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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Israel
Index
The case of the Druzes highlights the peculiar problem of
non-Jews, even demonstrably loyal ones, in the Jewish state. Both
conceptually and pragmatically, the cleavage between Arabs and Jews
is much more profound and perhaps unbridgeable than the one between
Orthodox and secular Jews, or that between Ashkenazim and Oriental
Jews. There has been an inherent tension between evolving an
authentic Israeli national identity centered on the age-old
religious character of Judaism and forging an egalitarian
socioeconomic system open to all citizens. Reconciling the place of
non-Jews within the Jewish state has been a particular problem.
These problems have been characterized with special lucidity and
frankness by the Israeli-American political scientist, Daniel
Elazar:
The views of Israeli Jews regarding the Arabs
in their midst are hardly monolithic, but
whatever their character, all flow out of a
common wish and a general ambivalence. The
common wish of virtually all Jews is that the
Arabs simply would go away (and vice versa, it
may be added). It is possible to get many
Israelis to articulate this wish when they are
pushed to do so, but needless to say, its very
unreality means that it is rarely articulated,
and, if articulated by a few extremists, such
as Meir Kahane, it is rapidly dismissed from
consideration by the vast majority. Yet it
should be noted at the outset, because for
Israeli Jews, every other option, no matter
which they choose, is clearly a poor second.
It is against this background that the Israeli settlement
policies of the West Bank and Gaza must be understood. To annex
these areas would be to add almost 1.5 million Arabs to the
non-Jewish population of the Jewish state--hardly a way to make the
problem "simply go away." Until late 1987, Israeli planners had
proceeded to build infrastructure in the West Bank as though
operating under the premise that two totally separate socioeconomic
systems--one Arab, the other Jewish--would exist side by side.
Alternatively, the Arab sector was hardly mentioned--as if it did
not exist. Still, West Bank Arab labor has been significantly
absorbed into the larger Israeli economy; the situation recalls the
experience of Arabs in pre-1967 Israel.
The violent protests that began in the Gaza Strip and the West
Bank in December 1987 may well change this sort of thinking
(see
Palestinian Uprising, December 1987-
, ch. 5). For example, it has
been argued by some analysts that the West Bank (as Judea and
Samaria) had already become part of a "cognitive map" for a
generation of Jewish Israelis born after the June 1967 War. In
light of this analysis, some have noted that security efforts begun
in April 1988 to close off the West Bank, thereby keeping
journalists (among others) out and, Israelis hope, violent
Palestinians in, have already had the unintended effect of reviving
the old
Green Line (see Glossary).
Israeli Arabs living within the
old Green Line have also been affected by events on the West Bank
and Gaza--events that might prove fateful for Israel.
Between 1948 and 1967 Israeli Arabs were effectively isolated
from the rest of the Arab world. They were viewed by other Arabs
as, at worst, collaborators, and, at best, hostages. After the
Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and the economic
integration of its Arab population into Israel, social intercourse
between Israeli Arabs and West Bank and Gaza Palestinians
increased. Among other things, this contact has done much to raise
the political consciousness of Israeli Arabs and strengthen their
sense of Palestinian identity. In this sense, in the minds of many
Jewish Israelis the dismantling of the old Green Line and the
movement of Jewish settlers to fulfill their religio-nationalistic
aspirations in biblical Judea and Samaria has been a double-edged
sword. Along the way, the nationalist aspirations of Israeli Arabs
have been invigorated as well.
Renewed political activity among Israeli Arabs was already
evident when, in 1976, March 30 was proclaimed Land Day as a
protest against Israeli expropriations of Arab lands. Several Arabs
were shot by authorities during a demonstration, and since then
Land Day has become a major event for expressing Israeli Arab
political discontent, and for testing its organizational potential.
Since early 1988, the political energies of Israeli Arabs have also
been focused on expressing solidarity with their West Bank and
Gazan brothers and sisters, who themselves have pursued more
violent confrontations with Israeli authorities. It seems less and
less likely that an unproblematic Israeli Arab identity will
develop and that the Israeli Arabs will become, as Israeli Jews had
once hoped, "proud Arabs and loyal Israelis." In the late 1980s, it
was more relevant to speak of the Palestinization of Israel's Arab
minorities.
Data as of December 1988
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