The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has published a major new report documenting how the Israeli prison system has become “a network of torture camps,” where physical, psychological and sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners is normalized and routine.
The report, titled “Welcome to Hell,” collects the testimony of 55 Palestinians who were detained by Israeli authorities since October 7 and later released, almost all without charges. This comes as a group of U.N. experts condemned the widespread torture of Palestinians and as Israel’s Channel 12 News aired shocking footage of Israeli soldiers sexually abusing a prisoner at the Sde Teiman army base, where thousands of detainees from Gaza are held.
Sarit Michaeli, the international advocacy lead for B’Tselem, says the abuse in Israeli prisons is “systemic, ongoing and state-sanctioned,” reflecting the cruelty and thirst for revenge among a growing number of Israelis. “They would like to have a completely open field in terms of what they can do to Palestinians,” says Michaeli.
You can find the full report of testimonies here
It’s easier for a Palestinian to get citizenship in Israel
Hell no. Should Zainichi have an easier path to citizenship? I do think so, here in Germany we have an accelerated procedure for people who were born and went to school here, no matter the parentage. Is it any more involved to get Japanese citizenship as a Zainichi than as a German? Nope.
Not allowing dual citizenship isn’t anything out of the ordinary either, btw.
People born in Germany are given citizenship. Zainichi Koreans are not in Japan. There is no accelerated procedure for zainichi Koreans who went to school. In fact japanese law even makes it harder for Korean schoolchildren.
One of the continuing contentious issues for Koreans in Japan is education. The Japanese government in 2003 made graduates from most international schools and foreign schools – as well as Japanese schools – eligible for the university entrance examination. This has not been extended to most Korean schools (with the exception of a small number of Mindan-run schools), meaning that Korean students from these schools remain seriously disadvantaged. There also exists other forms of continuing discrimination against Korean schools, with donations to foreign schools being tax-exempt, but not those to Korean schools. Since most Korean schools are thus still not recognized as regular schools, children attending these schools will also risk discrimination in employment. The government of Japan also excludes Korean schools from the high school tuition-waiver programme, which was introduced by the government in April 2010, although the programme covered foreign schools authorized as miscellaneous schools. Many local governments have cancelled financial support for Korean schools as well.
People born in Germany are given citizenship.
Not in general, no.
If your argument was “Japan should adopt German-style laws and give citizenship to children of permanent residents” then I’d say yes, that’s a good idea. Your argument, however, is “Japan has Apartheid, Zainichi can’t use the same beaches as Japanese, are forced to live in segregated areas, have a different set of laws applied to them”. Because that is what Apartheid means. You’re trivialising the concept with your accusation.
My argument is nobody cares about apartheid or even potential apartheid countries Japan is not the only one. They act like there is no problem it’s all normal. You don’t see a single person here going hey yeah Japan should chill out everyone is just going “no it’s not”.
What are you talking about “in general, no.”
It is how it works since the year 2000. If you are born there yes, you can get citizenship, given your parent live there for 8 years.
There are generations of zainichi who have not got citizenship.
I’ve shown they have different sets of laws that apply to them. They are prohibited from working various jobs.
Yeah pretty much, if they genuinely cared about human rights violations they would look into the Apartheid reports by Amnesty, B’TSelem, or HRW with the same earnest as Japan’s human rights violations during WWII and their current discriminatory policies.
