IN THEIR OWN WORDS: THE ARAB MEMBERS OF
Note: This will be a continuously
updated compendium of the public statements and actions of, and concerning,
"Israeli" Arab Members of the Knesset. Arabs constitute approximately
20% of the citizenry of pre-1967
Israeli Arab treatment worse since Or Report [First Article]
By Dan Izenberg
(Jerusalem Post, December 12, 2004) The status of Israeli Arabs has
deteriorated despite the recommendations of the Or Judicial Commission of
Inquiry into the events of October 2000, according to Tel Aviv University
Professor Nadim Ruhana.
Ruhana's findings are based on the findings of a tracking project that has been
monitoring developments in Knesset legislation, government decisions, Israeli
public opinion and public statements and declarations, he told an audience at
the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute's Center for Israeli-Arab Studies last week.
The symposium was entitled "Equality for Arab Citizens in the Wake of the
Or Commission Report." The commission, which investigated the disturbances
in which 13 Arabs and one Jew were killed during 10 days of violent
demonstrations, issued its report in September 2003, stating that measures
should be taken to establish full equality.
According to Ruhana, the Knesset has instead taken legislative measures to
further exclude Israeli Arabs by strengthening the concept of
Yet, he asked, how can the Jewish majority expect Arab candidates to support it
when, according to public opinion polls, 67 percent of the Israeli Arab
population they represent believes there is a contradiction between a Jewish
state and a democratic state, and 64% believes
Another law prohibits Palestinians who marry Israelis [i.e., “Israeli” Arabs]
from gaining residency in
The government has also passed resolutions to establish -- with public funding
-- a center to monitor demographic developments in
As for Jewish public opinion, the tracking project has found that 30% of the
Israeli population supports the transfer of the Israeli Arab population, and
more than 60% supports activities to encourage Israeli Arabs to emigrate.
As for Jewish leaders, Ruhana referred to a statement by Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon regarding Israeli Arabs, that one must distinguish between the
[national] right to the Land and having [individual] rights in the Land.
He also pointed out that in the Ka'adan ruling, Supreme Court President Aharon
Barak distinguished between equal rights for all citizens in the Homeland and
the right of the Jews to the keys to the Homeland (a reference to the Law of
Return, which grants each Jew [who immigrates to Israel] automatic
citizenship.)
"The climate in
He maintained that there could never be equality among Jews and Arabs in
Ruhana said that public opinion polls show deep disaffection and alienation
among a large majority of the Arab population, but "the Jews couldn't care
less. And why is that? Because the idea of a Jewish state, its establishment
and ongoing existence, is based on the idea of power and violence."
Ruhana pointed out that upon arrival at
Ruhana called on Israeli Arabs to internationalize the struggle for recognition
of their rights to the land by appealing to the U.N., E.U. embassies, and other
international organizations.
"The Israeli Arabs should no longer accept the violence [against the Arabs] that we sense in Jewish immigration and in the education of the Jewish child. We must find new, but non-violent, ways of fighting."
Aida Toma-Suleiman, head of a non-profit organization of
women against violence in Nazareth, charged that the government committee
headed by former justice minister Yosef Lapid to implement the recommendations
of the Or Commission did everything it could not to implement them.
"The implementation of civil equality is the right to have a say on
everything that happens," said Toma-Suleiman. "For that, one has to
recognize the historical right [of the Arab population] to the Land, to the
Homeland. We do not feel that this country is ours."
She accused the government of taking seriously only one element of the Or
Commission recommendations -- the call for Israeli Arabs to participate in a
compulsory national service.
"Why does the government concentrate so much on
this?" she asked. "Because they are not ready to discuss the
collective rights of the Arabs. So they think about how to dismantle the
collective by concentrating on individual rights [of Arabs as citizens of a
Jewish state]. It is part of an attempt to create the 'new Arab' ", she
said.
(©) The
Survey: Many Arabs dissatisfied with life in
By: Hilary Leila Krieger
(
Sixty-three percent of those surveyed think that "the status of the
Arabs in
In addition, 62% believe it is impossible for Israel to be both a Jewish and democratic state; 54% think equality between Jews and Arabs is not possible as long as Israel is identified as a Jewish state; only 33% describe Israel as a democracy; 94% consider Zionism "a racist movement"; and 87% feel the Law of Return [which permits any Jew residing outside of Israel to immigrate to the Jewish State] is "racist".
The poll was conducted by the Haifa-based Mada al-Carmel -- The Arab Center
for Applied Social Research from January to March of this year. The survey of
854 people included Druze but not "the Palestinian residents of East
Jerusalem or the Syrian residents of the
There was widespread dissatisfaction with quality-of-life issues: A mere 7% of respondents were satisfied with their standard of living, only 11% with education in Arab schools, and just 6% with the services offered by local councils.
