Racist video by Israeli schoolgirls sparks controversy

A school skit that recently mocked Jews of Middle East and African descent with racist slurs has come under fire in Israel, with the religious school that produced the play forced to apologise after widespread outrage.

Captured in a viral video clip, the skit showed students of the Ulpanat Horev Girls’ High School in West Jerusalem, implying that the Mizrahi Jews are inferior to the fair-skinned Ashkenazi Jews, whose roots are in Europe.

Israeli media reports said the video clip posted on the school’s official YouTube account and other social media platforms was taken down as it sparked an angry backlash from a large section of Israelis, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The video portrayed Ashkenazi Jews as “calm, artistic and spiritual”. In contrast, Mizrahi students were characterised as “rather rude, noisy and inappropriate”.

The skit was titled ‘If the school was Mizrahi’ and was part of the Purim celebrations – a festival commemorating the survival of the Jews in the ancient Persian empire.

Besides the 12th-grade students, some school staff were also seen in the video.

After the backlash, the school management said, “This is a video that never should have been made”.

“The school apologises and is sorry for the content even though it was made by the students as satire and a parody as part of Purim events. Anyone who was exposed to the school’s activity throughout the years knows that this doesn't reflect the schools at all,” it said in a statement.

Political backlash

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – under fire over his government’s controversial judicial reforms plan – was among the political leaders who criticised the play. In a written statement, he said, “There is no place for discrimination or racism in Israel. We are all one people.”

Education Minister Yoav Kisch also reacted to the video, saying he was “shocked” and “stunned” that the school administration had allowed it. He added that an investigation had been launched into the incident.

Former Prime Minister and main opposition leader Yair Lapid blamed right-wing extremists within the Israeli government for the post.

Lapid said the “racist rhetoric” of far-right figures in the government, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, had “poisoned the highest moral aspects of the religious Zionist community”.

Discrimination between Ashkenazi Jews of European descent and Mizrahi Jews from the Arab world is a hot-button topic in Israeli society.