bitterlemons-international.org
Middle East Roundtable /
Edition 38
A Palestinian View:
An underlying societal rift
by Ghassan Khatib
The recent clashes in Acre between Israeli
Jews and those of Palestinian origin brought to the surface a very thorny
issue, the uncomfortable co-existence in Israeli society between the
Palestinian minority and Jewish majority.
The Palestinian minority in Israel constitutes roughly one-fifth of the
population and represents the indigenous people that Israel did not kick out
of Palestine in 1948, when 800,000 were forced to seek refuge in neighboring
Arab states.
The story of those who were forced out of their homes and homeland and those
who remained was once the subject of some controversy. But the last ten to
15 years witnessed research by what became known as the "new historians" of
Israel that was based on documents from the Israeli national archives and
which proved beyond doubt that Jewish terrorist organizations and later the
Israeli army planned explicitly the kind of activities, including massacres,
that led to expulsion of the indigenous population and the creation of the
Palestinian refugee problem.
Those who remained, and were later called Israeli Arabs, became a major
problem for Israel. First, most of the land is owned either by Palestinians
who were expelled or those who remained. Second, the presence of non-Jews
was a challenge to the Zionist ideal of creating a pure Jewish state and the
claim of establishing a civilized state among savages. Finally, the
Palestinians who remained gradually started organizing themselves, speaking
out not only about their political rights but most importantly (and most
embarrassingly) about their civil and human rights where they were being
undermined by the Jewish state. As a result, the Palestinians of Israel
became a prominent example of the state's racial discrimination policies and
practices.
In the first ten to 15 years after the creation of Israel, for example, more
than 90 percent of the land that belonged to those who stayed behind was
confiscated. For their part, Palestinians were confined to their villages
and towns under very draconian restrictions on their movement, a system very
similar to the current restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the
occupied territories.
There are two ways in which the Palestinian minority in Israel has reacted
to this treatment. A minority has chosen to cooperate with the state in
spite of the discrimination. They joined Zionist parties in the face of an
ideology that would seem to exclude non-Jews.
The majority, however, gradually joined and voted for anti-Zionist parties
and later Arab parties. These led popular protests against the
discriminatory policies of Israel, activities that culminated in the famous
Land Day in 1976, a popular intifada against the confiscation of land in
which six Palestinians were killed by Israeli police.
Israel's attempts to subordinate its minority Palestinian community have
been made under the slogan of co-existence. They partly consisted of
encouraging Palestinians to integrate within the Israeli political system.
In the first stages, this ensnared pro-state Palestinians with traditional
tribal and family positions. But with the increase in awareness among the
Palestinian minority, the vast majority of community representatives became
sharply critical of the state's policies toward that minority and are now
leaders of the struggle of that community.
In spite of the rough treatment the Palestinian minority in Israel has had
to endure, it has succeeded in taking a non-violent approach in its struggle
for civil and human rights. This has further embarrassed Israel. But this
approach has not prevented certain elements in the Jewish population from
expressing bluntly and violently their hatred and hostility for that
minority. The Acre events did not come as a surprise to anyone aware of the
depth of the problem between the two peoples. And the quick, hostile and
violent reaction from a wide range of right wing groups and parties in
Israel is another indicator of how fragile relations are and undermines the
image of co-existence some in Israel would like to portray.
If Israel does not treat all its civilians equally, and without a solution
to the problem of the part of the Palestinian people who live under
occupation, the tensions that led to the Acre riots are likely to be
repeated.- Published 27/10/2008 © bitterlemons.org
Ghassan Khatib is coeditor of the bitterlemons family of internet
publications. He is vice-president of Birzeit University and a former
Palestinian Authority minister of planning. He holds a PhD in Middle East
politics from the University of Durham.
Bitterlemons-international.org is an internet
forum for an array of world perspectives on the Middle East and its
specific concerns. It aspires to engender greater understanding about
the Middle East region and open a new common space for world thinkers
and political leaders to present their viewpoints and initiatives on the
region. Editors Ghassan Khatib and Yossi Alpher can be reached at
ghassan@bitterlemons-international.org
and
yossi@bitterlemons-international.org, respectively.
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29-10-2008 |