Similarly, the percentage of those who believe there is equality between Jews and Arabs is low: only 4% when it comes to resource distribution, 10% in terms of private employment opportunities and 7% in government employment, 11% in the arena of political rights, and 30% on the issue of freedom of expression (the highest number in any category considered).
The sector that did the best was health and hospital services, with approximately half the respondents characterizing these as completely or close to completely equal.
The health system also received the highest degree of confidence from those questioned (74%), followed by the Supreme Court (61%), the Hebrew-language media (28%), the police (24%), and the Knesset (19%).
When it comes to the "civil or police forces," only 31% said it was appropriate for Arabs to serve on such bodies, while 28% backed participating in the army.
At the same time, 89% endorsed Arab participation on Israeli sports teams
and 85% supported Arabs representing
Smooha pointed out the importance of how the question were phrased; using the term "Zionism" versus "preserving the Jewish character of the State," for example, could provoke different responses on similar issues.
He added that Mada al-Carmel's "line of thinking is very nationalistic" and that it wants to show that Arabs are "opposed" to the State and "will fight to change the nature of the State."
(©) The
[Note: Although it may seem anomalous that "Israeli" Arabs are so
eager to represent on foreign soil the very State which they despise at home,
there is an explanation. As unofficial emissaries of
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**Editorial** [Third Article]
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Rioting in [the “Israeli” Arab town of] Sakhnin
(
The 4,000 cheering Sakhnin fans and 350 visiting Jerusalemites doubtlessly arrived with preset agendas. The match underscored ethnic and national hostilities. It began with firecrackers repeatedly hurled by Sakhnin supporters aiming for the Betar goalie, accompanied by rocks, some very sizable.
Bottles were hurled into the Betar stands (no bottles were sold to Betar fans). Shouts of "death to the Jews" quickly elicited retaliatory "death to the Arabs" responses. Flaming torches were lit and held aloft throughout the game in the Sakhnin benches, and one burning torch was lobbed on to the field. Betar fans, not known to be shrinking violets, were attacked and then went on their own rampage.
Both sides in these clashes cite police inaction and failure to stem the disturbances early on.
Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra has vowed that the police "will learn its lessons", that "changes in police district command may ensue", and that police presence at matches will be boosted. The trouble is that we've been there, seen that. Ezra's undertakings aren't new.
It isn't necessarily the number of officers that constituted the problem but their mind-set. Policemen were loath to step in and control the crowds.
In the police's own high echelons the origin of the problem is traced back to the October 2000 riots. Since then officers evince unmistakable dread to enforce the law in the Arab community. Many fear that use of force will result in internal investigations, inquiry commissions or even trials. The Sakhnin game seems to be a classic case of police trying their best not to get involved.
The violence in Sakhnin's spanking new Doha Stadium was hardly unusual for sports chroniclers. Soccer hooliganism is probably as old as the game though it wasn't recorded till the early 19th century. Often, instead of giving vent to tensions, the game amplifies them in a bizarre demonstration of communal camaraderie, if not tribalism.
The referee should have cancelled the game as soon as the first firecracker exploded. But to do so in Sakhnin would have been to risk pandemonium, especially since the firecracker ban is generally not used to cancel games.
After the game, in an attempt to segregate rival fans, the police first let out the thousands of Sakhnin supporters. However, the local fans then surrounded the guests and began stoning them. Things became so dangerous that officers led Betar supporters into the field. Betar tempers flared. The visitors began retaliating and taking out their fury on goal nets, seats, fence posts or anyone who got in their way.
As TV footage and witnesses from both sides attest, the 350 policemen, bolstered by 150 local security staff, did too little to maintain order. Only when border policemen appeared could the Jerusalem-bound buses exit Sakhnin.
This isn't mere sports-related rowdiness. The Sakhnin incident highlights increasing police reluctance to operate in Arab communities. Indeed the lack of adequate police response recalls the 2003 illegal construction of a gigantic mosque, later removed, in front of Nazareth's [Christian] Basilica of the Annunciation; the [Druze Arab] attack on Christian dwellers in Mughar last year; and the [Arab] lynching in Shfaram of [Jewish] terrorist Eran Natan Zada [after he had already been disarmed and placed in police custody].
If ever the police did have to demonstrate its reliability and commitment to the rule of law, it is particularly in minority communities. Chronically lackadaisical law enforcement in the Arab sector must be replaced by no-nonsense imposition of order, and not just to prevent the spread of violence to other communities. Right now police hesitate to even enter Arab towns, even at a price of turning a blind eye to serious crime.
