Los Angeles Times
Amman, Jordan. I AM A PALESTINIAN from Nazareth, a citizen
of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.
But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France’s Dreyfus affair, in
which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state, the
government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel’s
failed war against Lebanon in July.
Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a foreign
agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law, anyone, a
journalist or a personal friend, can be defined as a “foreign agent” by the
Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can lead to life imprisonment or
even the death penalty.
The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah, Israel’s enemy
in Lebanon, has independently gathered more security information about
Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide. What’s more,
unlike those in Israel’s parliament who have been involved in acts of
violence, I have never used violence or participated in wars. My instruments
of persuasion, in contrast, are simply words in books, articles and
speeches.
These trumped-up charges, which I firmly reject and deny, are only the
latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in the
struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a state of
all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges to Jews that it
denies to non-Jews.
When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were
expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that escaped that
fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long lived. The Israeli
state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked immediately on
transforming us into foreigners in our own country.
For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood, we, as Israeli citizens, lived
under military rule with pass laws that controlled our every movement. We
watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up over destroyed Palestinian villages.
Today we make up 20% of Israel’s population. We do not drink at separate
water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and can serve in the
parliament. But we face legal, institutional and informal discrimination in
all spheres of life.
More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The Law
of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from anywhere
in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to the
country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic Law of Human Dignity
and Liberty, Israel’s “Bill of Rights”, defines the state as “Jewish”
rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus Israel is more for Jews
living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for native Palestinians.
Israel acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious group.
Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal citizenship
cannot exist under such conditions.
Most of our children attend schools that are separate but unequal. According
to recent polls, two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse to live next to an
Arab and nearly half would not allow a Palestinian into their home.
I have certainly ruffled feathers in Israel. In addition to speaking out on
the subjects above, I have also asserted the right of the Lebanese people,
and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to resist Israel’s
illegal military occupation. I do not see those who fight for freedom as my
enemies.
This may discomfort Jewish Israelis, but they cannot deny us our history and
identity any more than we can negate the ties that bind them to world Jewry.
After all, it is not we, but Israeli Jews who immigrated to this land.
Immigrants might be asked to give up their former identity in exchange for
equal citizenship, but we are not immigrants.
During my years in the Knesset, the attorney general indicted me for voicing
my political opinions (the charges were dropped), lobbied to have my
parliamentary immunity revoked and sought unsuccessfully to disqualify my
political party from participating in elections, all because I believe
Israel should be a state for all its citizens and because I have spoken out
against Israeli military occupation. Last year, Cabinet member Avigdor
Lieberman, an immigrant from Moldova, declared that Palestinian citizens
of Israel “have no place here,” that we should “take our bundles and get
lost.” After I met with a leader of the Palestinian Authority from Hamas,
Lieberman called for my execution.
The Israeli authorities are trying to intimidate not just me but all
Palestinian citizens of Israel. But we will not be intimidated. We will not
bow to permanent servitude in the land of our ancestors or to being severed
from our natural connections to the Arab world. Our community leaders joined
together recently to issue a blueprint for a state free of ethnic and
religious discrimination in all spheres. If we turn back from our path to
freedom now, we will consign future generations to the discrimination we
have faced for six decades.
Americans know from their own history of institutional discrimination the
tactics that have been used against civil rights leaders. These include
telephone bugging, police surveillance, political delegitimization and
criminalization of dissent through false accusations. Israel is continuing
to use these tactics at a time when the world no longer tolerates such
practices as compatible with democracy.
Why then does the U.S. government continue to fully support a country whose
very identity and institutions are based on ethnic and religious
discrimination that victimize its own citizens?
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Azmi Bishara was a member of the Knesset until his resignation in April.