Israel Forcibly Injected 100k African Immigrants with Birth Control

[Malthus]

Considering that the women in question were allegedly given "injections" in transit camps (i.e., before even comming to Israel), chances are said women did not even have a language in common with the health-care workers. It is possible those workers were maliciously giving contraceptives because they did not want little Black babies running about. It is aslo possible that there was miscommunications at work here.

It is not likely that this was official Israeli policy, given that Israel went to considerable expense and effort to pay to have these Etheopian Jews shipped to Israel. If they did not want Black people about, they could have simply left them where they were to rot, and no-one would have given a shit.

Wait so perhaps it is misleading to declare the Israel was using physical force to give black women birth control?

It is certainly misleading to declare that Israel (i.e., the Israeli government) was making a policy of forcibly giving black women birth control.

There are allegations which may well be true (though given the bullshit context I'll reserve judgment) that Israeli healthcare workers gave etheopian women injections, presumed to be birth control, without their informed consent and indeed in some cases over their objections. This is based on an investigative journalist's interview with 30 women.

The article linked by Forbes (to the Independant) contains extremely misleading journalism that twists the Israeli goverment's order - that is, "don't give any injections of birth control without being absolutely sure of informed consent" - into an admission:

The government had previously denied the practice but the Israeli Health Ministry's director-general has now ordered gynaecologists to stop administering the drugs. According a report in Haaretz, suspicions were first raised by an investigative journalist, Gal Gabbay, who interviewed more than 30 women from Ethiopia in an attempt to discover why birth rates in the community had fallen dramatically.

One of the Ethiopian women who was interviewed is quoted as saying: "They [medical staff] told us they are inoculations. We took it every three months. We said we didn't want to." It is alleged that some of the women were forced or coerced to take the drug while in transit camps in Ethiopia.
...

Haaretz published an extract from a letter sent by the Ministry of Health to units administering the drug. Doctors were told "not to renew prescriptions for Depo Provera for women of Ethiopian origin if for any reason there is concern that they might not understand the ramifications of the treatment".
[emphasis added]

This is grade-A bullshit journalism. It is making several huge lazy assumptions: that a practice complained of by "some of" the 30 women he interviewed, allegedly a p[ractice occuring in "transit camps" is so widespread as to explain a fall in birthrates in the community in Israel (the drug it is noted doesn't have a *permanent* effect and so presumably Israeli doctors are still regularly injecting women in Israel to this day, according to this theory) and that the goverment responding with "please ensure your patients give informed consent" is an admission that they, the government, made a "practice" of encouraging or ordering such injections previously; that the Israeli leaders think Etheopian Jews are a threat (when of course Israel paid to have them shipped to Israel).

Nearly 100,000 Ethiopian Jews have moved to Israel under the Law of Return since the 1980s, but their Jewishness has been questioned by some rabbis. Last year, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who also holds the health portfolio, warned that illegal immigrants from Africa "threaten our existence as a Jewish and democratic state".

Notice the neat conflation here? The link is the PM "who still holds the health portfolio". Of course as Minsky points out, illegal immigrants from Africa are a very different thing from the Etheopian Jews here. The insinuation is a racist PM who hates "Africans" and is sneakily using his health ministry powers to prevent them from breeding.

All of which is of course fodder for the Timmays of this world who do not read critically to assume Israel is engaged, and I quote, in "some fascist level eugenics bullshit" and that "the Israelis have admitted to it".   

[Admiral Yi]

The one smoking gun in the article, the unnamed woman's statement, also undercuts itself.  She said she didn't want to take it after being told it was an innoculation.  The indictment works much better if A) she was told it was birth control, said she didn't want to take it, then was forced or B) was told it was an innoculation, agreed, and didn't find out until later that it was birth control.

[Kleves]

No. They can stop immigration (though not on grounds of race and, for Israel, not of Jews). Or they can stop benefits. I think anything else is far too great an intervention into personal autonomy.

Neither of those solutions seems very workable - especially cutting off benefits. Is the state going to let the excess children starve, go without medical care, go without an education; is the state going to confiscate any excess children from the parents at birth? As far as stopping immigration goes, would you support a state being able to ban immigration from a particular country, or does the ban have to be total?

