Identity, Israel

Let All of Am Yisrael Read This Article

The Emblem of the Israel Prison Service
The Emblem of the Israel Prison Service
Abir Copty, a member of the Nazareth City Council, is interviewed today in the English web edition of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. What Copty says is eloquent, and damning.

Where does it (Israel) not represent you?
In the occupation policy, in the settlement policy, in the policy of racism and discrimination. Eighty-percent unemployment among women; the many employers who do not hire Arabs. The development budget – hardly 4 percent of it reaches the Arab local authorities. Upper Nazareth is almost swallowing up Nazareth because it is expanding so much, and Nazareth has no lands to expand onto. Nazareth does not have an industrial zone. Education – I don’t study my past, my identity – I study the history of the Jewish people. I also see the teachers’ fear of teaching our history, the fear that the Education Ministry will dismiss them.

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14 thoughts on “Let All of Am Yisrael Read This Article

  1. Unfortunately, the Israeli Arab community does not use all the tools available to it to solve this problem. Arab voter turnout is low. Can they even vote in the Jerusalem elections?
    And the Israeli media says very little about the daily struggles of Israeli Arabs. Even Haaretz, instead of having an Israeli Arab journalist writing every week about problems Israeli Arabs face, they have Gideon Levy and Amira Hass, who mostly write about West Bank and Gaza Palestinian Arabs. Gideon Levy hardly ever uses sources because he speaks about negative Israeli intentions citing only his “wisdom” that every other Israeli is lying.
    I also think many Jewish Israelis don’t know much about Arab history. Most only know of Arab history in context of the conflict with Jewish immigration (20’s, 30’s …) and the creation of Israel (1948). There is very little documentation (that I know of) of Arab/Palestinian history in the 19th century and before. It’s as if the Israeli Arab identity is made add up only of general Arab mores/cultural norms, and the historical conflict with the Jews. There is a big gap in the historical narrative. I’d like to learn more about the Arab community during Ottoman times.
    Unfortunately, the Israeli Right is least likely to respond to the issues raised by Copty. And the Israeli Left took the Arab support for granted. And the current Arab parties don’t know how to connect with mainstream Israeli (Jewish and Arab) opinion.

  2. Can they even vote in the Jerusalem elections?
    Yes. And, the Jerusalem Palestinians have the right to obtain citizenship and vote in Israeli national elections.

  3. For the most part, they don’t vote in the Jerusalem elections, and only about 10,000 have taken full Israeli citizenship.

  4. There was a time Amreican Jews couldn’t get into this, couldn’t get into that and couldn’t get into the other thing.
    As a result American Jews remained in poverty forever.

  5. Palestinian Jerusalem permanent residents can obtain Israeli citizenship only if they swear a loyalty oath to the Jewish State. The fact that this option theoretically exists does not mean it’s actually a viable possibility (I work in a human rights law office in East Jerusalem and we’ve never heard of a Jerusalemite trying to get Israeli citizenship). And why should they? In 1967, Israel came to them–they have no desire to be Israeli, nor have they ever had that desire.
    They are allowed to vote in Jerusalem municipal elections only, and you’re right, most of them don’t, just as most Palestinian citizens of Israel don’t vote. This is a real issue of debate: on the one hand, it’s potentially a seat of power; on the other hand, it’s buying into a government system that, like Copty says, is expressly not for you as a non-Jew in a Jewish state.
    Personally, I try to encourage my Palestinian friends to vote, because I think it would drastically alter the way Palestinians are treated–it might not be intellectually or morally consistent, but it would probably make lots of people’s lives better. But for those who disagree, I have to respect their reasons for choosing not to vote. And I think it’s legitimate.

  6. The fact that this option theoretically exists does not mean it’s actually a viable possibility (I work in a human rights law office in East Jerusalem and we’ve never heard of a Jerusalemite trying to get Israeli citizenship).
    Really?
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3468672,00.html
    Palestinian Jerusalem permanent residents can obtain Israeli citizenship only if they swear a loyalty oath to the Jewish State
    The horror!

  7. And, also, during the 2000 Camp David talks the Jerusalem Mufti actually issued a fatwa against taking Israeli citienship.
    If we want to argue against discrimination against Palestinians in Jerusalem, or if we want to argue to partition the city, fair enought . . . . but we should be honest about everything.

  8. I think another major problem is the MKs the Arab electorate sends to Jerusalem. They seem more interested in grandstanding than in actually legislating for their constituents.

  9. “Even Haaretz, instead of having an Israeli Arab journalist writing every week about problems Israeli Arabs face, they have Gideon Levy and Amira Hass”
    And Sayed Kashua, Jack Khoury and Fadi Eyadat… no big deal about making claims without any facts

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