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| Jews and Arabs shopping together today at Rami Levy |
The Rami Levy stores, you will recall, have been the target of Palestinian Authority wrath because it offers low prices that Palestinian Arabs from the area take advantage of. The PA even started a boycott campaign against the chain back in 2010, but it failed miserably.
During today's visit I saw lots of Palestinian Arabs shopping there, together with many more Jews buying food for Purim (the parking lot was completely full.)
So I spoke to the manager of the store, as well as to an Arab supervisor at the market (unfortunately, he didn't want to be on videotape, for obvious reasons).
Over and over again, the manager and Arab supervisor - who incidentally was promoted to his position after only three months on the job - claimed that the store did not discriminate against the Arab employees or customers in any way. Arab employees are paid the same amount as Jewish employees for the same jobs. Roughly half the employees at the store are Arab. They claimed that the store was a perfect example of Jewish-Arab coexistence and tolerance.
From seeing the protests against the store by leftists who claim to be supporting human rights, however, I knew that these Rami Levy employees could not possibly be telling the truth. There had to be some way that they mistreated their Arab workers - I knew it, deep down. The "human rights" activists wouldn't lie, would they? I just had to dig a little deeper.
Finally, I discovered the shocking truth.
The manager showed me the synagogue on the premises. I naturally asked him if there was prayer room for Muslims as well. He answered that they only go to the mosque on Fridays and generally pray by themselves during the week, and he is happy to let them go where ever and whenever they want to pray (usually outside.) He also said that during Ramadan he would adjust their work schedules so they could break the fast with their families.
In other words, only Jews have a room for prayer.
It gets even worse!
I asked the manager if Rami Levy gives out gifts to their employees for various holidays. He answered that they do give out Mishloach Manot baskets to all employees every Purim.
But then he admitted the shocking truth.
Rami Levy takes the wine bottles out of the gift baskets meant for Muslim employees! Only the Jews get wine!
They made some excuse, saying that giving alcohol to a Muslim is offensive. Pshaw. The anti-Israel Leftists know the real reason: explicit, abject Jewish discrimination against Arabs.
There can be no other explanation that makes sense to those who are offended by real coexistence.