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The majority feels like a sacrificial lamb By Tzvia Greenfield Tags: Acre, Israel News Eight years have gone by since 12 Israeli citizens, all Arabs (along with one Arab resident of the territories), were shot to death by Israeli police. In light of the recent violence in Acre, it seems we have not learned too much. The fundamental failure that enabled the killing stems from a mindset that must never be legitimized in a democracy: that government forces may shoot at citizens. The state belongs to its citizens, not to the government. The government is there only to manage the common asset. Only mortal danger can justify a concomitantly severe response. The public's indifference to the shooting of citizens eight years ago, and the harassment of Acre's Arab residents today, therefore, reveals another, deeper, failure: the harsh attitude toward the Arab minority, denied and repressed by most of the Jewish public, which believes self-righteously that it is the threatened party. Too many people in Israeli society do not perceive the country's real balance of power, and refuse to understand that the Jewish public is not just another persecuted and wretched minority deserving of special protection, but rather a large and sovereign civil majority that is responsible for the minority. Advertisement Especially difficult for Israeli society is the commonly held idea that nothing fundamental has changed in past 60 years, and that the Jewish majority is still only a sacrificial lamb. Thus the chief rabbi of Acre, for example, told the media that the riots resembled those against the Jews in Germany. The Jewish people aspired to sovereignty, and achieved it. But sovereignty in a democratic world means taking responsibility for social, economic and cultural matters, and managing them as best and as justly as possible for all citizens. Not for the benefit of the strong or the leaders, or for their close associates, or for the synagogue alone, but for everyone. True, this political ideal is difficult to attain. Israel, like most countries these days, is not only heterogenious and multi-cultural, but also multi-national. Not because its immigration policies are particularly liberal or open, but because it has a large native Palestinian minority. For this reason alone it is fated to live in a democracy with complex majority-minority relations, which are frequently very charged, whether because of the emotional attempt by both groups to define themselves as opposed to the other, or because it is natural due to the minority's hostility toward the state managed by members of the majority. The bloody historical conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians and the continued occupational rule make things worse, of course. And when we have not only the occupation and not only the unbearable recent history of mutual harm between the two large national and religious groups, but also continued discrimination against the minority by the majority, solutions are more difficult to find. And yet, it is important to remember that highly charged tensions between majorities and minorities exist in many places. French speakers in Quebec have for years wanted to secede from Canada and establish their own independent country, and the huge group of Latino citizens in the southern United States, or at least some of them, are demanding that Spanish be recognized as a first language. Not to mention the severe tension between the Walloon minority and the Flemish majority in Belgium, or between the Kurdish minority and the majority in Turkey. It can be assumed that tensions in multi-national and multi-cultural societies will erupt from time to time, and that reckless people might manage to incite a few dozen others against the opposing group. This is not to diminish the seriousness of these actions. However, sane democracy must learn to treat such localized clashes with determination and sensitivity. To succeed at this, one condition is absolutely essential: The majority must recognize its responsibility to the minority and take upon itself the task of conciliation and containment. If the majority does not recognize its role as the sovereign group and the attendant responsibility, and even denies it, then we must, unfortunately, fear serious social calamity. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Obama goes white A new advertisement reminds Americans to consider the real issues when voting Sarah Palin hits a nerve The antipathy to Palin is located at the intersection of feminism and Jewish identity   1.   Big difference.. 01:43  |  Bill Pearlman 20/10/08   2.   I am astonished that Haaretz has allowed this 02:35  |  Robert Haymond 20/10/08   3.   An Arab caused havoc on Jom Kippur Arabs ransacked Jewishproperty 11:12  |  arthur 20/10/08   4.   Mazal tov, Tzvia! 19:49  |  Eve 05/11/08

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