Netanyahu vs. 1.5 million Israeli Arabs
Op-ed: The terror attack in Tel Aviv brought back up an issue Israelis would rather forget: the country's Arab citizens; but the prime minister would much rather use fear of Arabs to bolster his own standing than give the five-year plan to invest in the Arab sector a real chance.
Nashat Melhem, the murderer on Dizengoff Street, has had his one week in the spotlight. He was found and shot dead. But the murders in Tel Aviv brought back up an issue that Israelis both on the left and right usually push to the back of their minds: Israel's Arab citizens. Not one issue, a million and a half issues. A million and a half people, each with his own personal story, each with his own world.
"There's war between my people and my country," said Abd el-Aziz al-Zoabi, an MK in the Zionist party Mapam, about 50 years ago. There are miles separating Abd el-Aziz al-Zoabi, who died in 1974, from his relative Haneen Zoabi, but the dilemma remains the same.
Today, it bothers not just Arabs in Wadi Ara, but also Jews in Raanana. Channel 10 interviewed two women in Raanana this week that are leading the fight against the construction of new residential buildings in the city. Arabs work in construction, and the Arabs scare them. They refuse to send their children to a kindergarten located next to a building where Arabs work. I asked a government minister what he thought of the protest in Raanana. He told me about his child, who also goes to a kindergarten near a building under construction. "I'm scared too," he said.
The level of fear in Raanana rose following three stabbing attacks in the city, but it would be a mistake to see it as a local problem. The lone wolf terrorism - the stabbings, the vehicular attacks, and now the shootings as well – has filled the city with dormant, ancient fears.
Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)
Fear is also the rhetorical tool Netanyahu uses to recruit public support. It was only a year ago that the biggest fear was Iran. And we weren't the only ones on the verge of annihilation: All of the countries we were supposed to run to were on the verge of annihilation. Iran was replaced by Abbas. For several months, he was the one who kept our children up at night. And then, on Election Day, Abbas was joined by Israeli Arabs. The fallacious monologue about Arabs going in droves to the polls, done with a gloomy, terrified expression, with an ominous map of the Middle East in the background, managed to swipe three or four seats from fringe right-wing parties. The goal has been achieved, above and beyond.
The Israeli Arabs issue
Op-ed: Studies clearly show that Israel's Arab citizens play a minimal part in terror, despite collective feelings that have a potential for radicalization and revolt; the government must encourage their adaptation processes.
On the way, Netanyahu made the deep mistrust of Arab citizens towards the state even worse, and perhaps more importantly, gave free reign to comments that until that point were limited to dinner table conversation on Friday night or WhatsApp chats. Lieberman is not alone. From now on, a worried mother in Raanana, who quite obviously votes for Lapid, can now mark the entire Arab sector as the enemy. From now on, Jewish tourists on their way back from Athens can force passengers off their plane just because they are Arabs. They have the okay from the prime minister to do so.
Fear is a human quality; on a personal level, it is completely understandable. But when it is being adopted by the government, it's the beginning of apartheid.
In one of his speeches this week, Netanyahu demanded Israeli Arabs to be "loyal to the law." Not to obey the law, as is required in every democratic state, but to be loyal to it. It's easy to see where this is coming from: The pledges of loyalty Lieberman has demanded. Netanyahu saw that Lieberman was recovering in the polls. He got the messages.
It's just an act, explain government ministers. Just rhetoric. In actuality, he's not doing anything. One of them gave the example of the government decision to revoke the resident rights from East Jerusalem terrorists who were not killed by security forces. The decision made a lot of headlines - but remained on paper.
Some of Netanyahu's comments against the Arab sectors were meant to cover up, or to atone, for the government's decision to approve a five-year plan prepared by the Finance Ministry to bolster minorities. The sum that was reported - NIS 15 billion - is not real. Except for one clause, there are no sums detailed in the plan. There are mostly allocations in percentages. If, eventually, half of this sum is allocated, it would be an incredible achievement.
The execution of the plan mostly depends on the finance minister and his bureaucrats. Kahlon supports the plan. Netanyahu is also in favor, for financial reasons. That's what he told the Treasury bureaucrats. But that didn't stop him this week from appointing Ministers Elkin and Levin, the plan's biggest opposition, as supervisors over its implementation.
