Why Israel is after Azmi Bishara — and why it matters
Azmi Bishara, in JTA’s words, “abruptly ended a parliamentary career built on denouncing the Jewish state from enemy capitals and then dodging charges of sedition at home. ” He quit from outside the country in protest of allegations for spying for Hezbollah during this summer’s Second Lebanon War.
But comparing himself to Alfred Dreyfus, Azmi says in this article in The Los Angeles Times,
These trumped-up charges, which I firmly reject and deny, are only the latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in the struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a state of all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges to Jews that it denies to non-Jews….
Today we [Israeli non-Jews] make up 20% of Israel’s population. We do not drink at separate water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and can serve in the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and informal discrimination in all spheres of life.
More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from anywhere in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to the country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty — Israel’s “Bill of Rights” — defines the state as “Jewish” rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for native Palestinians.
Israel acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious group. Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal citizenship cannot exist under such conditions.
…
Our community leaders joined together recently to issue a blueprint for a state free of ethnic and religious discrimination in all spheres. If we turn back from our path to freedom now, we will consign future generations to the discrimination we have faced for six decades.
Americans know from their own history of institutional discrimination the tactics that have been used against civil rights leaders.
Bishara’s controversial statements are no more surprising or shocking than Avigdor Leiberman’s along similar lines, such as suggesting the execution of Arab Knesset members, which we should not justify or take with a grain of salt.
Yet the excepts above have a ring of truth — a long-ignored matter of demographic change. If the 20% non-Jewish (including Russian Christians, Druze, Israeli Arab, and others) continue to grow faster than the Jewish segement, when would Israel become an only 50% Jewish state? This a conjecture founded on simple Excel charts input with existing growth rates, so it’s unscientific at best.
The answer: 80 years. Like I said, unscientific at best. I’d love to see real studies on this.
But to date, I cannot tell if this question is being avoided or is not known — but the question should be opened: Despite our desire to propagate a Jewish democratic state, it is foreseeable that the same democracy may dismantle its Jewish side in 80 years. Will then Israel undergo an American 1960’s-style progression towards civil rights in the years to come as Jews lose seats in Knesset, business and social life? Hopefully, this data changes how we see Israel’s relation to all her citizens. Bishara’s inciting statements aside, we might hope that the state becomes the first nation of all it’s citizens in the Middle East and retain enough of its Jewish character to represent the proportion of Jews living there.
Kung Fu Jew, can you show us where Bishara makes a factually incorrect statement, or where a true statement leads to an unsupported conclusion?
Should we wait 80 years before Israel can finally be called a true democracy?
I have a dream, that someday a Jewish child growing up in Israel will be able to salute the same flag, sing the same anthem, and have the same attachment as the Palestinian child in the town next door. To me, that is more important than having ‘my’ flag, and ‘my’ anthem.
down with nationalisms. all of them. stop worshipping your flags people.
I have an idea. If Judaism actually meant something more than “propagating a territory with a Jewish majority”, then all of this scary demographics wouldn’t matter. Jews have done fine as minorities for the Greater part of history, and not too amazingly as a majority, and there’s no point in getting hysterical about birth rates. its who we are, and history took us here. Nu.
“Jews have done fine as minorities for the Greater part of history”
*cough cough*
ben, are you questioning the fact that Jews lived in Europe for over 2000 years and only about 20 or 25 of them were exceptionally bad, and that the amount of Jewish cultural activity, and its quality during this time, from Rabbeinu Gershom to Gershom Scholem, were exceptional and amazing? Or are you saying none of it matters because the Israeli military is better than all that nonsense?
Though I’ve not been on another planet, I somehow missed the Bishara incident, and only found out the details after reading a piece by Juliano Mer Khamis, and something else mentioning the similarities between Bishara and Tali Fahima (who is one of my all time heroes).
There is nothing inflammatory — at all — in Bishara’s LA Times piece.
And his comparing himself with Dreyfus is a rather brilliant polemic.
