ritesinstitute israelestine

PALESTINIANS in ISRAEL by Khansaa Diab

Palestinians Arabs in Israel are a unique national minority. They are residents of the State of Israel, an integral part of the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim people, and a nation.

This is a former majority that overnight became a minority in its own land. In contrast to many minorities around the world, this is not a minority of immigrants but an indigenous minority, a minority of natives. Furthermore, the Palestinians in Israel are citizens of a country that is at conflict with their own people, the Palestinian people, and with their own nation, the Arab nation. The government and the Jewish majority in Israel refer to the Palestinian minority as if it was a hostile minority or a ‘fifth column’. A third attribute is that the Palestinians in Israel are citizens of a state that defines itself as the state of the Jews and not as the state of all its citizens.

A discriminatory policy of deprivation in almost all domains is thus enforced against them.

Nevertheless, since the Palestinian Al-Nakba (tragedy of 1948), they maintained their identity, culture, and national affiliation; they struggled and are still struggling to obtain a just, comprehensive and permanent peace in the Middle East through a fair and lasting resolution to the Palestinian refugee status according to UN resolutions, and for reaching peace through the declaration of an independent Palestinian state.

Palestinian Arabs recently initiated steps and drew up documents termed “visionary documents” in which they demand

• The State should acknowledge responsibility for Al-Nakba and its generally disastrous consequences, particularly for the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel.

• The State should recognize the Palestinian Arabs in Israel as an indigenous national minority group with the right to choose its representatives directly and be responsible for their religious, educational and cultural affairs.

• The State has to acknowledge that Israel is the homeland for both Palestinians and Jews, the relationship between whom should be based international conventions.

• Israel should admit that the Palestinian Arabs in Israel have a special status as an indigenous, cultural, national group enjoying full citizenship.

• Israel should refrain from adopting policies and schemes in favor of the majority and espouse policies of corrective justice to compensate for the damage inflicted on the Palestinian Arabs due to the ethnic favoritism policies of the Jews.

Khansaa Diab is a lecturer and pedagogic instructor at Department of Special Education in Arab society at the David Yellin College of Education.