Israeli elites condemned anti-Mizrahi rhetoric while quietly implementing its underlying principles

Evidence

While this attitude was sometimes characterized at the time as extreme, it seems that what was condemned was the rhetoric, not the principles themselves, which had a crucial effect on the process of marginalizing the Mizrahim. Many studies have demonstrated the social mechanisms that produced the marginalization of Mizrahim and the dominance of the Ashkenazi elite. In Israeli society, Mizrahim remained outside of historical discourse and, under the guise of modernization, were victims of cultural oppression and social exclusion. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 659