Such absence does
(©) The
Thank you for your cooperation [Fourth Article]
[“Israeli” Arabs despise other Arabs who help
By LARRY DERFNER
(Jerusalem Post, March 6, 2006) 'Mussa," a former Palestinian collaborator
who was relocated by the Shin Bet from the West Bank to Israel in 1994, sits
with a fixed smile throughout our interview. He says he and his family -- two
wives and many children -- have no problems in their current life.
"I make a decent living, my children go to school -- yes, they're proud of
me -- and I get along with my neighbors," he says. "I have my
honor."
A stocky, plain-looking, bespectacled man of about 40, Mussa is self-employed
and lives in an urban, mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood. Asked what he has to say
to Israeli Arabs who consider him a traitor, he maintains, "They have no
right to object to what I did for
As for Palestinians who want him dead, he smiles thinly and says, "They're
the enemy, there's nothing to say to them."
A one-time "Fatah Youth" member -- an unwilling one, and never a
killer, he emphasizes -- Mussa says he volunteered his services to the Shin Bet
at age 18 or 19 -- not for money, or for protection from Palestinian enemies,
but "for the sake of justice." Other members of his hamula, or
extended family, were also collaborators. He survived like this in the
Our interview was arranged by a Shin Bet unit called the Security
Administration for Assistance, which basically adopts Palestinian
collaborators, reportedly numbering upwards of 1,000, who've been relocated in
However much truth there had or hadn't been to what he said, of candor there
had been none.
IN CONTRAST, an unscripted performance by relocated collaborators took place
last December 15 in the Galilee
"Fahme had taken part in the local demonstrations against them,"
notes a cousin and neighbor, Dr. Mustafa Kabha, a lecturer in Middle East
history at
That night, as the armed collaborators held off angry residents after the
shooting, thousands of Arabs from the region converged on the hilltop village.
Police arrived in force and extricated the four collaborator families who had
been settled in the village about five years ago. After police left, the mob
torched the families' homes. Ilan Sadeh, head of the Menashe Regional Council,
which includes Umm el-Kutuf, said police told him one of the collaborators has
confessed to the killing.
"They brought drugs and crime to the village, things we'd never
known," says Kabha, standing in his yard and pointing to the burned-out
houses nearby. The 700-odd villagers had ostracized them, for both political
and social reasons. "It's traditional for Muslims to shake hands after
prayers, but after they would finish praying in the village mosque, no one
would shake their hands," he says.
Relocated collaborators and their families reside throughout
Security sources -- who dislike the old Hebrew term mashtapim, or
collaborators, and prefer the more upbeat sayanim, or helpers -- say these are terribly
unfair, inaccurate stereotypes.
"Sayanim run the gamut from the most highly educated urban professional to
the most unschooled peasant, from the most Western to the most Eastern,"
say the sources.
COLLABORATORS ARE a prime source of information needed to thwart terror
attacks; others are prisoner interrogations and surveillance (phone taps,
etc.). When security forces report that they are currently dealing with 57
terror alerts, for example, or a suicide bomber loose in the
In return for this information, the Shin Bet unit provides relocated
collaborators with most of the money toward the purchase of a home, helps them
find jobs, straightens out the more severe problems that occasionally arise
with their neighbors, provides years of tutoring for their children and
psychological counseling, if necessary, for the whole family. The total cost reaches
well into the millions of dollars. The unit considers itself the collaborators'
adoptive family, and acts on the conviction that
"Most of the families don't find out that the head of their household is a
sayan until we get them out of the West Bank or
The great majority of collaborators, security sources continue, eventually
become "successful" - meaning they work steadily and their families
live stable lives. Those who live among Jews "often become close friends
with their neighbors. Some Jewish families appreciate what they did for
A handful of collaborators have even converted to Judaism.
Mussa lived the first decade of his life in
Many Jewish neighbors of other collaborators, however, don't want them around,
mainly out of fear.
The "failures" among relocated collaborators are those who return to
the West Bank or
"They can be counted on the fingers of one hand," say security
sources. "Their end isn't a happy one. Either they're thrown in a
Palestinian jail, or they get shot in the town square, or they agree to take
part in a terror attack on Israelis to clear their name."
Some who were criminals in the territories ultimately go back to crime in
STILL, FOR
"They're unwanted wherever they go," says Kabha. In recent years, he
says, a dispute between collaborators and local residents in Baka al-Gharbiya,
a large
Security sources put this sort of reaction down to "hatred" on the
part of Israeli Arabs toward collaborators. But in Umm el-Kutuf, at least, the
local campaign against the collaborators was joined by some of the village's
Jewish neighbors. Among the 1,000 or so people who rallied in protest against
the collaborators two weeks before the shooting was regional council head
Sadeh.
