A dramatic shift
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, announced last week that it is considering proposing a new state constitution calling for a supranational regime in all of "historic Palestine."
By Eran Shayshon Tags: Israeli Arab PalestiniansAdalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, announced last week that it is considering proposing a new state constitution calling for a supranational regime in all of "historic Palestine." Although its statement makes no direct reference to the issue of borders, the proposal essentially undermines the principle of the two-state solution and promotes the idea of one binational state for Jews and Palestinians. Adalah's proposal signifies a change in the organization's position, and may mark an emerging trend among Israeli Arabs.
Last year, Adalah published its draft of a "Democratic Constitution," one of several papers issued by Israeli Arab organizations that have come to be known as the Vision Documents. Taken collectively, these statements openly challenged the Jewish character of the State of Israel while accepting the framework of the two-state solution. The Vision Documents' stated goal was to spark public discourse concerning the future of Israeli Arabs. The Jewish population in Israel, however, has remained largely indifferent to the documents, while the reaction of Jewish politicians and commentators was negative at best.
The fact that no concrete dialogue has ensued between the two camps, however, only partially explains the dramatic shift in Adalah's position. What really alarmed the organization was the recent renewal of political talks between Israel and the Palestinians, especially as subjects for discussion have included issues relating to Israel's Arab citizens, such as the idea of swapping populated lands, and the claim by senior Israeli officials that a future Palestinian state would solve Israeli Arabs' national demands. Moreover, the Israeli demand of the Palestine Liberation Organization that it recognize Israel's Jewish identity has been fiercely rejected by most of the Israeli Arab leadership and, as surveys show, public too. All these developments have contributed to a collective sense of unease among Israeli Arabs, and a concern that their destiny is being negotiated without their participation.
Whereas the Vision Documents were largely intended to engage Israel's Jewish public, the new Adalah proposal is directed primarily at two different audiences. First, considering that in the past year, Israeli Arab organizations have become more active in expressing their views regarding the "outstanding issues" between Israel and the Palestinians (such as Jerusalem and refugees), the latest statement may be intended to constrain the PLO's ability to maneuver in the political process. In fact, Adalah's proposal contradicts the PLO's official position, which calls for negotiations with Israel on the basis of the two-state solution.
Adalah may be signaling to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, therefore, not only that Israeli Arabs may not necessarily accept an agreement signed by Israel and the PLO, but also that a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders will not fulfill their demands for self-determination, and that the political fight will continue.
Adalah's second message is geared toward the international community, which has become more critical in recent years of Israel's policies vis-a-vis its Arab citizens; it is that only a one-state solution, based on "one man, one vote," is moral, just and achievable. Furthermore, because leading international figures consider Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to be the Palestinian "dream team" for negotiations, if they fail, it is implied, this may raise doubts regarding the very viability of the two-state solution.
In recent years, Israeli Arab organizations have frequently compared Israel's policies toward its Arab minority and the Palestinians to the South-African apartheid regime. Adalah's promotion of a one-state solution takes this comparison a step further: The organization publicly aligns its constitution with the African National Congress' 1956 Freedom Charter, which demanded the transformation of South Africa into a state for all its citizens, and was incorporated into the South African constitution in 1996.
Therefore, Adalah's statement may confront Israel with a political conundrum: If it reaches an agreement with the PLO, the deal's legitimacy would be questioned by Israeli Arabs challenging the PLO's status. However, if negotiations fail, the until-now accepted framework of a political process based on a two-state solution will be challenged, bringing the one-state alternative to the fore.
Israel needs to formulate guiding principles regarding its relations with Israeli Arabs and the future Palestinian state. First and foremost, Israel should consider the spectrum of diplomatic, legal and political relations it wishes to allow between these parties. Israeli positions in the current round of negotiations would set the degree of these associations, on matters such as dual passports, the right to vote and to be elected to the Palestinian parliament and the issue of family reunification.
On the domestic level, Israeli Arabs' demands of the state have both legal- nationalist and socioeconomic dimensions. The legal-nationalist aspect, as it appears in the Vision Documents, threatens the Jewish character of Israel and therefore is too high a price to meet. Nonetheless, this does not relieve Israel of the need to seek a dialogue with the Israeli Arab leadership in order to find a formula enabling the integration of the Israeli Arab and Jewish communities. Finally, Israel should strive to bridge the socioeconomic gaps between the communities, in order to meet the socioeconomic demands of Israeli Arabs and quell at least some of the causes of unrest among them.
Eran Shayshon is a senior analyst at the Reut Institute for Policy Planning, in Tel Aviv.
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Jews should have equal rights to anyone else. And vice-versa, in case you're logically challanged.
Israel compares very well to Western countries. If France or Germany were in danger of being swallowed by "certain minorities", extreme measures would be taken. Make no mistake. Argentina, a democratic country. But you can't run for presidency unless you are Catholic. Does it make it undemocratic? Israel was founded on the premises of being a home for the Jewish people and it must remain so.
