Israel beytenu

“We, the Palestinian Arabs who live in Israel, natives of this land and citizens of this country… found ourselves within the borders of the Jewish state, detached from the rest of our Palestinian nation and the Arab world, were coerced to carry an Israeli citizenship and turned into a minority within our historic homeland”

This is the introduction to ‘The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel’ – a recently published document written by the National Committee of Heads of Arab Councils, a sister-body of the Supreme Monitoring Council of Israel’s Arabs – their highest governing body. The underlying message of this document is that they will never accept the existence of a Jewish state:

“The definition of the state as a Jewish state and the use of democracy in service of its Jewishness turns us away and places us in conflict with the nature and essence of the country we live in”.

I am, to some extent, relieved that the truth is finally out there, straight from the horse’s mouth, and this document is not the sole example. In the last couple of months, Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, petitioned the Supreme Court to revoke the Law of Return; Sheikh Ra’aed Salah, the head of the Northern Muslim Faction, has openly denounced Israel’s right to exist; and head of Shin Bet has reported of an increase in Arab Israeli citizens' identification with terror organizations, Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas and other bodies that do not recognize Israel’s right to exist. A recent poll suggests that 76% of Arab Israeli citizens regard the definition of Israel as a Zionist state as racist.

“There are two fundamental facts that should be taken into account when developing the legal status of the Palestinian-Arabs in Israel:

The Palestinian-Arabs being the original owners of the land…
Their being a living and inseparable part of the Arab-Palestinian nation”.

Allowing myself to skip the historical inaccuracy of point number one, I find point number two intriguing. This is one of the only points upon which I can see eye to eye with the authors of this document. I have claimed this for years, and made it a central component of Israel Beitenu’s platform. Israel must insist that a final agreement with the Palestinians should ensure that the vast majority of those who call themselves “Arab-Palestinians in Israel” find themselves excluded from the State of Israel and reunited with their nation.

These developments warrant a paradigm shift in the mainstream Israeli approach on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The question we have to be asking ourselves is not how do we envision the future Palestinian state, rather how we envision the future of the Jewish State. While it has become universally acceptable to speak of a Palestinian nation-state, the right of Jewish self-determination in the land of Israel still has to be fought for. We have to start acting like a defensive democracy, ensuring that the liberties and freedoms that democracy allows its citizens aren’t being used to bring to its downfall.

originally published in the Jerusalem post - Blogcenteral.

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