"While
When they are given land in Arab villages on which to build houses, as they
were in Umm el-Kutuf, this acts as a further provocation because Arab villages
and cities are notoriously short of land to accommodate the housing needs of
new generations, he adds. The final insult, he says, is that the clearest cause
of the Arab sector's land shortage, as in Umm el-Kutuf, is the State's
confiscations of land vacated by local residents [after participating in the
unsuccessful pan-Arab war to annihilate the nascent State of Israel] during the
War of Independence.
"This is land that could have gone to the descendants of the people
who left in 1948 and 1949, so when it's
given to collaborators, the villagers do not take it well," he notes.
Sadeh, a member of Kibbutz Ma'anit, says he does not know if the collaborator
families brought drugs and crime to Umm el-Kutuf, as Kabha says. While noting
sarcastically that such social problems are found even in communities with no
collaborators, Sadeh adds, "This certainly is the popular image people
have of collaborators. It's understood that they tend not to be model citizens.
They turned against their own people, and in the main they did not do it out of
Zionist motivations."
Arye Magal, a member of Kibbutz Barkai who also took part in the demonstration
in Umm el-Kutuf, says one of his objections to the settling of collaborators in
the area is "the danger it exposes us to. A lot of collaborators have been
resettled in the nearby Jewish town of
WHILE the Shin Bet employs psychologists and social workers to help
collaborators and their families adjust to life in
"No negative connotations are attached to them whatsoever. They are seen
as victims, as people who prevented the murder of innocent Jews and who were
endangered because of it. The only concern is to help them become integrated in
The Shin Bet's relocation of collaborators who were "burned"
(exposed) and thus subject to revenge by Palestinians, actually began in 1988,
after the outbreak of the first intifada when
First they are put up in hotels. Then, after the Security Administration for
Assistance has consulted with them and scouted the country for suitable
locales, they are settled into a residential neighborhood.
"The research is very detailed. Sometimes it is determined that one side
of a certain street is not suitable to house the collaborator and his family,
for instance, because there are many religious residents living there and they
wouldn't accept them, while the opposite side of the street is okay,"
explain security sources.
The collaborators can't hide their identity from their new neighbors.
"For one thing, their accent is different from the accent of Israeli
Arabs. Their customs, their clothes, their language -- everything is different.
And even if they make up some story, their kids talk to the other kids in
school," the sources say.
Rumors, both true and false, spread; on the day after the killing and riot in
Umm el-Kutuf, a local family's house was burned because it was believed they,
too, were collaborators. When it turned out to everyone's satisfaction that
they were not collaborators, a collection was taken up in the village to
reimburse the family.
Asked if the Shin Bet -- with its policy of running collaborators amidst
Palestinians and resettling them amidst Israeli Arabs -- considered such false
rumors and attacks to be unintended consequences of its policy, and thus
accepted some measure of responsibility for them, security sources reply flatly
"no," placing total responsibility on the Arab rumor-mongers and
assailants.
Israeli Arabs "don't like having sayanim among them, but this is a country
of law and they just have to learn to live with it," the security sources
continue. In the rare cases that neighbors have made serious threats against
collaborators, these neighbors were contacted by the Security Administration
for Assistance, and the trouble ended. Mussa figures "about 70%" of
his Arab neighbors accept him despite his background.
LAST SUMMER'S disengagement from
While over 100 of Dahaniya's 400 or so residents have been resettled in
Israeli official named Dahan who helped set it up -- got the reputation as an
all-collaborator locale because, like Fahme in the
was used by the Shin Bet as a sanctuary for collaborators in the years between
the outbreak of the first intifada and the entry of the PLO to the territories.
But the Dahaniya residents who were resettled in
"They built an electronic fence around Dahaniya, we weren't allowed to go
into
Dahaniya sat a few hundred meters from the Kerem Shalom crossing point into
Today they languish, unemployed, in tin sheds on a stretch of wasteland at the
edge of the Negev Beduin
The remaining residents of Dahaniya stayed in
The families received about
Wearing keffiyehs and the olive-green coats they got from the IDF, the Armilat
Beduin at Tel Arad say the Israeli Arab community, including the Beduin of the
"There was incitement against us in the mosques. Taleb A-Sanaa [a
"My father took me to enroll in a high school in the area, and the
principal told us flat out that he wouldn't accept me because we were
collaborators," says Mohammed Armilat, 18.
Another man recalls when he hitched a ride with a local Beduin and told him he
was from the Armilat tribe at Tel Arad. "He said, 'Oh, you're one of the
collaborators.' But after I explained to him the truth, he said he
understood."
