During the Israeli attack on Gaza the voice less listened to was certainly that of the eternally misunderstood. Arab Israelis, those who since 1967 decided to live within the borders and thereby obtain an Israeli passport and the status of citizens, albeit with a number of restrictions as Arabs and not Jews. According to the National Resilience Survey 2008 carried out by Tel Aviv University, of this group, representing 20% of Israel’s populations, 43% describe themselves as “Arab-Palestinians, while only 15% describe themselves as “Arab-Israelis” and the remaining 4% as “Muslim-Israelis.” This data clearly expresses the difficulties this minority experiences in having a specific identity, especially regarding relations between the Palestinian people and the State of Israel.
In view of the next general election planned for February 10th, Arab-Israelis will stand for election in the various autonomous lists already present in the previous parliament, and of which the Arab Movement for Change is certainly the most representative. This alliance aspires to defend the rights of Arab Israelis in the political sphere, relying on maintaining and strengthening the bond with the Palestinian people and supporting the peace process and the birth of a Palestinian State next to the Israeli one. Among the more important requests presented by this Movement, founded and still led by Ahmad Tibi, is a demand for new “positive discrimination” policies for encouraging equal opportunities for Arab citizens vis à vis Jewish ones in employment in public sectors such as education and health.
A significant political presence that certainly proves the State of Israel’s good intentions in entertaining an institutional relationship in acknowledging the Arab minority, but also emphasising a number of significant ambiguities. The leaders of the Arab Movement for Change reported this, starting with inequalities based on religion between Jews and non-Jews in a number of key sectors of social and economic life. An even more powerful request has come from the Israeli extreme right demanding that Tibi’s movement should be excluded from the general election. Luckily, the Supreme Court rejected this request and Tibi’s group is now preparing to face a long battle to persuade Israel’s Arabs to play an active role in these elections.
This is a very difficult and complicated democratic challenge, considering that most Israeli-Arabs feel closely linked to the Palestinian cause, because of close connections with both the Palestinians in Gaza and those in the West Bank. Taking part and voting in the next Israeli elections, especially within a context such as the current one, represents the umpteenth sacrifice and one hard to digest, as well as in open conflict with the solidarity shown in recent weeks for the people of Gaza. And Tibi has often repeated this, asking his people to make an effort in playing a more important role in Israeli politics. A precariously balanced Arab presence. Citizens experiencing an identity crisis, accused at times by both Israel and the Arab people of ambiguity and betrayal.
The most recent victim in this fragile and complex stand, has been the now former Arab-Israeli Member of Parliament Azmi Bishara, sentenced by a court in Tel Aviv after being accused of high treason for having entertained relations with Hezbollah during the last Israeli-Lebanese war and effectively exiled to nearby Amman. Now, among the Arabs of Israel, there are some who envisage that the same may happen to Ahmad Tibi, guilty of having shaken hands with the Syrian President Assad. Let us hope that at least this time democratic Israelis will speak up, in the name of the only democracy in the Middle East.
Translated by Francesca Simmons