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The Crisis of the Israeli Arabs:
What Can Be Done?
Raphael Israeli
Excerpt from the book:
Arabs in Israel:Friends or
Foes?, by Raphael Israeli
Eli Gabbai, Publisher with ACPR Publishers, (Hebrew), 2002,
Hardcover, 280 pages
The
current crisis in the relations between the State of Israel and its
large Arab minority has peaked since the October 2000 events. Added to
this, the flurry of the recent revelations of Israeli Arabs’ involvement
in terrorist activities against the country where they seek equality,
has made devising new measures by the authorities imperative, in order
to avert a major disaster in the not-too-distant future. These measures
can be categorized in two levels of emergency: immediate, pending a
solution, and medium- to long-range with a view to finding a permanent
solution for this festering issue. In the short term, Israel must create
an incentive for the Israeli Arabs to identify with their state, on an
individual, not collective, basis, especially by integrating those who
accept to be integrated, into the national security service and system
of education, in Hebrew, together with all Israeli youth, and then
ensuring full citizenship and participation in all avenues of
advancement in the state; and at the same time depriving those who
refuse to comply of all the perks of citizenship, including the right to
vote and civil amenities, and let them educate their children as they
wish, but at their own expense. In the long run, the fate of Israeli
Arabs, should be linked to the Palestinian entity, with which they claim
affiliation and to which they vow their loyalty. When a Palestinian
entity emerges, they will be allowed to gain its citizenship, while
remaining only as alien residents in Israel, without the right to vote,
so as to neutralize the demographic menace they pose to Israel in the
present circumstances.
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