The Israeli-Arab sector insists on recognition as a "national minority," including the right to return to places they quit 58 years ago, changes to the flag and anthem, immigration quotas, and more.
The Israeli-Arab Mossawa organization, billed as the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel, released a position paper report to this effect on Friday. Mossawa explains that in addition to equal rights to which every citizen is entitled by virtue of his citizenship, the Arab minority also demands "group-differentiated rights." The organization lists ten such rights that it insists Israel must grant. Among them are the following, as listed and explained by Mossawa:Official recognition of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel as a national, native minority, including its special connection to its homeland and its historic rights to it.
Arabic, already recognized as an official language, must be granted equal status to Hebrew in every aspect of public life, just as English and French are recognized in Canada. As a truly bilingual country, Israel must grant appropriate expression to the Arab-Palestinian culture in the public sphere, including noting the Arabic names of various places and giving Arabic names to public buildings, streets, etc.
Total autonomy in the spheres of education, religion and culture. At the root of this right lies the recognition of the nativity of the Arab population in Israel and its right to self-definition in these areas.
Proportionate representation in decision-making and policy-setting bodies, including all government offices and ministries, planning and construction authorities, government companies, public councils, the Civil Service, ad-hoc committees, and the like.
Extra allotments of resources such as budget allocations, land and housing, to compensate for past discrimination.
Changes to national symbols, including the flag and anthem, as emotionally-charged public resources that have a special impact on minority sectors. The State must grant appropriate expression to the presence of Israeli-Arab citizens and to their historic ties to the land. Israel's array of symbols must reflect an equal approach to both its Jewish and Arab citizens.
Equality in immigration and citizenship rights. The allocation of quotas in these areas is an expression of the country's strength, and the country must apportion them fairly, justly and equally.
Protection of the special ties of the Palestinian people with the greater Arab nation. The Palestinian population in Israel must be enabled to freely maintain and develop special ties - family, cultural, economic and the like - with the other members of the Palestinian people and the Arab nation.
Historic rights. Corrective justice demands that Israel must officially apologize and recognize the Nakba - national Arab-Palestinian catastrophe - of 1948 when the Arabs were removed from their lands. Among the issues addressed in this point are the uprooted Palestinians - 25% of the current Arab population in Israel - and their return to their original villages, such as Ikrit, Al-Ghabasaya, Al-Lajun, and others, as well as assets of the Moslem Waqf that must be administered by the Moslems.
Israeli-Arabs claim that hundreds of destroyed villages, in various parts of the country, as theirs. Many of the villages were hostile locations serving the Arab enemy during the War of Independence, and the land on which some of them stood has since become Jewish-populated, such as in Ashkelon and Be'er Sheva. The Meggido Prison, for instance, is built atop what was once Al-Lajun, and the north Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Aviv stands on what was once called Sheikh Munis. Though the return to these villages is unrealistic, it is felt that persisting in raising this demand can only help the nationalist Arab cause in Israel.
One of the participants at the official presentation of the paper, Dr. Raef Zreik, said that it does not go far enough. He said that the Israeli-Arabs can officially recognize the right of the Jews to a state only as part of an "overall peace agreement with the Palestinian people."
In the news this week are vandalism and destruction wrought upon a Talmud Torah (Jewish religious school) by Arabs in the city of Acco, an initiative to increase Arab rights in the city of Ramle, and an attempted murder of a Jewish cow-farmer by Arabs in the Jezreel Valley, not far from Afula.