While bits of the Freedom Charter were, as asserted by Shayson, incorporated in the SA Constitution; quite a bit was omitted. Furthermore, much of what was included, regarding human rights, especially to a fair hearing, has been ignored by the ANC, especially against their own members as a result of the internal faction fighting. The most relevant comparison with SA is that the Arabs colonised Israel in the 7th century and again as part of the Ottoman Empire; in 1948 they were driven out as they were by Charlemagne from Spain and as the British were from India, South Africa, etc.
The Arab minority in Israel does not accept the character of Israel as definied by its majority Jewish population. The Jewish state should not commit suicide simply because the Arab minority wishes it to. Therefore the best political solution for the minority is to belong to some Arab political entity.
Is easy to talk about civilization and criticize Israel when you are living in Europe or Canada. How many Arab-Israelis the Israel policy killed in the past 10 years? And compare with the number of poor people killed by the políce in any poor country during the same period of time.
Why compare Israel to Canada or other well established democracies? Nobody threatens to thow them into the sea. They have well established racial majorities and nobody threatens them to change their racial composition.
In 1948 Israelis fought off the attack by Arabs whose goal was, as they themselves proclaimed, the destruction of the Jews. In spite of this, Palestinians who had not aligned themselves with the attackers were given citizenship. This in contrast to the West Bank and Gaza where the local Jewish population, some of whom had lived there uniterruptably for thousands of years, was wiped off the earth. Jews are not demandig an apology from Palestinians. In fact the majority of Jews want to see Arabs integrated into society...it is radical Palestinians who reject serving in the army or other national service, ally themselves with countries at war with Israel and support terrorist acts. Adalah denial of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination is pure racism since they seem not to have a problem with the many officially Muslim or Arab states in the world.
Poll after poll shows that Palestinian citizens of Israel do not believe they are treated fairly and do not even consider the country democratic or themselves full citizens of the country. This is not surprising given that numerous laws privilege Jews over non-Jews and the state openly speaks of redrawing the border to deliberately exclude non-Jews, and senior Israeli politicians regularly proposal expelling them from the country. At the same time, Israeli law prohibits them from challenging the Jewish character of the state, even through the democratic process--meaning attempts to democratically address the racist character of the state and call for a fair distribution of resources are legally not allowed. Meanwhile polls of Israeli Jews continue to find that the majority believe in pursuing measures to promote their emigration, and the majority would not live in the same apartment building as an Arab. So they are not treated "more than fairly."
Islamics in Canada and the USA are very well organized and have announced their plan of turning these two great countries into Islamic States!! Neither of these two countries will go down without a fight and bloodshed like the world has never known. In the countries where Islamics took over the government, there have and continue to be cruel treatment to non-islamic people. Long Live Israel.
Michael, we Israeli Palestinians don't give a crap about what is happening in other arab countries. We dont want to live there, we want to live on our native land. Issues regarding minorities in Iran or Egypt, as you highlighted, in addition to the intellectually bankrupt arab gulf states are mostly true. But that does not give Israel a license to do the same and sell itself as a democratic country in the west. If Israel is to consider itself a modern democratic western country the scale it is to be compared to should be western countries... Take for example the best country in the world, Canada where we both live. How does Israel compare to Canada from the perspective of multiculturism, democratic rights, and justice..?? Israel comes across as well... apartheid to say the least.
There are many Muslim countries in the world, and they are such, because the predominant religion is Islam and in many cases the minorities are harshly oppressed. Israel must retain its Jewish character, otherwise it will become on of those states. I lived in Israel for some time and I can assure you that the minorities there are treated more than fairly. While I met Bahais who escaped Iran and Coptic Christians from Egypt and they told me how they were treated. Please stop talking about things you have no clue of.
Israels declaration of maintaining "the Jewish character of Israel" simply gives them leave to do things which would land other nations on Americas "red lest" of outlaw nations. Religious and racial discrimination become an everyday occurance. While America chastises other nations for these same shortcomings, the American taxpayer actually subsidizes these activites in Israel. The government of Israel is actually "anti-democratic", as the majority is in a position to make the rules such that they will remain in power forever and the minorities remain voiceless and forever oppressed. Israeli Jews do not care for these charges and they invariably band together to denounce them and their sponsor. This is the same tactic used by the Jewish government against the minorities.
only to be turned down(demanding fri on Muslim holidays(despite most of them neing on the dole anyhow) and Muslim divorce courts) Nobody was deanding one "opens discusion with them". Shame on you Eran,lawyers like you would trade Israel
Israel will be a failed state if is does not absorb/integrate Its Moslem minority. They must be made to feel at home in the Jewish, and must be allowed to contribute to its positive evolution.
The Israeli Arabs are a diversified group. Poor, rich, educated, integrated etc. The first task is to adopt civility accross all line in the Arab areas, even if emotions would demand resistance. From civility, it will be easy to advance to respectability, equality, and integration. The earlier the better. The civil Israeli Arab class will have a positive influence on Israel and the Arab nations, too.
Presumably, they plan to put their "bi-national Palestine" on the Moon, because it ain't gonna happen here. The two sides in this dispute are always like the same poles of magnets, in that if the position of one moves towards the other, the other one is repelled and seeks to mave further away from the position it started in- and ultimately it is physically impossible for them to meet. If Israel were ever to meet the Palestinian demands it wouldn't matter because the Palestinian demands would change as a result. This will take another century to resolve.