Racist video produced by Jerusalem high school girls faces backlash

Ulpanat Horev, a religious girls' high school in Jerusalem came under fire on Thursday after a racist video uploaded to the school's Youtube account was made public.

The video, titled "If the School Was Mizrahi", opens by introducing the girls participating in the video. The girls walk through a door in a line wearing blackface. As each girl walks by, her name flashes across the screen with their surnames crossed out and replaced with names that are common for Mizrahi people (descendants of Middle Eastern and North African Jews).

The video then goes on to show a series of skits comparing the girls as Ashkenazi to satyrical representations of Mizrahi girls. The comparisons are made in regard to things such as behavior in the classroom, taste in music, choice of decor, praying and more.

While the Ashkenazi representations show calm, artistic and spiritual girls, the Mizrahi representations lean on stereotypes and are shown to be wild, loud and inappropriate.

The video was made by the school's 12th graders, some of whom acted in it alongside a member of staff who was also featured at some point.

The video sparked heavy backlash after it became public, and the school removed it after seeing the negative public reaction to it.

"This a video that never should have been made, and it was an accident that happened under our watch," said the school's management in a statement. "The school apologizes and is sorry for the content even though 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."

The statement added that the management will discuss the video and learn lessons for the future.

"In light of the outrage that the video we uploaded during Adar caused, we the 12th graders want to clear up a few things," the grade said in a statement. "The video was produced in a purely humorous way and refers to the school's inside jokes."

The statement went on to explain that the girls had put on a parodistic play that most religious schools in Israel put on for Purim. The plays generally have a theme, and the girls said that this year's play's theme was a Morrocan henna ceremony. The play usually culminates in crowning a girl that was voted for by the grade as the "Purim Rebitzen" which is considered an honor. The girls said that this year's choice was Yemeni.

"We feel that the person who published the post [making the video public] is looking to create a needless provocation and inspire hate, which is a shame," the statement continued. "Especially in these days of conflict and rift among the people, we ask people to abound in free love. Don't drag us into a needless hateful conflict. Out of love and appreciation for all the shades of people in Israel, regardless of political opinions, roots or religious level, we are leaving the school at the end of the year to serve the people and the nation in national and military service. We are all one people."

Israeli musician Alon Olarchik, who owns one of the the songs used in the video, condemned it on Friday in a Facebook post. 

"Today I saw part of the video," he wrote. "I didn't really understand for or against whom the girls were, but I understood from the comments that the clip was racist. I was also surprised to see that they used my song 'A Nice Guy has Come to the Neighborhood' as a tool of expression in the clip without my permission. So: Please don't use my songs to express racism of any sort. By the way, [the song] was written out of great affection for the Mizrahi culture in general and Mizrahi music in particular."

The video was condemned by politicians across the Israeli political spectrum

"There is no place for discrimination or racism in the State of Israel," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We are all one people."

"I watched the video made by the school's students in shock," said Education Minister Yoav Kisch. "I'm even more surprised and horrified that no one in the system vetoed it. The matter is being investigated in the Education Ministry, and our message is clear: There is zero tolerance for racism."

"[Bezalel] Smotrich's and [Itamar] Ben-Gvir's racism is seeping deep in the religious Zionist people and poisons the most moral parts of it," said opposition leader Yair Lapid. "This video is a disgrace to Judaism, Israelism and the entire [Ashkenazi] sector."

This comes after the teachers at a high school in Netivot left the school a few weeks ago because a racist WhatsApp group they opened was publicized, sparking heavy backlash.