The tribe hopes one day to live or at least work again among the Jewish
moshavniks who've known and employed them for nearly 30 years; for now, though,
the Jews don't want them and the Arabs, except for their host tribe in Tel
Arad, have shunned them as traitors. They've exchanged an isolated but at least
liveable enclave in
BY COMPARISON, the actual Palestinian collaborators resettled in this country
have it pretty good. The Shin Bet looks after their every need. For the future,
the unit's main concern is with the children of the collaborators.
"When they reach 15 or 16, they start to ask their parents difficult
questions," say security sources. They say
In the mixed city of
The head of the matnas in Ramle's Arab sector, former city councilman
Michael Fanous, has a clear distaste for collaborators, even though he assumes
most of them went to work for the Shin Bet either out of economic desperation or
because they were blackmailed into it. However, Fanous says he holds nothing
whatsoever against the collaborators' children, and wants only to integrate
them into the Israeli Arab community. He is confident this will happen, citing
local history for evidence, but only with time.
"There are a lot of Arabs in Ramle whose families were collaborators --
spies -- for
(©) The
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**Editorial** [Fifth Article]
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Siding with the enemy
[While Israel is under simulataneous attack from Hizbullah rockets in the North and Hamas rockets in the South, many “Israeli” Arabs, including “Israeli” Arab parliamentarians, show support for these terrorists and disdain for Israel]
(July 25, 2006) Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah exposed his unabashed
racism last Thursday when offering his "apologies" to the family of
the two
In an interview on Al-Jazeera TV, Nasrallah said he hadn't meant for his rockets to slay Arabs -- only Jews. The two small brothers "were inadvertent victims," who, he pronounced, "have joined the ranks of martyrs for the Palestinian cause."
Too little attention was paid to this, both at home and abroad. Nasrallah evinced no compunction in distinguishing between the blood of Arab children and Jewish ones. The murder of seven-year-old Omer Pesachov and his grandmother Yehudit Itzkowitz at Moshav Meron on July 14, for instance, was obviously no cause for apology. Young Omer was fair game and legal prey because he was Jewish.
The fact that Nasrallah regrets killing two Arab children while striving to kill Jewish youngsters should surprise no one.
However, what should take us aback is the fact that such distinctions are even made on our side of the border, and this despite the fact that, as reported on the weekend in The Jerusalem Post, Jewish and Arab children share the very same bomb shelters in mixed cities like Haifa. One would assume that this would enhance the sense of shared destiny in the face of the same menace.
Nevertheless, some Israeli Arabs have been reported watching from
Incomprehensibly, even the tragedy in
The government, however, is not in the construction business in Jewish homes either. Regulations mandate the addition of security rooms to houses put up since 1992, and this has been in effect in Arab as well as Jewish areas.
The fact is, as Nazareth Deputy Mayor Ali Salem candidly admitted: "Our people didn't expect to be hit. The rockets are only intended for Jews. We told them to stay indoors, we told them to take precautions, but they refused even after the boys were killed, even after the funeral. They disregard all instructions, as if this war isn't their concern."
But that's the least of it. Druse Deputy Knesset Speaker Majallie Whbee
(Kadima) noted that "leaders of Arab parties are busy these days inciting
Balad has been disseminating leaflets calling on Israeli Arabs to "demonstrate against the slaughter by Israel of Gazans and Lebanese." Hizbullah terrorists are dubbed "popular resistance fighters."
The Balad circulars predict "
Whbee added that he "cannot find a single Arab-list MK who'll express any empathy for Israelis currently under fire."
Balad MK Azmi Bishara proves Whbee's contention. In an interview with the
BBC he refused to utter any criticism of Hizbullah, stressing that he regards
himself "as one of the victimized people of the region," and that the
slain
On Sky News, he said
No other country would abide such sedition during wartime. A bill revoking
the Knesset membership of any MK who overtly supports
(©) The
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
**Editorial** [Sixth Article]
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Equality and Destruction
[Mainstream “Israeli” Arab secular organizations join the extremist
“Israeli” Arab Islamic Movement in proposing an end to
(
The latest draft constitution was produced by Adalah, the 10-year-old
organization purportedly seeking to uphold the rights of
The Adalah outline remarkably resembles what the dubiously cancelled PLO
Charter touted for decades -- replacing
It wants the Law of Return abolished; Israel's national anthem, flag and emblem
changed; all land claimed to have been confiscated from Arabs "returned in
full;" ratification of refugees' "Right of Return;" returning
"uprooted" Israeli-Arabs to their villages; and recognition of Beduin
property rights over all they assert to own and "reverse
discrimination" to compensate Israeli-Arabs "for the systematic
discrimination against them." Moreover, Adalah's constitution obliges
The most worrying aspect is that this isn't an Adalah foible. As the authors of
the document note, it represents "the broad mainstream Arab-Israeli
position." Views such as it enunciates have been vocalized by the radical
Islamic Movement, as well as by the
There are barely any discernible differences between Adalah's proposed
Constitution and the "Future Vision for Palestinian Arabs in Israel,"
prepared by the National Committee of Arab Mayors in Israel and the
soon-to-be-released "Haifa Covenant," mostly composed by the Mada
el-Carmel Arab Center for Applied Social Research. As Adalah acknowledges, many
of its members participated in compiling the above two documents, which Adalah
endorses as "expressions of the political and social empowerment of Arabs
in
Fortunately that isn't exclusively a Jewish viewpoint. The Forum of Druse and
Circassian Authorities in
It should be obvious that a community that pledges itself to Israel's
destruction -- however elegantly termed -- cannot at the same time effectively
battle real manifestations of discrimination and advance the positive agenda to
which it has historically been committed. The equality and destruction agendas
don't mix. Israeli Arab leaders and organizations need to choose between them,
and the Adalah Constitution is part of the wrong choice.
