused an uproar at the time, and alongside other organizations, we filed an immediate complaint, then consistently followed up with additional letters demanding action.
 
Rabbi Shmueli's statement was especially appalling, because it concerns Israel’s healthcare system, a model for a shared society where Jews and Arabs work side by side on all levels for the benefit of all. In our 2017 report, Heroes of Health: Israel’s Healthcare System as a Model of Jewish – Arab Coexistence, we documented the significant role Arab professionals played in Israel’s healthcare system and presented this as an example that should be replicated in other sectors.
 
Look at the numbers: As of 2023, Arabs – who are ~21% of Israel's citizens – make up 25% of our doctors, 27% of our nurses, and 49% of our pharmacists. They are a vital part of Israel’s health system.
 
It is precisely because the healthcare system demonstrates that another reality is possible that racists repeatedly target it.
 
We saw this a decade ago when MK Bezalel Smotrich, now finance minister, said that when his wife gave birth, he did not want her sharing a hospital room in a maternity ward with an Arab woman.
 
And we saw it again recently in a post about a soldier seriously wounded in Lebanon who was treated in the ICU at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, when his brother posted that he had been treated roughly and with hostility by Arab staff. The post claimed that exclusively Arab staff intubated his brother and attended to his burns while family members were not permitted inside the unit. The hospital investigated the allegations and rejected them altogether, noting that the medical team was in fact made up of both Jewish and Arab staff and that the restrictions on family access were part of standard intensive-care procedures for his situation.
 
Rambam is one of the most respected hospitals in Israel. Given its location, it regularly treats troops most severely wounded on the northern front with consummate professionalism. This soldier, evacuated there at a critical moment, received this same level of expert care from the entire staff, Jews and Arabs working together to save his life. Thankfully, his condition improved, and he was transferred to Sheba Medical Center for continued treatment and rehabilitation.
 
Yet several extremist government ministers nonetheless seized on his brother's false allegations and used them to fuel harsh attacks against Arabs in general and Arab healthcare professionals in particular.
 
In response, medical organizations across the country, including the Israel Medical Association, issued condemnations emphasizing that the healthcare system is a beacon of equality, tolerance, and coexistence, and that Arab medical professionals are full partners in strengthening both Israel’s healthcare system and Israeli society. The chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians warned that “these lies are not merely ‘fake news’—they are a dangerous blood libel intended to dismantle from within the one system that still functions as an island of sanity and equality in Israel.”
 
This is why our complaint against Rabbi Shmueli was so important. It took far too long, but one day before Rosh Hashanah, the State Attorney’s Office finally indicted him for incitement to racism.
 
The message must be clear: zero tolerance for incitement. Zero tolerance for racism.
 
When racism spreads and becomes normalized, our responsibility to fight it only becomes more urgent. This is not only adherence to the law, but our moral Jewish obligation, part of our work of teshuva.

That is what we did over the past year.
 
That is what we will continue to do in the year ahead.
Because racism is not our Judaism.
Sincerely,
Orly Erez-Likhovski