Shlomo Maoz, of Iraqi descent, chief economist in the Excellence Brokerage House, is now jobless as a result of what he feels is simply racism, discrimination. It appears that in his address in Sapir Collage on Wednesday, January 11, 2012 in which he explained that after 60 years of being in the state, Sephardim remain second class citizens.
He spoke of the “Ashkenazi elites” and added “I want to see the policeman that will break the heads of Ashkenazim on Rothschild Boulevard”. He added that the Sephardi police will however break the heads of Sephardim, and we are all aware that police are simply more aggressive against Sephardim than against Ashkenazim.
Maoz used the recent social injustice protests and tents to prove his point, drawing a comparison from the Hatikvah neighborhood in Tel Aviv and similar events in Holon. He explained that in these cases, in which the vast majority of protestors were Sephardim, cops were much tougher than against similar protestors elsewhere, like Rothschild Boulevard.
He also spoke out against kibbutzim and the High Court of Justice, calling them “the same group of cronies”.
He reminded the audience of Vicki Knafo, who ran social injustice protests a number of years ago, doing it all on her own, raising national awareness to the plight of many families across the country. Back then he explained, because she is not Ashkenazi, no one listened as they did this summer. He went on to speak of the discrimination against Sephardi girls in chareidi mosdos and other cases in which the Ashkenazim remains at the top of the social ladder.
Perhaps even more amazing is the media statement released by Excellence, expressing shock over Maoz’s address and admitting he was being fired for making his anti-Ashkenazi comments. The company issued an apology to clients and distances itself from Maoz’s remarks.
Kol Chai Radio economic correspondent Tzvi Tessler adds that Maoz is known as being “outspoken” on these matters to put it mildly, but it appears in this case, he simply took it too far.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
“Hachaim v’ hamavas byad halashon!
Tell Shlomo that my son, an askenazi, was beaten quite viciously when he attended a rally for gush katif several years ago then he was thrown in jail and put in the worse of conditions. Afterwards he was released with no charges against him. Nothing was done to the policemen who beat him. He has since left Israel. Can you blame him?
see: http://www.jewishmag.com/89mag/am/am.htm
The monkeys who edited this piece have set a new low in journalism. The first 5 paragraphs report on speculation that Mr. Moaz was fired from his job because he made statements alleging that there is a material amount of anti-Sephardi prejudice in Israeli istitutions and society. Only in the sixth paragraph is it reported that his former employer publicly announced that, yes, he has been fired for giving voice to opinions about anti-Sephardi bias in Israel. Who would think that the obvious could be so elusive?