“Dancing Arabs” is the title of a widelycirculated novel, written by Sayyed Qashua, a young Israeli Arab author, who made the choice to write his books in Hebrew. This novel, which includes many autobiographical elements, tells the story of a talented young Israeli Arab student, who wins a scholarship for studying at a Jerusalem boarding school designated for gifted students. In fact, this boy is the only student of Arab origin in that school, which inevitably makes him caught in an identity crisis.
In 2014, Qashua’s novel was adapted into a film version, the script of which was written by the novelist himself. The film, acclaimed by the critics, was chosen to be screened at the gala event of the Jerusalem Film Festival, which took place in the capital city of Israel in July 2014. However, at the very last moment, the organizing committee decided to drop that movie altogether from the festival program, arguing that “under the circumstances” screening that particular film at that particular timing, would be “unfavorably accepted” by Israeli audience.
What were those “circumstances” which made the festival’s organizers (most of whom are undoubtedly committed to liberal values) reach their decision? Several days before the opening of the festival, three young Israeli Yeshiva students were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas activists. In retaliation, a 16-year old Arab boy was kidnapped and burned alive by Israeli rightist extremists. The atmosphere between Israelis and Palestinians in the occupied territories escalated to an explosive point. An all-out war broke out between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on one hand, and the Gaza-based Hamas on the other hand. In this war, named “The Protective Edge operation” (or, in another version, “Solid Rock operation”) both sides employed an almost unprecedented amount of violence: whereas Hamas bombarded Israeli civil neighborhoods and cities with rockets and surface-to-surface missiles, Israeli heavy artillery and aircraft bombers inflicted destructive attacks on Gaza densely-populated areas, causing a massive devastation, killing over two thousand people, mostly civilians who were not involved in terrorist activities, including some 500 children.
The present article does not intend to deal with the causes and effects of the war we experienced last summer. This important issue calls for a separate in-depth discussion. The issue to be dealt with here is the impact of that war on the relations between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority in Israel proper (that is, NOT in the Occupied Territories). The Arab citizens of Israel, which constitute over 20% of the Israeli population, have always been and will always be, whether Israeli Jews like it or not, an integral part of the Palestinian Arab people. Thus they are trapped by an inbuilt contrast between their ethnic and civil identities, being at the same time Palestinians by their national affiliation and Israelis by their citizenship. This is exactly the identity crisis which Sayyed Qashua was referring to in his novel.
The situation in which Israeli Arab citizens are caught has been acutely complicated ever since the State of Israel came into being. There has always been an almost insoluble tension between the Arab citizens’ solidarity with their Palestinian brothers, sisters and kins in the Occupied Territories and throughout the Arab World, and their loyalty to the State whose citizenship they possess. The Israeli authorities, as well as broad segments of the Jewish public opinion, have referred to the Arab minority as a security risk, and as a potential time-bomb. Israeli Arabs suffered for many years from official and unofficial discrimination in all fields of life. Suffice it to mention that for 18 years (1948-1966) they were subject to a harsh military rule that restricted their freedom of movement from one place to another within the borders of Israel. By the same token, sizable areas of their lands were confiscated by the State and handed over to Jewish settlements. While the Arab elder generation was rather submissive, and in no position to resist those arbitrary measures, the younger generation stood up for its rights, and struggled for equality, in close cooperation with Jewish progressive circles. This joint struggle, along with the growing self-confidence and self-consciousness of the Arab minority, did bear some significant fruits. It was apparent that Israeli Arab citizens were gradually gaining a growing amount of equality and integration in the Israeli society. This improving state of affairs was particularly remarkable during the Rabin era. It was believed that things were moving in the right direction.
But this positive trend was abruptly undermined since the rightist movements took over. What we have been witnessing in the last two decades is a dangerous U-turn, initiated by the ruling coalition and affecting broader sections among the Jewish majority. The deterioration of Jewish-Arab relations within the State of Israel is undoubtedly affected by the halt of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, for which the Israeli party is mostly accountable. Rightist Knesset members are nowadays contesting one another in introducing draft laws of unveiled anti-Arab character. One such draft law is the so-called “nation-state law”, affirming that the State of Israel is the “nation state of the Jewish people”. Since the Jewish People is scattered all over the world, this draft law means that a Jew from Brooklyn or Paris, who might have never visited Israel, is more privileged than an Israeli Arab citizen, whose forefathers have been living here from days immemorial. According to one article of that bill, the Hebrew language will be the sole official language in Israel, in contrast to the status that has existed in Israel ever since its birth, namely that both Hebrew and Arabic were considered official languages on an equal footing. Likewise, this draft law is restricting the right of Arab citizens to acquire private lands in Jewish communities. Ancient Jewish Torah laws are mentioned as the “source of inspiration” for Israeli civic law, and so on, and so forth.
The “Dancing Arabs” movie is now being screened in cinema halls all over Israel, but Israeli Arab citizens are not “dancing” anymore. For both Jewish and Arab citizens (for Jews probably more than for Arabs) it is a crucial moment of soul searching. Israeli democracy is at stake now, because an Israeli state that deprives its minority citizens of their equal rights is far from being democratic as it pretends to be.
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