[Admiral Yi]

Kleve's question made me wonder.  Are American green card holders eligible for food stamps and that sort of stuff?  Section 8 vouchers? Medicaid?

[derspiess]

Kleve's question made me wonder.  Are American green card holders eligible for food stamps and that sort of stuff?  Section 8 vouchers? Medicaid?

I believe they are.

[The Brain]

Section 8 vouchers? I thought the Languish military population had used up all of those.

[DGuller]

Kleve's question made me wonder.  Are American green card holders eligible for food stamps and that sort of stuff?  Section 8 vouchers? Medicaid?

[Admiral Yi]

Anything on top of that D? Any kind of resettlement allowance?  Housewarming gift from Uncle Sam? Welcome to America walking around money?

[Sheilbh]

Neither of those solutions seems very workable - especially cutting off benefits. Is the state going to let the excess children starve, go without medical care, go without an education; is the state going to confiscate any excess children from the parents at birth?

I didn't say they were workable but I think they're more ethical and more in accord with human rights than allowing the state to decide, in effect, who can and can't have children, or to make conception decisions for individuals.

I agree that it's not plausible. But a significant number of benefits are tied to previous work history - failing that you get the bare minimum - and of course it depends on the sort of state assistance and the wider perspective. For example what about child tax credits for a large immigrant family that is in work, compared a bunch of non-fecund moochers?

As far as stopping immigration goes, would you support a state being able to ban immigration from a particular country, or does the ban have to be total?

I think it depends. If we're talking economic migration then I think the state's within its rights to set a limit and certain criteria and then apply that in a non-discriminatory way. But they can have special deals with specific countries I think (like the EU and new members before the labour market's fully open). On the other hand if we're talking refugees then I don't have a problem with the approach I think some Euro countries and Australia take of saying how many refugees they'll accept a year and then divvying that up based on need and number of applications - so lots more Zimbabweans one year, Afghans the next. I don't have any problem with a country deciding to reduce or stop immigration entirely, but I would personally oppose it and would wonder what could motivate such economic self-harm.

But Israel's in a different position. My understanding of the Law of Return, but all this could be very wrong, is that if you're Jewish enough, ethnically, to have fallen within the Nuremburg Laws then you have a right to go to Israel even if you're not considered 'religiously Jewish' or have converted. I believe that's behind much post-Soviet immigration. Again I think the Falasha are recognised as religiously Jewish by one of the Chief Rabbis. In my view that's right given Israel's role as a refuge for the Jewish people.

[Malthus]

The whole issue of discouraging immigration in the case of Ethiopian Jews is a red herring. Israel deliberately imported these people to Israel, at considerable expense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah_from_Ethiopia

[Ed Anger]

Section 8 vouchers? I thought the Languish military population had used up all of those.

[DGuller]

Anything on top of that D? Any kind of resettlement allowance?  Housewarming gift from Uncle Sam? Welcome to America walking around money?

Nope, not Uncle Sam.  For the first few months, though, we were supported by an organization called NYANA, which was a little more generous than welfare, and gave some stuff that was useful for people just off the boat.

[Sheilbh]

The whole issue of discouraging immigration in the case of Ethiopian Jews is a red herring. Israel deliberately imported these people to Israel, at considerable expense.

I think it's something DS wants Israel to do (and to the Russians ), not something anyone's said Israel's done.

[Admiral Yi]

Nope, not Uncle Sam.  For the first few months, though, we were supported by an organization called NYANA, which was a little more generous than welfare, and gave some stuff that was useful for people just off the boat.

In return were you expected to hire one unqualified Jew in the future?  Turn a blind eye to one white collar crime committed by a Jew?

What was the nature of the understanding? 

[derspiess]

I think it's something DS wants Israel to do (and to the Russians ), not something anyone's said Israel's done.

  Israel is free to manage its own affairs as it sees fit.  I merely offer my humble advice in hopes that our resident sons of Abraham relay it back to their brethren in the holy land.