Viewing Israel's Arabs as a demographic problem is not just a profound insult. It is also what prevents us from discussing the damage caused by rapid natural increase.
In the last few years, the issue of demographics has undergone a process of unrestrained stigmatization, no less - and perhaps even more - than any other of the loaded topics in Israel's relationship with its Arab citizens (about one-fifth of its population).
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Repeated declarations have been made on this subject by high-ranking ministers, government officials and academics, but especially by those who set the country's meta-policy. Benjamin Netanyahu, minister of finance and perhaps the future prime minister, was certainly not the first to address the subject when he made his recent laconic remarks at the Herzliya Conference, where "strategic plans" for restricting Arab existence were debated. Yet for the state's Arab citizens, this conference became a forum of horrors. Naturally, statements such as Netanyahu's fall on fertile soil and create a counter-stigma within Arab society in all its diversity.
One can no longer shake the profound impression that the State of Israel is holding a demographic plumb, wielding it around-the-clock to gauge the level of the "demographic threat." This is the threat that the Arab citizen, by virtue of being Arab, poses to the state's Jewish character. Unlike the Kinneret, the infamous demographic level is always on the rise, as the dry facts tell us.
We should begin by repeating the plain truth: When it comes to demographics - and to any other subject that directly or indirectly affects the quality of Arab life in Israel - the leaders of the state reestablish themselves as those with the unshakable right and duty to instruct us, as citizens, but mostly as subjects, in what is right and wrong, permitted and forbidden, correct and incorrect. Viewed against a long history of discrimination and disenfranchisement, and when daily reality proves over and over that the interests of Arab citizens are not a concern for these leaders, it is hard to not get riled up at this presumption.
But should this all-too-natural indignation be the only response to the demographic reality, even when this reality harshly confronts Arab society itself? A deeper look, detached from the stigmatization, free of whitewashing and corner-cutting, reveals that by devoting ourselves completely, as individuals and as a society, to our rage at the demographic rhetoric, we are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. By maintaining this attitude, we are neglecting our right to hold an independent public debate on the demographic question.
A frequently heard argument holds that, when faced with the long-entrenched view of himself as a demographic threat, an Arab citizen is left with a single question, the same one he has faced since ancient times: to be, or not to be. This situation has eroded and all but eliminated another, equally important question that this Arab citizen needs to ask himself, and that is - "To be how?"
In other words, the demographic trends within Arab society, from the establishment of the state to the present, have largely been shaped by a single factor - the state's policy of "ensuring a Jewish majority." Meanwhile, the global changes in attitudes toward birth, and the international recognition of the severe consequences that high birth rates have upon the standard of living, have left almost no trace on Israel's Arab society.
Does the state's hostility really tie our hands and prevent us from changing our approach to the demographic issue? This question should be examined out of concern for our own interests, as a national minority and as citizens, and not in relation to the agenda of the state's leaders. We must not let the state's attitude be an excuse that keeps us from considering demography in neutral, non-loaded terms and from taking a critical look at the rapid increase of our population due to high birth rates. The time has come to ask what we want to do for ourselves, beyond complaining about what others are doing to us.
In this context, one fact remains hard to refute: Because of our rapid rate of increase, the resources available to Arab citizens - resources that the discriminatory policies of various governments have already left sadly diminished - become insufficient for maintaining an adequate standard of living. The result is soaring unemployment and underemployment. To solve these difficult problems, our only option is to make a great effort to instruct the public about family planning and birth control.
It is easy to predict which of us will be enraged by this statement. Foremost among them are quite a few heads of Arab local councils, the hard-to-crack core of the Arab population's elected leadership (the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee). And no wonder. Many of these officials, after all, were elected to their position by hiding behind the demographic apron. To them, rapid natural increase is a sure step toward reelection, perhaps even a guarantee of it. In the background looms "the war of the womb," supposedly directed at the "Zionist enemy " - the eternal weapon that can never be laid down.
Will this subject eventually become part of our national and civic agenda? Will the unceasing Israeli fervor over the "demographic threat" continue to be a sufficient reason for avoiding a new approach to demographics? These are questions I cannot answer. As a small first step, I think that normalizing demography on our side, viewing it in non-loaded terms, may produce a certain change. It seems a safe bet that, at present and in the foreseeable future, this goal is more wishful thinking than a feasible step.
Meanwhile, the absurd way in which the public debate on demographics is conducted actually causes birth rates to rise. The welfare and interests of the Arab citizen are never taken into account. This causes Arabs in Israel far greater damage, and it keeps Arab society from striving for a balanced birth rate out of concern for its own well-being.
The obsession with demographics and its definition as a "problem" have an adverse effect that should not be underestimated. They deepen the abyss between the two peoples and signal to both that life and procreation are a threat, that they need to be demeaned and even prevented. Has no one considered the reverse-psychological effect of treating the Arabs in Israel this way? This attitude pulls the rug out from under the already-faint call to Israel's Arab citizens to be an integral part of Israeli society - that is, to be "Israeli." The real message is: Be Israeli, just as long as there aren't too many of you.
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