Sowing conflict and division
Editorial
Haaretz, December 19, 2003
It is difficult to understand what led Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let loose on the Arab citizens of Israel. In his address Wednesday at the Herzliya Conference, Netanyahu said, "We have a demographic problem, but it lies not with the Palestinian Arabs, but with the Israeli Arabs." This is a baseless statement, but even more serious is his determination that "if Israel's Arabs become well integrated and reach 35-45 percent of the population, there will no longer be a Jewish state," and that even if they reach a lesser proportion, "this will also undermine the [state's] democratic fabric."
Damage to the democratic fabric does not stem from any particular demographic proportion of an ethnic majority in a national state, but from incitement, the likes of which was expressed by Netanyahu. The Arab residents of Israel are citizens with equal rights, and not the enemies of the Jewish state. Viewing any population through the womb and its birthrate makes the population's legitimate aspiration to integrate fully into society and the state irrelevant, and presents it as a threat to the Jewish majority.
Presenting the Arabs in Israel as a threat to democracy, as if democracy is an exclusively Jewish matter, is serious in itself. But Netanyahu errs and misleads by ignoring the reality in which the Arabs in Israel are living. Despite festive promises and detailed five-year plans put forward by every government, the Arab public is still suffering ongoing discrimination - inadequate physical infrastructure; building restrictions that create distress among young families; and, primarily, almost total barring from the various ranks in the administration that stops the young, talented and educated from becoming a part of the establishment and having an influence from within on the lives of Israeli citizens, and on the future of the Arab citizens in particular.
The high birth rate that Netanyahu speaks of is primarily characteristic of the Bedouin population, most of which lives under severe distress and does not have access to an education that would allow it to better its standard of living. Experience teaches that parents who are better educated and professionally skilled place greater emphasis on the issue of family planning. The urban and educated Arab families are similar, in this regard, to Jewish families on the same level. Presenting the Arab population as a single entity is nothing more than demagoguery.
Netanyahu's statements are discordant particularly on the backdrop of the figures that were released yesterday by the Shin Bet security service, at the request of Haaretz, and that show there has been a 45 percent drop in the number of Israeli Arabs involved in terror, and also on the backdrop of the hope-inspiring cooperation between the mayors of Nazareth and Upper Nazareth following a long period of alienation.
The timing of Netanyahu's statements is also puzzling. Now, with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon speaking of essential concessions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he chooses to divert the subject of the discussion toward the Arabs in Israel, and to fan, as was his way during his term as prime minister, the flames of fear and hatred.
The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, and the home of the its Arab citizens. Its Jewish identity will not be consolidated in fear, but only in an atmosphere of peace and liberty, out of integration into the regional expanse and prosperity for all its residents - the Jews and the Arabs.
