Israelis adopting Haitian children

News of any Haitian child being able to escape the poverty and misery of that plagued country should be seen as good news. Perhaps, their being able to live a liveable life in Haiti itself would be better. Nevertheless, with living a liveable life hardly likely to be facilitated, yes, maybe even the news of Israeli citizens possibly adopting orphans should be seen in a positive light.

Of course, there remains the problem of their convertion to Judiasm but the Zionist state has taken some strange roads in the past when solving some of its demographic problems and no doubt, pragmatists that they are, they will come up with a solution. Nevertheless, there remains another problem and its not one of religion because, try as they might, our so-called "Jewish democracy" cannot get rid of the stigma of being racist and I don't just mean vis-a-vis the Palestinians.

Jonathan Cook recently wrote a report on Ethiopian Jews living in Israel and he begins with the sentence: "Health officials in Israel are subjecting many female Ethiopian immigrants to a controversial long-term birth control drug in what Israeli women's groups allege is a racist policy to reduce the number of black babies." No need to get into the nitty-gritty of Mr Cook's report but while the "birth control" is news, the prejudice that is behind it is not with and we even had the mayor of one particular city refusing "to accept Ethiopian children because he said they are “weak and will bring the education level down.”

Now, don't get me wrong; I am sure there are a lot of "liberals" in the "bubble" who would be quite happy to adopt a black child. However, I really am left wondering, what would the Haitian children themselves want? Or, at least, how will the feel about twenty years down the road? And off goes my mind drifting to those other misplaced orphans of "yesteryear"; the "Lebensborn" children that were taken away from their parents by another disgusting racist regime