JG, I’m not aware of any misstatements by Bishara and his piece in the LA Times is quite lovely — that’s why I posted it here. Without trying to glorify him or paid credence to some of the inciteful things he’s said over time (in a mainstream Jewish sense), I think his op-ed is spot on.
ben, are you questioning the fact that Jews lived in Europe for over 2000 years and only about 20 or 25 of them were exceptionally bad, and that the amount of Jewish cultural activity, and its quality during this time, from Rabbeinu Gershom to Gershom Scholem, were exceptional and amazing?
Only 20 or 25 years were bad? Which years were the good ones – the massacre in the Tower of York? the expulsion from France? the Crusades? the Spanish Inquisition? the Venetian Ghetto? the Chilmenski massacres? the Ukranian pogroms?
Its true that Jewish cultural accomplishments during this time period were exceptional and amazing, but it takes a particular cult of victimhood to trade the angst of modern Jews over their power for the moral purity that comes when ones lives are left to the whims of the generosity of others.
It’s Fisking Time (IN CAPS)
Amman, Jordan — I AM A PALESTINIAN from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.
But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France’s Dreyfus affair — in which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state — the government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel’s failed war against Lebanon in July DOES THIS MEAN IT’S IRONIC THAT A ISRAELI IS CHARGED WITH BANKROBBING BECAUSE A JEW WAS CHARGED WITH BANKROBBING IN AMERICA.
Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a foreign agent and of receiving money in return.NOT APPARENTLY THEY DO Under Israeli law, anyone — a journalist or a personal friend — can be defined as a “foreign agent” by the Israeli security apparatus.AND IN AMERICA ANYONE CAN BE DEFINED AS A MURDERER BY THE POLICE Such charges can lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.YES IF THE CHARGE IS TRUE, PROVEN AND THE CRIME BEARS THAT SENTENCE – JUST LIKE ANY CRIME IN EVERY COUNTRY OF THE WORLD
The allegations are ridiculous. EVERY JAILBIRD IN AMERICA SAYS THAT VERY THING Needless to say, Hezbollah — Israel’s enemy in Lebanon — has independently gathered more security information about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provideTRUE BUT SO WHAT, EVERY BIT OF ADDITIONAL INFO CAN HELP DESTROY ISRAEL. What’s more, unlike those in Israel’s parliament who have been involved in acts of violence, I have never used violence or participated in warsBEING A SPY FOR THE ENEMY SEEMS TO CONTRDICT THAT. My instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are simply words in books, articles and speechesAND OF COURSE REVEALING SECRET INFO TO THE ENEMY.
These trumped-up chargesJOIN EVERY OTHER CRIMINAL IN JAIL WITH THAT BELIEF, which I firmly reject and denyTHEN WHY FLEE THE COUNTRY, STAY AND DEFEND YOURSELF, are only the latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in the struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a state of all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges to Jews that it denies to non-JewsHEY, I MAY BE A TRAITOR, BUT I HAVE MY REASONS.
When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled in fearAND OF COURSE WERE REPLACED BY CLOSE TO 1 MILLION JEWS WHO EXPELLED OR FLED FROM ARAB LANDS. My family was among the minority that escaped that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long livedI WONDER FOR HOW LONG 1 OR 2 GENERATIONS, MOST OF THE ARAB RESIDENTS OF ISRAEL DO NOT HAVE A LONG FAMILY HISTORY OF LIVING IN THE AREA. The Israeli state, established exclusively for JewsREALLY, THEN WHY IS THE STATE ABOUT 20% NON JEWISH, embarked immediately on transforming us into foreigners in our own countryIT MIGHT HAVE HELPED HAD YOU NOT TURNED TRAITOR, JOINED THE IDF, AND SUPPORTED YOUR COUNTRY.
For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood, we, as Israeli citizens, lived under military rule with pass laws that controlled our every movement. MMM, BASED ON VERACITY OF REST OF COLUMN, WOULD BET THIS IS NOT TRUE OR MUCH EXAGGERATEDWe watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up over destroyed Palestinian villagesAND OF COURSE THE MUSLIMS WOULD NEVER THINK OF DOING SUCH A THING, OH YEA, GAZA…..
