Contempt for non-Ashkenaki Jews
- Quotation from Mordechai Gur “Retarded mentality deeply rooted in underdeveloped modes of thought, ” — May 24 1978
In an interview with the daily Al Hamishmar, Mordechai Gur, former Chief of Staff (Jerusalem, Golan Heights, Lebanon), professes the inability of non-ashkenazi Jews to hold positions requiring high technical skills. - Quotation from David Ben Gurion “The exiles that are … ingathered in Israel do not yet constitute a people” — 1971
No "Jewish people"? This is what Ben Gurion thinks about the "mixed multitude" that arrived in Palestine. - Quotation from Abba Eban “Our object should be to infuse them with an Occidental spirit” — 1969
Then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, expressing his racist views towards Mizrahi Jewish immigrants (and Arabs in general). - Quotation from David
Ben Gurion “We are in duty bound to fight against the spirit of the Levant” — Oct. 5 1965
Interviewed by Robert Moskin of Look Magazine, Ben Gurion expresses his absolute contempt for the Mizrahi Jews. - Quotation from David Ben Gurion “Hitler, more than he hurt the Jewish people … hurt the Jewish State” — 1964
Explaining that the genocide of the Jews of Europe was less serious than the reduction in the number of European immigrants to Israel. - Quotation from David Ben Gurion “In such a primitive community as the Marrocans - such a thing is possible” — Aug. 3 1959
In a letter to Judge Moshe Etzioni. - Quotation from David Ben Gurion “The danger is that… we will become a Levantine people” — Jan. 1954
Addressing the Mapai Party Central Committee in January 1954, Ben Gurion unabashedly established a hierarchy of Ashkenazi (educated Jews) > "Oriental" (uneducated) Jews > Arabs. - Quotation from Maurice Samuel “We needed the maximum number of Jews, in shambles, everywhere and everywhere” — 1953
Zionist writer known for a famous racist "anti-goy" statement "You Gentiles" (1925) speaks of the "opening of the floodgates" to populate Israel as soon as possible after the ethnic cleansing of 1948. - Quotation from David Ben Gurion “It lacks the most basic and primary concepts of civilization” — Nov. 27 1950
Referring to Yemeni Jews in a letter to the first Israeli Chief of Staff, Yigael Yadin. - Quotation from Yosef Weitz “Given the massive immigration from the Orient … There are indeed grounds for anxiety” — Sep. 19 1950
Director of the KKL/JNF, expresses in his diary his racist fear of Oriental Jews. - Quotation from David Ben Gurion “The ingathering of the exiles brings us the rabble” — Apr. 1950
At a meeting of the army high command, explaining that the Jewish 'rabble' must be 'rebuilt'. - Quotation from David Ben Gurion “I doubt if there is any Jewish community which has more thieves than the Polish ones” — Jul. 13 1949
During a session of the "Knesset Committee for the Constitution, Law and Justice", he called Moroccan Jews "savages", but soon recovered as follows. - Quotation from Yitzhak Gruenbaum “By bringing Yemenites, 70% of whom are sick, we are doing no good” — Jul. 1949
Member of the Knesset, during the debate on the emigration of Yemeni Jews, in a speech mimicking the Nazi discourse on "lice-bitten Jews". - Quotation from Yaakov Zrubavel “Perhaps these are not the Jews we would like to see coming here” — June 5 1949
Head of the Middle East Department of the Jewish Agency, talking about Oriental Jewish immigrants. - Quotation from David Horowitz “The immigrants are in some ways taking the place of the Arabs” — 1949
Director General of the Ministry of Finance of Israel, in consultation with Ben Gurion. - Quotation from Arthur Ruppin “An immigration en masse would lower the general cultural standard” — 1913
Then director in Palestine of the colonization financed by the Zionist Organization, future director of the Jewish Agency, expressing his hostility to non-Ashkenazi Jews. - Quotation from Arthur Ruppin “Ashkenazim are to-day superior ” — 1913
Then director in Palestine of the colonization financed by the Zionist Organization, future director of the Jewish Agency, theorizing a superiority of Jewish Ashkenazi.