Email of April 23, 2006

Hi Bob,
Thank you for this article. I agree with you that
such discrimination leads to hatred and discrimination
of the "other". I've been living in the West Bank for six

months now. I've learned that, unfortunately, Palestinians
practice a similar discrimination against Christians
in Palestine.

Christians cannot inherit real estate from Muslims.
This law, as I understand it, is recent having evolved
from the rigid fundamentalism that has smothered any
nascent enlightenment of men during the past twenty
years. The law means if a Muslim marries a Christian
she cannot inherit his property when he dies. As far
as I know, Muslim women never marry Christian men.
Even a Muslim widow is allowed only one eighth of her
husband's estate.

Loving husbands of a benevolent nature have ways
to bypass these laws and pass their property on to
their wives. They can donate it to her. They can leave
it in their children's names with the understanding
that it actually belongs to their mother. Many do just
that. Sadly, the law supports not the more progressive
and generous of men, but the most self serving and
oppressive. It gives the full weight of the law to
those men with the least integrity. I know of some
appalling examples.

Thus insecure and frightened men, who fear losing
any control of their women, place themselves in a
vulnerable position when it comes to world opinion.
Already having been ambushed by history, made
organizationally impotent by the dominance of Israel,
and subject to vilification by Zionist sympathizers,
Palestinians themselves inadvertently offer weapons

of contempt to their enemies.

I appreciate your continuing education regarding
the Palestinian tragedy.
-Bronwin

--- Bob wrote:
---------------------------------
Years ago, I conducted one of the first
"redlining" studies in the US for Baltimore, MD that
led to national legislation such as the HomeMortgage
Disclosure Act and the Community Reinvestment Act. I
did it because I firmly believed - and continue to
believe - that NO ONE should be denied a mortgage or a
place to live because of the color of his/her skin,
religion, ethnicity, etc. Such segregation only leads
to racism on both sides, alienation by the victims and
cultural/religious isolationism that breeds hatred and
demonization of the "other".

Unfortunately, Israel has been practicing "redlining"
against theirPalestinian neighbors and fellow citizens
since the founding of theState of Israel, as described
in the attached article entitled:
Redliningand the Israeli Real Estate Industry
Fred Schlomka

Below is the opening paragraph of this excellent and
factual article,to give you a "taste" of magnitude of
this problem: "The recent Israeli nelections were

followed by a number of pronouncements by US officials
praisingdemocracy in Israel.However democracy is much
more than elections, and many freedoms that Americans
take for granted are not available in Israel.For
example, Israel'sArab citizens suffer from
discriminatory real estate and housing practices of
the sort that were outlawed in the US almost 40 years
ago."

In my humble opinion, as long as Israel continues
to treatIsraeli/Palestinians in such a discriminatory
fashion, anti-Israeli feelings and anti-Semitism will
continue to grow, to the detriment ofIsrael's
long-term self interest. It is also against many of
the teachings of the Torah. As American
liberals/moderates who find these redlining practices
repugnant, we should be urging the Stateof Israel to
reform its policies against its Palestinian citizens
by treating them AS EQUALS, both in law and in
practice. In my opinion,this will do more to undermine
"terrorism" and hatred against Jews and Israel than
any military weapons or separation barrier.

Shalom, Salam & Peace
Bob