Today we make up 20% of Israel’s population. We do not drink at separate water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and can serve in the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and informal discrimination in all spheres of lifeREALLY, LIKE NOT BEING OBLIGATED TO GO INTO THE ARMY – BUT YOU CAN VOLUNTEER.
More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from anywhere in the worldALMOST EVERY COUNTRY IN EUROPE HAS A SIMILAR STATUTE IF YOU HAVE AN IRISH GRANDPARENT YOU CAN RECLAIM YOUR IRISH CITIZENSHIP, EVEN IF YOU HAD NEVER VISITED, SAME FOR MOST OF THE REST. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return DO THE GERMANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO RETURN TO POLAND – THE PAKISTANIS RETURN TO INDIA – THAT’S THE COMMON SITUATION FOLLOWING A WARto the country they were forced to leave in 1948BEFORE YOU SAID FORCED TO LEAVE OR FLED IN FEAR. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty — Israel’s “Bill of Rights” — defines the state as “Jewish” rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for native PalestiniansYES, ISRAEL WAS CREATED FOR JEWS, BUT WITH FULL RIGHTS TO OTHERS, YOU HAVE A TON OS MUSLIM STATES TO GO TO WITHOUT ANY JEWS, IN FACT JEWS ARE PROHIBITED FROM BEING CITIZENS, INCLUDING JORDAN AND SAUDI ARABIA, ARE YOU PROTESTING THEIR LAWS.
Israel acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious groupNOT TRUE,AS PROVEN BY THE 20% NON JEWISH POPULATION. Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal citizenship cannot exist under such conditionsDEMOCRACY DOESN’T MEAN A STATE CANT DEFINE ITSELF AS A STATE OF A PARTICULAR RELIGIOUS PERSUASION, IS BRITAIN NOT A DEMOCRACY BECASUE THE HEAD OF STATE IS ALSO HEAD OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH.
Most of our children attend schools that are separate but unequalYOUR SCHOOLS ARE BETTER THAN ANY SCHOOLS IN THE MIDEAST. According to recent polls, two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse to live next to an Arab and nearly half would not allow a Palestinian into their homeACCORDING TO RECENT POLLS, MOST PALESTINIANS WOULD LIKE TO MURDER OR DRIVE OUT ALL JEWS, WHICH GROUP SEEMS MORE REASONABLE.
I have certainly ruffled feathers in IsraelTRAITORS NORMALLY DO. In addition to speaking out on the subjects above, I have also asserted the right of the Lebanese people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to resist Israel’s illegal military occupation. I do not see those who fight for freedom as my enemiesE.G. MURDERING LITTLE JEWISH BABIES IS A GOOD THING.
This may discomfort Jewish IsraelisGEE, I WONDER WHY MURDERING JEWISH BABIES CREATES DISCOMFORT, but they cannot deny us our history and identity any more than we can negate the ties that bind them to world JewryIT’S NOT NEGATING TIES THAT WORIES US, IT’S SUPPORTING THE MURDER OF JEWS THAT WORRIES US. After all, it is not we, but Israeli Jews who immigrated to this landIN 1850’S ACCORDING TO BRITISH POLLING DATA JERUSALEM HAD MORE JEWS THAN ARABS – THE JEWS WERE THERE FROM THE BEGINNING AND STAYED. Immigrants might be asked to give up their former identity in exchange for equal citizenship, but we are not immigrants.
During my years in the Knesset, the attorney general indicted me for voicing my political opinions (the charges were dropped), lobbied to have my parliamentary immunity revoked and sought unsuccessfully to disqualify my political party from participating in elections — all because I believe Israel should be a state for all its citizens and because I have spoken out against Israeli military occupationNO, BECAUSE YOU GAVE SECRECT INFO TO TERRORISTS. Last year, Cabinet member Avigdor Lieberman — an immigrant from Moldova — declared that Palestinian citizens of Israel “have no place here,” that we should “take our bundles and get lost.” After I met with a leader of the Palestinian Authority from Hamas, Lieberman called for my executionDO YOU THINK YOUR AIDING TERRORIST GROUPS MURDER/KIDNAP ISAELIS MAY HAVE JUSTIFIED ANY OF THESE STATEMENTS.
