No reason to celebrate

If it wasn't so irritating, it could have been amusing: The Labor party chairman and defense minister (who will be resigning sometimes soon, any-day-now) agreed to and even pushed for Labor to stay in the same government with Avigdor Lieberman, who backs the transfer of Arab-Israeli communities to the Palestinian Authority. In exchange, and in order to make the spit in the face of Arab party members tolerable, Peretz pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket in the form of an Arab minister, sorry, a Muslim minister, so the Arabs can wipe it off and say thank-you.

The appointment of Ghaleb Majadele (it's not Raleb, please) as a minister without portfolio was born in sin; the sin of arrogance, blindness, humiliation, masochism, surrender, and detachment. Majadele and all Arab members of the large Zionist parties have disengaged from their people and their distress, from their national, cultural, and deep-seated attachment, and preferred to come under the wings of their cousin, who grants gun licenses and issues construction permits. That same cousin who is an expert when it comes to inviting himself regularly to an authentic Arab dinner, or to a meal of lamb stuffed with rice and pine nuts, and if possible a little baklava please, from that store in Nazareth.

To the credit of the small-time Arab dealers within Zionist parties, we can say that they're consistent. It doesn't really matter to them that since the State's establishment, these parties did nothing for Arabs in the country, and our villages and towns look as though they were hit by a tsunami (particularly after a visit by "Fuad" Ben Eliezer). It doesn't really matter that the various government arms, led by these parties, still treat us a strategic threat that must be suppressed in every way (and preferably with the Shin Bet's kind assistance.).

It also doesn’t bother them too much that they're corrupting a significant part of the public by establishing a corrupt political culture premised on "votes in exchange for permits" (any permit – gun, construction, driver's license) and bring about the moral corruption of politics within the Arab community to the point of disgrace. They don't really care that they prefer their own personal interests within these parties over the collective interests of the Arab minority in Israel (Lieberman? Come on, isn't it time that a new government-issued Volvo grace the streets of the Arab town of Baka al-Gharbiya?)

Far-reaching changes needed

Those who in fact do nothing for their constituency are the Arab members of the large Zionist parties who are limited, by their own definition and association, to the Zionist-national-Jewish consensus in the country, and are unable to challenge such norms, particularly when those are the basis of their own party platform. They focus most of their efforts on acquiring perks for Central Committee members who supported them, activists who enlisted more supporters, and occasionally we hear about the appointment of some Abu al-Abed to a "senior" post at some ministry, coupled with the appointment of Abed, the eldest son, as his father's assistant in that ministry.

The sought-after change in the status of Arabs in the country will take place only following far-reaching changes in the country's definition and its priorities. Anyone who examines the history of the Arab minority in the country can easily realize the simple fact that all our achievements within the Jewish state materialized thanks to lengthy and intense public struggles and not thanks to the flowing olive oil poured into the hummus plates devoured by the minister responsible for the "non-Jewish sector" during the primaries. These struggles were led by our authentic Arab leadership and this is its basic, primary role – to serve as a mouthpiece for us, lead, deliver speeches, and direct lengthy and tiring processes that cannot be handled by transient small-time dealers.

The desired changes will not be undertaken by Majadele, just like all those who came before him as deputy ministers and ministers didn't do it. He merely agreed to serve as a fig leaf for the Olmert-Lieberman government and to that end entered it in place of a minister who resigned because he refused to sit together with Israel Our Home.

Majadele promised to act in an effort to make the lives of Arabs in the country "possible," as he put it. He even gave up on the hollow equality slogan – this is said to his credit, for making the nausea more bearable – and all that is left for him to do now, as a minister without portfolio, is to seek a portfolio that can help him enlist voters for the patron who appointed him – otherwise, that "historic moment inherent in the appointment of a first Muslim minister in the Israeli government" will evaporate at once.

The writer is an author, playwright, and the editor-in-chief of an Arabic-language political weekly