Israeli Arabs are on the short end of the stick and Emad Gad sees little improvement Discrimination against Arab citizens of Israel takes many forms. Even though they carry Israeli citizenship, the Israeli authorities treat them in general as less than citizens. Some view them as a fifth column bent on destroying the state. As such, Israeli Arabs are pushed to the bottom of the social ladder. They suffer acute economic discrimination, and many are deprived of their political rights. The Israeli security establishment deals with them like Palestinians rather than Israeli citizens. Thus it uses many of the same methods used by the occupation forces with the population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For example, Israeli security forces directly opened fire on a demonstration by Israeli citizens to express solidarity with the residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in October 2000, leaving 13 dead. A special investigative commission was formed, which issued a report recommending specific reforms in the Israeli Arab sector. However, the Israeli government merely issued the report and has yet to implement the commission's recommendations. The debate over this issue has recently come to the fore again with the extension of the amended Citizenship Law which prevents Israeli Arabs married to Palestinians from the Occupied Territories from living with their spouses in Israel. The original amendment was issued a year ago. While the law enjoys the support of the general public and most Zionist political forces, there are many Israelis who have come forward declaring the law racist and demanding its immediate abolishment. One example is a statement released by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) following the extension of the amended law. The statement described the law as racist, saying it would tear apart Israeli families based on the ethnic background of their spouses. ACRI said that the law separates parents from their children and threatens to destroy even more families. "Despite the hollow security pretexts garnered to justify this legislation, it is clear to everyone that the real motivation for the law is demographic and racist," the statement said. It concluding saying, "ACRI believes that extending this law is a black mark in the history of the Knesset and democracy in Israel." In an article, "The disease of racism and how to cure it", published in Haaretz on 25 June, Nizar Majali wrote, "I would like to believe that if those same people -- who expressed their desire to have the Arabs expelled from the State of Israel in a survey by the Centre for the Study of National Security at Haifa University -- had been asked their opinion in public rather than in a pollster's questionnaire, the results would have been different. "In that survey, 63 per cent of the Jews said they support the idea that the government should encourage Arabs to emigrate; 45 per cent said Arab citizens should be prevented from voting in the Knesset. "A responsible leader in Israel, one who is concerned about the Jews and about the country, would take responsibility and make a declaration that hasn't been heard until now, regarding special handling of the subject. He would gather his ministers and those responsible for education, and announce an overall work plan which would immediately put a stop to all forms of delegitimisation of Israeli Arabs in their country, from racist declarations by ministers and people in positions of responsibility, to government policy in all areas. "Such a programme must include a law forbidding any expression of racism towards Arabs (and toward any human being, without connection to his origins or his beliefs), a special educational programme on the subject, the start of a dialogue with the Arab citizens in Israel with an honest intention to understand them, to get to know them, to hear their pain with a real and serious goal of reconciliation. "The survey reveals a disease in Jewish society, and it wouldn't be healthy to treat it as just another survey and just another newspaper item. After all, not all the expressions of racism toward Arabs are aggression stemming from the Jews' hunger for power or from a structured racist ideology. Many Jews know nothing about Israeli Arabs. Most Jews are influenced by disinformation and by the policy of the government and the declarations of its ministers, and no less by the belligerence of several leaders who speak in the name of the Arab citizens of Israel. "The events of October 2000 are still echoing in the atmosphere that it was created in. And if the Arabs remember those days as a symbol of the killing of 13 young people by civilian police fire, the Jews remember the other side of the coin -- the riots that led to the closing of roads and the destruction of electricity and telephone poles and traffic lights; the breaking of windows in storefronts and banks connected to Jewish or Israeli society, and the killing of a Jewish citizen when a rock was thrown at his car in Jisr Al-Zarqa. "Yes the victim of racism must also play a role in stopping it. And the behaviour of most Israeli Arabs over the past three years proves there is a desire for change. That is not true of the Israeli government and most of Israeli society." The theme of Majali's article was echoed by Yaron London in, "If I were an Israeli Arab", published in Yediot Aharonot on 8 September. London wrote, "After the Or Commission, charged with investigating the events of October 2000, completed its task, the government appointed a ministerial committee led by Minister of Justice Yosef Lapid to translate the recommendations of Justice Theodor Or and his comrades into practical steps. Organisations representing Arab citizens of Israel refused to appear before the Lapid Commission, saying that the creation of this second commission was only an attempt by the state to shirk its responsibility for the killing. Those that believed the Or Commission had produced a courageous, fair report considered this rejection to be misplaced opposition. But six months after the publication of the Lapid Commission recommendations, it appears that those who opposed it were correct in their prophecy: the recommendations of the Lapid Commission are merely dead words. "The following is a list of some of the recommendations made by the Lapid Commission, in addition to the consequences of their implementation: "1. Within three months an authority for the advancement of minorities should be created. This authority will work tirelessly and will have at its command the appropriate executive body. This authority will be concerned with broad areas such as construction and planning in the Arab sector, budgets, anti-discrimination activity, ensuring appropriate representation for Arabs in the civil service, and other fields. (Examination reveals that the authority has yet to be created and there are no indications that there is even an intention to create it.) "2. The government will work to encourage the idea of a national civil service, initially stimulating the idea of voluntary service. (This idea has not been put forth at all.) "3. The Lands Authority will complete their structural maps of Arab municipalities. (Half of all Arab municipalities lack such maps. Since that day, no map has been completed.) "4. Lands shall be allocated to establish industrial zones in Arab municipalities. (No land, not even one dunam, has been allocated thus far.) "5. Each educational facility will organise a 'Getting to Know the Other Week', designed to facilitate a familiarity with the culture of neighbouring people. (The Ministry of Education has never heard of this recommendation.) "6. An annual Day of Tolerance shall be instituted as a national holiday. (The task for organising this has been given to the ministerial committee for official holidays, but the committee has not yet addressed the issue.) "7. The Lapid Commission noted a series of resolutions that have yet to be implemented including a decision to have the National Security Council prepare a detailed plan to ease the burden on Arab local authorities. The council should also make suggestions to ease unemployment in the Arab sector, and a programme of affirmative action should be instituted to absorb Arabs in the civil service. At least one director should be appointed to the board of all public sector companies. None of these resolutions have been implemented." London closed his article saying, "Since the October events, the situation of Arab citizens of Israel has grown worse due to the economic and security situation. The killings scared Israeli Arabs and their leaders, but their alienation and desperation have only increased, as has the number of those cooperating with activist organisations. Justice Or, in his lecture, cautioned that the root causes of the October riots still exist. Jewish citizens must put themselves in the shoes of their Arab neighbours and ask themselves honestly if they would believe statements by Jewish politicians saying they are striving for full civic equality in our country." To read more about the debate, please visit the website of Arabs Against Discrimination at www.aad-online.org.