(©) The
'Kassaming' coexistence [Seventh Article]
By Evelyn Gordon
(Jerusalem Post, May 25, 2007) As Hamas resumed rocket barrages on
The Haifa Declaration, published last Monday by some 50 intellectuals and
political activists, is the fourth and final document in a series outlining
Israeli Arab leaders' vision of what
The Haifa Declaration, unusually, tries to conceal this goal by stating that
should
The main demands are as follows: 1.
Establishing a Palestinian state -- whose residents would then be given the
right to relocate to
(and vice versa). 2. Letting 4.4 million
descendants of Palestinian refugees "return" to
Some of these are mutually contradictory: If, for instance, millions of
Palestinians indeed moved to
What all have in common, however, is emptying the Jewish people's "right
to self-determination" of any content.
The first two would accomplish this by making the Jews a minority in their own
country, thereby eliminating their ability to control national decision-making.
That negates the very essence of self-determination: a group's right to govern
itself.
The third has a dual goal: facilitating Arab efforts to achieve majority status
and destroying
Numbers four and five seek to curtail Jewish self-determination even should
Jews remain a majority here, by making
THIS PRINCIPLE would, for instance, enable Israeli Arabs to veto any military
response to terror attacks on Jews, as this community views residents of all
the surrounding countries as kinsmen and therefore considers itself negatively
affected by military action against them. That would eliminate a crucial
element of self-determination: the right to self-defense.
Similarly, the document explicitly requires
In short, for all the lip service about Jewish self-determination, the document
essentially proposes two Palestinian national homelands (the Palestinian state
and the binational or Palestinian-majority "
What makes this document particularly chilling is that it undoubtedly represents
the most liberal component of Israeli Arab society: For instance, it explicitly
declares that women are oppressed within Arab society and demands that this
stop; it even unequivocally condemns "family honor" killings. But if
even the most liberal Israeli Arabs refuse to accept a Jewish state, what hope
is there for coexistence?
Ironically, this declaration and its predecessors were produced with funding
from European and Jewish groups that seek to promote coexistence. The
Equally ironically, these same Israeli Arab leaders complain constantly about
being called a "fifth column," proposals to "transfer"
their towns to a Palestinian state and polls showing that many Israeli Jews
view Israeli Arabs as a security and demographic threat. But when they openly
declare that their goal is eradicating the Jewish state, the only surprise is
that such phenomena are not more widespread.
Israeli Arab leaders, and their Jewish and European donors, should
understand one thing:
(©) The
Thousands of Arabs mark Land Day [Eighth Article]
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Yaakov Lappin, THE
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Thousands of Israeli Arabs waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in
praise of "Martyrs [i.e., suicide bombers and other Arab terrorists who
died while committing atrocities against
A picturesque Galilee backdrop of green hills was punctured by megaphone
shouts in Arabic of "Do not worry, mother of martyr, your son did not die
in vain," "We are with the youths who throw rocks," and "We
do not fear
Police kept a low profile, monitoring the event from a helicopter high above and manning a checkpoint at the entrance to Sakhnin.
In Hebrew, marchers chanted slogans against Defense Minister Ehud Barak, shouting, "Barak, how many children did you murder today?"
The demonstrators marched from Sakhnin to the neighboring
"Thousands are here to express their view in a civilized manner,"
MK Ibrahim Sarsour (United Arab List-Ta'al) said. "We are not calling for
independence or autonomy. Our slogan is that
As Sarsour spoke, hundreds of participants shouted, "
Asked to respond to the chants around him, Sarsour said, "These calls are understandable," but added that "they have no place here."
