this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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in case you're wondering, here "white"="majority," not the definition used politically in most countries. Retro-etymology being "blank," or "standard," like a sheet of paper without details. In Japan, for instance, white people are ethnically japanese. I point this out because in Israel the majority would not be considered white in many places in the world; Jews would elsewhere be considered a diverse conglomerate of ethnicities.
I normally advocate for terms like "racial supremacist" or "ethno-supremacist" in a context like this because people don't get nearly as defensive when they hear this, but white supremacy is catchy as a term I guess and so it perseveres.
@jsomae
Fair enough. But the problem is that most of them are white Europeans
Aren't most Israeli Jews not European but Middle Eastern?
The problem isn't that they are white Europeans at all, even if it's true they are, the problem is that they are a settler colonial project.
well this is a fascinating query because it depends on when you're asking the question. pre 1950s I'd say for sure, yes, the vast majority were of middle eastern origin, but after the holocaust? no, millions of european jews and also soviet jews (russia, belarus, ukraine but also the stan countries all pushed enormous amounts of their jews to immigrate) after Israel began to grow changed that.
It's about 45%Mizrahi and 32% Ashkenazi.
There is an argument that the increase in Mizrahi is what props up the Ashkenazi settler movement though.
Yes, you're correct. And even the Europeans are mostly Ashkenazi, who are sometimes considered white, sometimes not. If you ask the KKK, definitely not white -- IMO that's really what matters; if there are hate groups out for you, you're probably not white.
@IttihadChe
JFC
? JFC?
That's actually not a problem. White europeans aren't more capable of ethno-supremacy than other races. (Putting aside whether Ashkenazi are white in that sense at all -- presumably not, since part of the reason Israel was funded was to get the Jews out of europe.) The problem is that Israel is an ethno-supremacist settler-colonist state. If you removed the Ashkenazi from Israel, the Sefardi for instance, or Mezrahi (who unarguably don't resemble white europeans) would continue the settler-colonism on their own. They don't actually need the Ashkenazi Jews for the state to perpetuate.
Whiteness is a malleable social construct that is entirely dependent on who's passing as the default of settler society. The fact that Ashkenazis were not considered white in 1930s Germany has as little bearing on their whiteness today as Italians being considered people of color in 19th century USA.
I'm not talking about 1930's Germany, I'm talking about the USA today lol. But yeah, it's not relevant in Israel -- that's my point.
Yeah, I seem to have misread you, apologies. Not gonna edit the comment because it kind of says the same thing from a different angle.