A prvate religious school waives the requirement for tuition and accepts four Eithiopian students. The school provides a special instructor to guide these students and prepare them to successfully integrate with the other pupils. That same school gets accused of racist behavior by people who make sure that they children will never have to deal with the disadvantaged by living in communities where poor people are priced out of sight. 3rd rate authors then write editorials about racisim.

Parents of students at Lamerchav school in Petach Tikva claim the accusations of "apartheid" policies toward Ethiopian girls (published Dec 4/07) are lies propagated by a Meretz representative in the town's municipality. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/137753

Integration is hard. I was thrown into a general classroom at the age of 16 in Nahariya. I couldn't keep up - Hebrew right off the plane? So my mom went out of her way to find a special school in Haifa that had 2 levels of classes for immigrants at every grade level. I went to Ulpan there, then to a beginners' class, eventually progressing into advanced class and graduating successfully. After 10 years of schooling in USSR, these were 2 best school years of my life. In that class we had Russians, Romanians, South Americans (with Russian surnames :o)) and toshavim hozrim - Israeli kids who lived abroad for many years, came back with weak Hebrew and had to catch up in order to succeed. It was a private school, but our education fees were waived, we had to work for school instead - hours at the library, cafeteria, or other jobs. I still keep in touch with my teachers and my classmates from that school (15 years had passed), I love every memory I had there, and I'll be eternally grateful to my Mom for making an extra effort to find this school for me. Not all schools in Israel were accommodating to accept immigrants, be they Russian or Ethiopians, even at the height of aliya from both countries. Maybe the "investigative reporters" should look more closely at the school's story.

those who really scrape the bottom of trhe barrel ...work for ynet. I rest my case.

As Jews in a Jewish country how dare we differentiate between Jews by the colour of their skin. A society is only as good as its treatment of the newcomer in its midst

The author's misuse of the word apartheid is similar to that of Carter's in his biased book. I recommend B. Michael read Abe Foxman's book, The Deadliest Lies.

to leave there that did not wind up as slaves somewhere else. We went out of our way to absorb them,but no matter what we do,they will cry,"discrimination" forever. If someone does not like it here,then go back where you came from irregardless of your color. Most of those places were shit compared to Israel!

Well Sheila, why not be the first to invite a nice young black Ethiopean into your home for Shabbat.... Show the rest how it's done.....

It is no surprise to see Israel develop into a racist society given the racist doctrine of Zionism from which it was spawned. In order for Israel's founders to justify the ethnic cleansing that they used to cleanse Palestine and artificially create areas in Palestine where Jews were a majority prior to declaring statehood, Israel's founders had to dehumanize and otherwise lessen humanity of the indigenous population. One of their first steps was to declare the indigenous population of Palestine to be not people at all, by selling the primary Zionist lie that Palestine was a "Land Without People for a People Without Land" to the Jews of Europe. They did so by using techniques taken straight from the Nazi handbook whereby they dehumanized the indigenous population while using propaganda to sell the belief that Jews had a "right" to boot them from their homes, villages and farms because Jews are the chosen ones (master race) and that the indigenous population were responsible for crimes that occurred thousands of years ago etc, and thus have no rights what so ever, a belief still carried by those in Israel’s knuckle dragging set. So it is really no surprise that a country that was built upon such a racist foundation and allowed to fester for decades would evolve into a racist country where even a fellow Jew’s level of “Jewishness” is questioned by those of the self proclaimed “master race”.

You are 100% right! I did just that. I left for New Zealand. I live in Auckland. I own a Porsche 911 and a Villa by the sea. I am involved in Biotechnology and is considered a smart Jew by the professional community. You treated me as a Moroccan Jew- no more. Stay where you are; in shelters under hizbulah missiles. For me there is life outside your racist country; Life of equality,blessing and prosperity! Thank you my beloved PM Helen Clark. God bless you!