A short distance away, a struggle ensued for control of the microphone, as
bearded youths took control and began shouting "
"This is the central Land Day event in the country," MK Muhammad
Barakei (Hadash) said, as he walked at the front of the march with a number of
village notables. "This symbolizes the fight of Arabs for existence in
"We're not temporary visitors here, and we've seen harder days after 1948," he said, adding that there was no need to apologize over calls in favor of "Martyrs."
"Our language is not the language of the Establishment," Barakei said. "A Martyr is someone who sacrificed himself for his Homeland, such as those who fell in 1976. This is our language, and it's the tongue we speak in. We don't speak in the language of racists."
Other marchers, like Basher and Sahab, two young men from neighboring
"This is a holy day for us, a day of struggle," Basher said.
"Every Israeli government has taken land in the Galilee and the
Said Hasnen, an editor at the weekly Israeli-Arab newspaper Kul al-Arab,
held a lively discussion with a friend while marching to Arrabe. Speaking to
The Jerusalem Post, Hasnen called into question the historical attachment of
Jews to
His friend, Hussein Kalaila, added, "Why should we be Israelis? I have
a Palestinian identity. We are Palestinian Arabs in every way. This land is
called
A statement released this week in honor of Land Day by the NGO Adalah - The
Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in
Copyright 1995- 2008 The Jerusalem Post - http://www.jpost.com/
[Note: Despite the above depictions of widespread “Israeli” Arab hostility
to the existence of any Jewish State in any portion of the
biblical
In connection with the above articles and the below Compendium, bracketed [ ] items contain my explanatory comments and form no part of the republished news items. -- Mark Rosenblit
“ISRAELI” ARAB MK CALLS UPON
(IsraelWire, May 26, 2000) Heads of
[Note: The SLA consisted of Muslim, Druze and Christian Arabs, residing in a
small strip of southern Lebanon (known as the Security Zone), who elected to
cooperate with Israel in protecting the latter's northern towns from Hizbullah
terrorists in exchange for freedom from domination by Syria whose troops --
numbering 40,000 -- were occupying the remainder of Lebanon. After the collapse
of the Zone in the Spring of 2000, thousands of SLA members and their families
fled south, across the border, to
[ARAB] MK [AZMI] BISHARA: "HIZBULLAH VICTORY IS SWEET"
(IsraelWire, June 6, 2000) "The Hizbullah has won, and for the first
time since 1967 we have tasted the sweet taste of victory. The
Hizbullah should be proud of their achievement and of humiliating
[Note: Arab MK Bishara, although a Christian, seeks to curry favor both with
the militant Sunni Muslims of Um al-Fahm (stronghold of the northern faction of
[ARAB] MK [AZMI] BISHARA SAYS
(Hamas News, June 19, 2000) Occupied
http://www.palestine-info.net/hamas/index.htm
WAQF BLOCKS MKS
[Arab MK Muhammed Kena’an says that
(Arutz Sheva Daily News, June 20, 2000) An unlikely assemblage of Knesset
members from the Likud, Meretz and Arab parties toured the
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
Subject: MK Tibi and other Arab MKs condition support for Peres
Date: Mon, 3 July 2000 19:17:45 +0200
From: imra@netvision.net.il
To: <imra@netvision.net.il>
ARAB MEMBERS OF THE KNESSET LIKELY TO SUPPORT PERES AS PRESIDENT
[Arab MK Ahmed Tibi will make his vote for
News Of Arabs In
Following President Weizman's announcement to resign from his post as President, the race for this prestigious post has begun. The contenders are MK Moshe Katzav, from right-wing Likud Party, and Minister Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister from Israel One List (Labor Party). To win, the candidates must have the confidence of 61+ of the 120 member Knesset. [Arab] MKs Saleh Tarif [a Druze], Nawaf Massalha, and Bosnia Jbara, are sure to vote for Peres since they are part of the [Labor Party] coalition, while Ayoub Qara [a Druze Arab Likud MK] is likely to support his party member from the Likud, Moshe Katzav. [Arab] MK Ahmed Tibi [who is a former official spokesman for Yasser Arafat and remains the latter's confidant] said that he is leaning towards Peres, but made his vote conditional on the latter agreeing with certain demands of the Arab citizens in Israel, especially releasing the Security Political Arab prisoners [terrorists who murdered and maimed Jews on behalf of the PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad], eliminating the demolition orders on thousands of [illegally-built] Arab homes. [Arab] MK Tawfiq Khatib said "the United Arab List decided to meet with the two candidates before taking a final decision, and will request a written commitment." His colleague in the list, [Arab] MK Talab El-Sana, said that he "favours abstaining or voting with a white ballot. Arab MKs discussed the possibility of running an Arab candidate to the post but quickly dropped the idea." [Arab MK] Mohammad Baraka from Hadash said "the right wing keeps provoking and inciting against us with racist motives; they do not deserve a worthy gift from us by voting to their candidate." [Arab MK] Azmi Bishara said "the choice is between Shimon Peres and a white ballot, depending on the discussion with Peres regarding the [terrorist] prisoners. Still we do not expect from him a clear commitment, only feeling his intentions."