AND DID SOMEONE CALL THIS ARTICLE SPOT ON?
I love liberal democracy like any good (educated?) American. So I understand shmuel’s problem with all nationalisms. But I think trying to rid the world of all ethnic, cultural, and religious particularism is a silly endeavor. Not only can it not be done, but it should not be done!
That doesn’t mean the status quo is ok. But the problem with nationalism is not is particularistic nature, but the concept of a state with coercive power. Mobius has alluded to this in the past in defense of anarchy (a political philosophy about which I know very little).
Maybe in today’s world, a state is the lesser of many evils (e.g. being overrun by Syria). But even a democratic state must be recognized as something that can work up to a point, but still has flaws.
I’m reminded of what Irgun activist and all-around Revisionist iconoclast Hillel Kook said- in his mind (and, he suspected, Jabotinsky’s had he lived to see the founding of the state), Israel was not supposed to be a Jewish state through specific associations to Jewish nationalism, but by having a simple majority of Jewish citizens. Obviously this reads as problematic and a little naive 50-plus years later, but in some ways I think it makes a lot of sense- if the construction of Israeli national identity had not been so focused on merging Israeliness with Jewishness, there might be less alienation and segregation between Jews and non-Jews there, which in turn would make the “demographic threat” far less ominous (as well as avoided a whole bunch of other issues regarding synagogue and state).
Furthermore, it would have encouraged a much greater focus within the government on aggressively pushing for as many Jewish immigrants as possible, particularly from North America, where most Jews been happy to stay put. Instead, Israel has neither- a hostile and alienated native Arab population, an even more hostile foreign one at their gates, and relatively low and more or less static levels of immigration. I hope there’s still an Israel in 80 years, but it doesn’t look like there’s anyone on the ground there who has any clue on how to deal with this demographic issue.
I see a few options: either you make Israel a more attractive place to live and encourage more Jewish immigration (call this “offense”), you deport all the Arabs or make discriminatory laws (call this “defense”), or you try to play damage control and better integrate Arabs into Israeli society so that if at some point Arab Israelis are playing large roles in the government they actually see themselves as part of the country, not infiltrators into enemy territory.
What will happen? God knows.
I think Friar Yid has summarized my skepticism of nationalism and Zionism in that final paragraph pretty succinctly.
Thanks for writing this. Bishara presents really difficult issues for Israeli Jews (at least those who care about Israeli democracy). I too believe that Israel should become a state of all its citizens w/o allowing any one ethnic group dominate or overwhelm the other. I’ve been covering the Bishara case since it began weeks ago. If anyone wants more background pls. check out the link here associated with this comment.
Hey Richard, you gonna join me in front of the Saudi embassy to protest their exclusion of Jews, Christains, and other non Muslims from citizenship? After all I’m sure your belief that Israel should not allow one ethnic group to dominate another applies to all the Muslim states as well, right? right? Speak up, Richard.
1. Incorrect’s post was, well, incorrect. and also as mature as a third grader who’s just learned to yell “NOT” after ever sentence a grown-up says. The logic of “you’re a spy so even if you deny it you’re still a spy” is just ludicrous, and civilized countries don’t *have* death penalties, they ain’t moral.
2. There is a nation of “Israelis”. There is. like it or not. So immigration is hard now, because there’s this new language to learn and a society to integrate into and such. Israelis are not “Jews”, although they may or may not be Jewish, and the basic premise of Zionism, that there is a nation of JEws turned into dust once enough of them were in one place to actually be called a nation.
3. Stop with the paranoia. Deal with your own problems. Pay your synagogue dues. Go to daily minyan. Learn the Daf. That helps Judaism alot alot more.