It was certainly rascist to separate those kids. The fact they were separated tells the other kids that the Ethiopans are different, even inferior. That's damaging to the Ethiopians who were separated. If the teachers / principal say they don't know that - THEY SHOULD BE FIRED. If indeed the Ethiopian kids were behind the other kids - the extra teacher should be used as in class aide to the students with difficulty; or as a tutor after class. BUT TO HAVE SEPARATED THOSE KIDS WAS RASCIST.

These Jews who called other Jews apartheid are nothing but self haters. If immigrants are placed in separate classes AT FIRST they will integrate better later when they have conquered the language and religion of the others. They will probably also feel more comfortable with those who are also progressing rather than be frustrated and feel like dummies. My mother remembered very well when she came to the US at age 16 and was placed in the first grade because she didn;t know the language or custumes of her new country. She quickly learned and was able to not only graduate but continue on. Was that apartheid?

As musicians, there is no color, only talent. That goes for all walks of life. Sports, etc. G-d makes no mistakes and we are granted color as in nature, all colors, all beautiful all with purpose and dignity. If we were blind, would color matter? Does it matter what color the donor of blood is when one needs the blood to survive? We are each G-ds creation, whether Jew or not. Live and let live, Shalom.

Years ago in New York, many pupils from many places attended public school and there was only one language spoken and taught, english. There was no accomodation for any other language. Each student spoke another language when they arrived but, each also learned english. As it turned out, each student then spoke two languages and excelled in both. The teachers did an outstanding job as did the school board. May I suggest this for the administration of schools? It would also work today here in the states, and there in Israel. Simple, effective, and removes all appearance of any prejudice. The main goal was reached, the pupil became a citizen speaking the same language, without angst or prejudice. We are now battling over spanish as a second language and, for what?

Jason, the same could be said of any citizen not happy with their fate. I'm born in America and am very unhappy with the present prez. Where shall I go? Any Jew not happy with the PM is also in that same circumstance. Right? Shall we all return( other than those like me, born here) to from whence we came? Think about it, with respect, Shalom.

Assuming that he's actually a Jew.

What nonsense! The fact is that nobody is opposed to the Ethipian Jews living in Israel. It is only the Ethipians who make up that they would be disadvantaged. As far as I know, people, including myself ,don't CARE that they have dark skin and so on. It is only the Ethipians who CARE about this. And also, neither the Ethipians nor a certain kind of journalists have any right to discredit Israel and its people.

Quite a large group of families from Ethiopia arrived on our settlement over 20 years ago. Today they and their children and grandchildren are all fine Israeli Jews and an important part of our community. There have been many marriages between them and other Israelis here. This is a beautiful example of Kivutz Galuyot-the Ingathering of the Exiles. Judaism is a religion and not a skin color. Moses married Tzipora who was a Midianite and most likely black.

It is all over the web - about 'apartheid' Israel!! Thank you Meretz!!!

The same evening that this story broke the news last week, it became known that the facts were VERY different to what was reported. These kids were getting special, free help in all areas of their school work and free transportation to boot. It would have been suicidal to expect them to be up to par with the rest of the class. sometimes it doesn't matter what you do - you can't win; the school is in one of those situations.

The only way you can compare the US situation with ours is to be ignorant beyond ignorant - to not even recognize the possibility of a difference. To you apparently violence is an automatic side effect of melanin?

Me thinks thou needest a vacation, because you've lost your sense of perspective. Try some sedatives, too.

I am VERY surprised that a news reporter would not be able to see more than one side of an issue. 1) Perhaps they thought the Ethiopians would be more comfortable all in the same class with their peers. It does not say in the article if there were "white" Israelis there or not as well. 2) I was a teacher for 34 years. It seems to me that until they know that the Ethipians are up to the standards of the white Israelis, it makes sense to put them together in one class to be taught together until there educational level is determined. 3) I am shocked that you claim to be the biggest news source in Israel and don't seem to understand more than one point of view. Don't your reporters have to learn how to get at two sides of an issue? Are you striving to be like the New York Times of Israel? [blatantly leftist?]

Merets and crappy reporters like you are destroying Israel in every sense of the word Look for a real job

just because that's what you believe , it doesn't make it so ....