Date: Wed, 16 August 2000
Ha'aretz: Police bar all visitors from
By: Baruch Kra and Amira Hass, Ha'aretz Correspondents
A potentially violent clash was averted yesterday when
Temple Mount Faithful followers are usually allowed access to the site each year on Tisha B'Av. To prevent disturbances, they are allowed onto the Mount in groups of two or three. The police permit does not, however, allow the group's leader, Gershon Salomon, to enter the site.
"It's an absolute disgrace for the Israel Police," Salomon said, "to shamefully give in to Faisal Husseini's little gang."
Interview: [Arab] MK Hashem Mahameed -- Israeli Arabs not endangered by Arab armies; Jewish Right of Return should be cancelled
Aaron Lerner, Date: 24 August, 2000
IMRA interviewed United Arab List MK Hashem Mahameed, in Hebrew, on August 24, 2000:
[Mr. Mahameed is a member of the critical Knesset Foreign Affairs And Defense Committee]
IMRA: Can you comment on the following observation by an unnamed Israeli Arab reporter quoted in Yediot Ahronot's website on 19 August: "We do not have a common security interest. You go to the army because you live in danger from us. There is no danger for us and we have no reason to serve in the army."
Mahameed: Was this within the context of the question of army service?
IMRA: It was within such an article but my interest in the observation is independent of the issue of army service.
Mahameed: First I do not agree with what the person is saying unless they
accept the opposition to army service for several reasons: First, I refuse to
tie citizen's rights to army service and the turning of the State of Israel
into a
IMRA: I am not raising this issue. If this is the standard then what about
the voting rights of a 60 year old immigrant from
Mahameed: Not only that. 30% of Israeli youth does not serve in the army. There are also Druze who serve in the army but are treated as Arabs at home.
IMRA: Again, this is not what interests me. My question is how you relate to the statement that "We do not have a common security interest. You go to the army because you live in danger from us. There is no danger for us and we have no reason to serve in the army. Maybe the Israeli Arab politicians face some personal danger since they are identified with the Israeli authorities, but the man in the street -- what danger does he face?”
Mahameed: Let me give you an example. During the Gulf War, most of the Arabs
in
IMRA: And you think. . .?
Mahameed: I think that it is basically the right feeling. No one here
believes that an Arab army will come here and will attack the Arab cities and
villages. I say this in full objectivity and expressing the feelings of people.
But in the final analysis, I care very much about every drop of blood of every
person. And certainly the blood of Jews in
IMRA: Do you see the Jewish right of return as an inseparable part of the
defining of
Mahameed: Exactly. When the state is, as Barak says, "of everyone", then you cannot have Basic Laws for [only] 80% of the public.
IMRA: You mean the right of return for Jews.
Mahameed: The Law of Return. Or, for example, the Jewish National Fund Law. These do not fall within the context of "state of everyone". The state that we are struggling for. I say in the clearest possible way that I want to reach the stage that we feel that we live here as citizens of the State of Israel in every way. I pray for the day to come that there is no longer "us and them".
Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director
IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-9-7411645
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
pager 03-6750750 subscriber 4811
[Note: This represents the classic line to the effect that: "What's
mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." In other words, if one has
followed the various public statements of this and other Arab MKs on the status
of post-1967 Israel (i.e., Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the eastern portion
of Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount), one will see that
"Israeli" Arab MKs have taken the clear official position that, while
post-1967 Israel belongs exclusively to the Arabs and must therefore be
made completely Judenrein (cleansed of Jews), pre-1967 Israel (i.e.,
Israel within the 1949 armistice demarcation lines) does not belong
exclusively to the Jews and must therefore be shared with the Arabs, even to
the extent of converting the country from a self-described Jewish State
into a non-Judaic state "of all of its citizens" which, due to
the "Israeli" Arabs' higher birthrate (as well as the contemplated
realization of the pan-Arab demand for a "right of return" in favor
of those Arab belligerents and their families who fled Israel during its 1948
War of Independence as well as their multigenerational descendants -- now
aggregating to some 4,000,000 hostile revanchists and irredentists),
would eventually remake pre-1967 Israel into a third state of
"Palestine" -- after Jordan (which is overwhelmingly comprised of an Arab
population native to former Mandatory Palestine) and post-1967 Israel. So,
remember that, while Arab MKs may publicly speak about the immediate creation
of a "Palestinian" state in Judea,