A bridge, not a threat
By Nazir Majali
Haaretz, March 12, 2004
The old-new sacred cow called the "Arab threat" is on the loose again, crossing all kinds of red lines. Crimes and evil deeds are being committed in its name, and poisonous things are being uttered. Seemingly, this is all aimed at Arabs, but the end result is detrimental also to the state and to the Jews.
Even before the wounds from the suicide bombing attack at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa had healed - if healing is possible - we learned of a string of terrorist acts perpetrated against a mosque in Haifa's Halissa neighborhood and against MK Issam Makhoul (Hadash), as well as against Jews who had Arab friends. The suspect in planning and carrying out the attacks, Eliran Golan, disclosed that he planned to liquidate three other Arab MKs, too: Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash), Ahmed Tibi (Hadash) and Azmi Bishara (Balad). He wanted, "in his way," to safeguard the security of the Jews and the state against the Arab threat. He found that threat also in the parlors of Jews who host Arab neighbors.
Not a week goes by and we discover that the security officer of the Knesset is marking Israeli Arab construction workers with a red mark, so that his staff will be able to identify them and ensure that they - the security threat - are kept far from the leaders of the Jewish people.
The truth is that it's difficult, very difficult, for an Israeli Arab to take in these events. Is it possible that Jewish terrorists should emerge in the Israel of 2004? For terrorism is not only an expression of hatred. It characterizes states and societies that are mired in ignorance and backwardness - and not a state that affiliates itself with Europe, is proud of its status as part of Western culture and declares itself to be an "island of modernity" in the Arab ocean of the Third World and "the only democracy in the region."
How does it happen that in the Jewish state, so many of whose inhabitants and their families were victims of an attempt at mass annihilation, Arabs are marked - albeit not in yellow but in red - in order to remove a threat that they represent? Of course, everyone congratulates the police and the Shin Bet security service for uncovering the actions of the terrorist suspect, Eliran Golan. And those congratulations should be expressed wholeheartedly, not "half-heartedly" or with the addition of "but," as some of my Arab colleagues do. And Knesset Speaker MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud) did well to order a halt to the marking of the Arab workers. Nor should we belittle the statements of condemnation emanating from the Israeli street against these phenomena.
Israel's Arabs, and more especially their leaders, would do well to devote serious thought to ways in which they can help the Jewish society become familiar with our truth and start to listen to us and absorb us as partners in the destiny and the building of this homeland - not only with stones and concrete, and not only with peace and security, but also, and above all, with the spirit of humanity and brotherhood. Because there is no other way to serve the interests of the two peoples.
Yet this is not enough. We have to go even deeper and start changing things at their core. The relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel are adversely affected by the conflict in the Middle East. That much is obvious. However, we should not lend a hand to those who would make the Arabs of Israel part of the conflict. Thought must be given to a new way by which to turn them into a bridge for solving the problems and to transform the relations with them into a model of peace. This is a mission that is possible, and no great effort is needed to find the way to go about it. The recipe already exists. It lies in the recommendations of the Or Commission (which investigated the demonstrations in the Arab sector in October 2000 and the police reaction to them). The commission published its report just six months ago, but it is already gathering dust in government ministries. And yes, another ministerial committee, this one headed by Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, was formed to implement the recommendations.
Let us all hope that we won't need yet another commission to examine the work of the Lapid committee, which is still studying the conclusions of the Or Commission.
The writer is a journalist and author, and a commentator on Israeli affairs for the Arab media abroad.
