re ten questions about israel in article igc apc org cpr igc apc org center for policy research writes from center for policy research cpr subject ten questions about israel ten questions to israelis i would be thankful if any of you who live in israel could help to provide accurate answers to the following specific questions these are indeed provocative questions but they are asked time and again by people around me is it true that the israeli authorities don t recognize israeli nationality and that id cards which israeli citizens must carry at all times identify people as jews or arabs not as israelis although the hebrew expression le um is used the id card specifically states on the nd page ezrachut yisrealit israeli citizen this is true for all israeli citizens no matter what their ethnicity in the united states most official forms have race caucasian black amerindian etc is it true that the state of israel has no fixed borders and that israeli governments from until today have refused to state where the ultimate borders of the state of israel should be funny i have a number of maps and all of them have fixed borders is it true that israeli stocks nuclear weapons if so could you provide any evidence probably yes so what is it true that in israeli prisons there are a number of individuals which were tried in secret and for which their identities the date of their trial and their imprisonment are state secrets apart from mordechai vanunu who had a trial behind closed doors there was one other espionage case the nutty professor at the nes ziona biological institute who was a k g b mole who was tried in camera i wouldn t exactly call it a state secret the trial was simply tried behind closed doors i hate to disappoint you but the united states has tried a number of espionage cases in camera is it true that jews who reside in the occupied territories are subject to different laws than non jews not jews israeli citizens jordanian law is in effect in the west bank but the knesset passed a law that israeli law would be binding on israeli citizens residing in the west bank these citizens could be jews israeli muslims druze or israeli christians it has nothing to do with religion is it true that jews who left palestine in the war to avoid the war were automatically allowed to return while their christian neighbors who did the same were not allowed to return anyone who was registered jew muslim christian could return you might be confusing this with the census taken in june on the west bank after the six day war in this instance if the arab was not physically present he couldn t reside on the west bank e g if he had been visting jordan is it true that israel s prime minister y rabin signed an order for ethnical cleansing in as is done today in bosnia herzegovina no not even if you drowned him in bourbon scotch or brandy is it true that israeli arab citizens are not admitted as members in kibbutzim not true although a minority there are some israeli arabs living on kibbutzim on the other hand at my age i wouldn t be admitted to a kibbutz nor could the family join me not that i would be so thrilled to do so in the first place the kibbbutz movement places candidates under rigorous membership criteria many israeli jews are not admitted is it true that israeli law attempts to discourage marriages between jews and non jews the religious status quo in israel has marriage and divorce handled by the religious courts the rabbanut handles marriage and divorce for jews the muslim shaaria courts are for muslims the christian denominations have their religious courts and the druze have their own courts the entire religious establishment jewish muslim druze christian wants to keep it that way is it true that hotel hilton in tel aviv is built on the site of a muslim cemetery i believe it s adjacent to a former muslim cemetary from what i heard and i d like to get feedback from muslins on the net sanctity of cemetaries is not held that sancrosanct as it is held by jews the current israeli ministry of trade and industry on agron road in jerusalem is housed in a former hotel that was built by arabs in the s on the site of an arab cemetary josh backon vms huji ac il thanks elias davidsson iceland email elias ismennt is
