Transcript Israel and Its Arab Minority

Israel and Its Arab
Minority:
A Special Case of an
Interlocking Conflict
Yitzhak Reiter
Syracuse University Press,
May 2009
Questions
• What are the factors determining escalation
and de-escalation on the minority-majority
relations in Israel?
• Why, in spite of all tensions between Arabs
and Jews both inside Israel and in the Middle
East in general, we still witness a relatively
situation of co-existence?
Arab
Minority
in Israel
Total Arab Population:
1,100,000
Galillee
650,000
Triangle
230,000
Jordan
West Bank
Arabs in mixed
Cities: (Acre,
Haifa, Jaffa,
Ramla, Lod)
90,000
Egypt
Gaza Strip
Negev
130,000
Interlocking Conflicts (Kriesberg)
• Conflicts connected over time and through shared
issues and parties.
• The conflict may be regarded as one in a linked series
of events of developments between adversaries with
generations of enmity.
• They also may overlap and embed in each other.
• Consequences: Jewish-Arab relations in Israel are
influenced by two major factors:
• 1. the situation in the broader Israeli-Palestinian
conflict
• 2. Government policies regarding minority rights
Unique Case of Minority-Majority Relations
• The only minority that is part of its state’s
regional majority
• The minority mostly embraces solidarity with
active enemies of their state such as Hamas
and Hezbollah, while the state combats their
flesh and blood brethren, the Palestinians
• Jewish nation-state gives legal preference in
immigration laws and the State symbols.
How does the Jewish Nature Affect Minority Rights?
• As in many European democratic nation-states the
dominant nation in the country (Jewish) has the right to
keep its hegemony in the state’s public culture and national
symbols as well as in immigration laws.
• Chief Justice Aharon Barak:“…the right of every Jew to
immigrate to Israel in which Jews would consist a majority;
Hebrew is the State’s central official language; the State’s
main holydays and symbols reflect the national revival of
the Jewish people; and the Jewish heritage is a leading
component of its religious and cultural heritage (SCJ
(Bagatz) 11280/02, Piskey Din 57 (4), 1: 101).”
• However, Arab leaders have difficulty in accepting them
because they view themselves as the real original and only
owners of the land
Government Policies: Land Settlement and
Immigration
• Tawfiq Zayyad:
• “half a million
people means one
million hands
which are able to
combat
occupation
• Land Day Protest
• March 30, 1976
Advantages of the Arab Minority
• Cultural rights more than many other ethnic and
national minorities.
• Arabic names and Arab heritage (alongside Muslim or
Christian manifestations) dominate the public sphere in
Arab populated towns and villages.
• Public education in Arabic. Arabic language enjoy its
formal legal status Special personal status tribunals for
the various religious sects,
• Israeli Arabs, however have created their own
nationalistic commemoration days: the Land Day on 30
March and the Nakba Day on May 15
Palestinization
What “Palestinization” means?
•
•
•
•
•
Support for the Palestinian political agenda
Solidarity with the intifada actions
Palestinian narrative
Political radicalization
Identification with Palestinian symbols and
institutions (Nakba)
• Advocacy and lobbying for the Palestinian
cause
Example of the Interlocking Factor:
MK Muhammad Barake (Al-Hayat al-Jadida, 11.1.99):
• We are an inseparable part of the Arab and
Palestinian people and … to participate in the
struggle of our people We are a Palestinian
National minority in a state, which is hostile
to our people [the Palestinians] and hostile
to us as its citizens
Rami Ghara’s Memorial of Oct. 2000
What “Israelization” means?
• Promoting their goals from within the
democratic system
• 73% of Jews and 94.3% of the Arabs accept living
together with mutual respect and equal
opportunities (Pittinski et al, 2007)
• Bi-lingual and bi-cultural
• Integration in the Israeli civil service, workplace,
universities, shopping, restaurants, etc.
• Arab minister (2006-09), membership in Knesset
commitees
• Center of Local Government plenum
Kadima
Likud
Israel Beitenu
13 Arab MKs
In 2009 + 1
Balad
Hadash
Raam-Taal
Conclusion: Why Israelization?
• Democratization process
• Welfare system (53% of the Arabs are proud of
Israel’s welfare policies compared with only 17% of the
Jews, 2006 Patriotism Survey)
• Peace process
• Jewish iron wall
• No better alternative
Q&A
Future Vision Manifestos (2006-7)
• Manifestos view Israel as a colonial product and claim that Israel
has the sole responsibility for the 1948 War and its “injustices”
regarding the Palestinians.
• The documents also strongly reject the nature of the state as
Jewish while suggesting in its place power-sharing or a bilingual
and multi-cultural state.
• Demanding:
– Return of expropriated land
– Return of internal refugees
– Equal partnership
in decision-making
Prospects for Future Relations
• Bridging between Knesset and Adalah’s Draft Constitutions,
Major debated issues:
• A – Definition/Character of the State
• B – Definition of the Arab minority – collective rights
• C – Immigration laws – who is entitled to citizenship in the
State
• D – The political system – power-sharing and representation
• E – Representation in the public culture/sphere of the state
(symbols etc.)
• F – Citizenship duties and allegiance
• G – Rights regarding past policies – restorative justice