The ethnic divides and patterns in the Israeli society originate in the Old Yishuv,44 i.e. the Jewish Community in Palestine before the Mandate during the period of the Ottoman Empire. The Ashkenazi immigrants to the Old Yishuv did not join the existing Sephardi Jewish institutions in Palestine, but set up their own political organisations, settlements, schools and social institutions (Horowitz and Lissak, 1989:69). As a result of the increase in Ashkenazi immigration, the Sephardi fraction of the Jewish population steadily declined. The separate institutional framework for Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews continued during the New Yishuv, i.e. the time of the Mandate (1919-1949), up to the establishment of the state of Israel. In the New Yishuv the focus of the power struggles was on political and ideological issues, not ethnical cleavage. The latter became a source of problems with the immigration of Jews from North African and Middle Eastern countries in the 1950s and 1960s.
Since the establishment of the state of Israel 2.79 million Jews have immigrated, of which 67.4 percent were of European and North American origin and 31.4 percent of African and Asian origin (Timm, 2001:52). An important historical difference between these Jewish immigrants and the Ashkenazi Jews was that the Jews from North African and Middle Eastern countries generally had not experienced the process of modernisation, set forth by the Industrial revolution and Emancipation in Europe, like most Ashkenazi Jews had. Because of this there developed a generalised belief that upon arrival in Israel non-European Jews were ‘backwards’ and ‘primitive’. The attitude and politics in receiving and integrating these new immigrants into the state of Israel were strongly influenced by this mode of thought. By and large, the new immigrants were considered to be in need of re-education and re-socialisation into the modern, secular and Zionist ideas and values of the state of Israel.45 As a result they became victims of discrimination from the state and society in general (Samoha, 1995:24). It is correct that the majority of the immigrants from Middle Eastern and North African countries had a lower level of
44 Yishuv is short for Ha’Yeshuv Ha’Yehudi, the Jewish Community in Palestine (Horowitz and Lissak:
1989:318).
45 See Massad 1997 “Mizrahi Jews and Ashenazi Scholarship”, Ben-Rafael and Sharot 1991 Ethnicity,
Religion and Class in Israeli Society and Elazar 1989 The Other Jews, The Sephardim Today for further
education, larger families, were more traditional and religious than Ashkenazim (Samoha, 1995:24).46
It is also important to remember the differences amongst these immigrants from different countries, as pointed out earlier. Many immigrants from Iraq and Egypt were highly educated people with high positions in the bureaucracy or prosperous merchants who kept their positions and status after immigration to Israel.47 These immigrants are usually not Shas supporters, but the religious immigrants from these countries are leaders of Shas. The Shas supporters are more typically less educated and poorer immigrants from Morocco and Yemen.48
Whether the discrimination from the Ashkenazi establishment was deliberate or not, is not the focal point in this study, and will not be discussed. The important point is that the prejudice and inequality felt and experienced by the Sephardi population in Israel is an important component in understanding Shas and its supporters.
Protest Movement
Besides the Ashkenazi-Sephardi dispute in the Haredi circles, Shas is by many people considered to be the continuation of the social and political protest movements of Middle Eastern Jews such as the Wadi Salib disturbances in 1959, the Black Panthers movement in the 1970s49 and the political party TAMI.50 These protests were first of all against the discriminative behaviour of the government towards Middle Eastern Jews and agianst their resultant socio-economic situation. According to the leader of TAMI, the movement was intended for all Jews who considered themselves “followers of Israel’s tradition” and would not exclude anyone because they did not observe all the precepts of the Halacha (Shokeid, 1995:226-227). It presented itself through both Israeli and Middle Eastern Jewish symbols and won three seats in the 1981 Knesset election with the slogan
46 See Shenhav 1997 “The Bond of Silence” for further reading.
47 See Shohet 1982 The Story of an Exile, A Short History of the Jews of Iraq for further reading on the Jews
from Iraq.
48 See Deshen 1989 The Mella Society, Jewish Community Life In Sherifian Morocco for further reading Jews
from Morocco.
49 The Wadi Salib slum in Haifa was the place where demonstrations erupted as result of injuries of Middle
Eastern Jews by the police. It is usually described as disorganised and spontaneous (Horowitz and Lissak, 1989: 78). The Black Panthers’ political movement organised demonstrations around Israel and succeeded in more allocations to Middle Eastern Jews in the government budget of 1974 (Horowitz and Lissak, 1989: 78). According to Chetrit (2000, Journal of Palestine Studies), the ideological arguments of both these protest were demands to end “ethnic discrimination” and accept Middle Eastern as equal citizens of Israel. See Chetrit, 2001, “The Black Panthers, Thirty Years Later” for further reading.
“Stand Tall” – against humiliated pride (Chetrit, 2000).51 Despite this the party disappeared after elections in 1984.