Israeli society in general – and
Ashkenazi Jews in particular – have been described as holding discriminatory attitudes towards Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent, known as Mizrahi Jews, Sephardic Jews, and Oriental Jews.
...In September 1997, Israeli Labor Party leader
Ehud Barak made a high-profile apology to Oriental Jews in Netivot stating:
"... Much suffering was inflicted on the immigrants and that suffering was etched in their hearts...In acknowledgement of this suffering and pain, and out of identification with the sufferers and their descendants, I hereby ask forgiveness in my own name and in the name of the historical Labor movement.[161]
Barak's address also said that during the 1950s, Mizrahi immigrants were
"made to feel that their own traditions were inferior to those of the dominant Ashkenazi [European-origin] Israelis [Alex Weingrod's paraphrase]". Several prominent Labor party figures, including Teddy Kollek and Shimon Peres,
distanced themselves from the apology while agreeing that mistakes were made during the immigration period.
...
Segregation, especially in the area of housing, limited integration possibilities over the years...
...
disparities persist....
...and one source suggests that "
ethnic prejudice against Mizrahi Jews is a relatively general phenomenon, not limited to the schooling process".
There was a case in 2010, when a Haredi school system, where Sephardi and Mizrahi students were sometimes excluded or segregated. In 2010, the Israeli supreme court sent a strong message against discrimination in a case involving the Slonim
Hassidic sect of the Ashkenazi, ruling that segregation between Ashkenazi and Sephardi students in a school is illegal. They argue that they seek "to maintain an equal level of religiosity, not from racism"....