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There are over 800 000 Palestinian-Arabs in the State of Israel. These are the descendants of the 156 000 Palestinian-Arabs who remained in the country after the Palestinian exodus in 1948. They now make up about 18% of total population in Israel, and about 16% of the Palestinian people. Over 200 000 (25%) of these Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel are internal refugees, refugees in their own country, originally from the 374 Palestinian towns and villages which were destroyed or demolished in 1948 and the years thereafter.

The Palestinians in Israel have been totally excluded from the ongoing peace process between the Israeli Government and the PLO. In all the documents and protocols of the peace process, not a single word is mentioned about these Palestinians. It is hard to believe that this total exclusion was the result of an explicit decision on the part of the negotiators. Rather, it is most likely that the issue of the Palestinian minority in Israel has never been thought of during the negotiations. The reason seams to be an implicit, unspoken conception (shared by Israeli, Palestinian and Norwegian politicians alike) of the Palestinians in Israel as an integral part of Israel, and of these Palestinians’ problems and demands as an internal Israeli problem resting solely in the hands of the Israeli Government.

In Israel, however, the implications of the peace process and the unspoken conception underlying it to the status of the Palestinian minority in Israel, was considered a great achievement for the state and its Jewish majority. The unquestionable exclusion of the Palestinian minority in Israel from both the Palestinian cause and the peace process intending to solve it, gave the Israeli authorities green light to develop policies, measures and practices which aim at turning the status of the Palestinian minority in Israel as an internal Israeli problem from an implicit conception to an irrevocable reality. For, in Israel the status of the ‘Arab minority’ as part of Israel rather than of the Palestinian people has never been taken for granted. On the contrary, several Israeli researchers, politicians and political analysts have time and again warned the Israeli authorities of the possibility that the ‘Arabs’ in Israel may raise demands pertaining not to their civil rights as equal citizens in the Israeli state, but to their national rights as an integral part of the Palestinian people. These warnings were dramatically intensified during the Intifada (the Palestinian uprising), whereby Israeli experts and politicians expressed the fear that if the Intifada would succeed in the Occupied Territories it would encourage the Palestinians in Israel to resort to the same methods and pursue the same goal. Any connection between the Palestinians in Israel and activists in the West Bank and Gaza was thus met with great suspicion from the Israeli side. Furthermore, the almost paranoiac Judaization of the Galilee during the last decade is to a large extend the result of such fears.

The ongoing peace process and unconditional acceptance of its terms and premises by the international community, gave Israel an unprecedented opportunity to put an end to such threatening possibilities, whether real or imagined, by inducing the Palestinians in Israel to perceive themselves as an integral part of Israel. Yet the Israeli authorities surely recognize the obvious fact that offering full equality to a discriminated, oppressed and exploited minority is the only way which may lead the Palestinians in Israel to feel part of the state. For, the issue of the Palestinian minority in Israel, when treated as an internal Israeli problem, is in fact nothing but an issue of equality versus discrimination.

But the ongoing peace process has made Israel more Jewish than ever before. The unconditional recognition by the PLO, Arab regimes and govern-ments and the world at large of the state of Israel in its present shape as a Jewish state with a non-Jewish minority that has no internationally recognized national rights as Palestinian, has directly had the implication of rendering Israel more Jewish than ever. Israel has indeed become more Jewish after the Oslo Agreement, formally, juridically, ideologically, demographically and functionally. So, how is it possible to give full equality to a Palestinian-Arab minority in a state that is constantly becoming more Jewish? Isn’t there a primary contradiction here?

Truly, both Rabin and Peres publicly admitted that "the Arab citizens of the state" have been discriminated and exploited since 1948, and both promised to do their best to alter this situation. And the Israeli authorities are now indeed interested in giving equality to ‘their Arabs’, in order to exclude them, once for all, from the Palestinian cause as well as from any political entity that might be established for the Palestinian people in the future. But due to the compelling requirements of the increasing Judaization of the country, this equality has been token and restricted to the emotional level only. After being systematically harassed and humiliated for 45 years, ‘Arabs in Israel’ (unlike Palestinians from the Occupied Territories) are now treated by Israeli officials with trust and respect (although the Jewish public in general has not dramatically changed its degrading attitudes towards the Arabs). For a Palestinian from Israel encountering such a sudden change, it is quite apparent that the ‘nice’ treatment by Israeli officials is done according to instructions from above, to give the ‘Arabs’ in Israel a sense of freedom and equality as Israeli citizens, and a sense of qualitative difference from West Bank and Gazan Palestinians.

In terms of resource distribution, however, another process has been going on in the shadow of peace, leading not to equality but to further discrimination and exploitation of the Palestinian minority in Israel. The peace process and what it implies of total surrender of the Palestinian minority in Israel to the Israeli authorities, encouraged the Israeli Government to develop plans for confiscating large areas of Palestinian lands in order to meet the requirements of rapid demographic Judaization of the country. Some of these plans have been implemented on the ground, leading to the confiscation of tens of thousands of donams (1 donam=1000 m2), while others are still on the way.

The case of Misgav Regional Council in the Galilee is an illustrative example of such plans. Misgav is a purely Jewish regional council which includes in its legislation area 31 Jewish settlements, erected on top of the hills surrounding Palestinian-Arab villages at the heart of one of the most densely populated Palestinian-Arab areas in the country. All these settlements were built after 1982. Their population amounts to 8 000 Jewish settlers, none of them had lived or owned land in the Galilee prior to 1982. In early-1995 the Israeli Government decided to give Misgav Regional Council a contour area of 183 000 donams of land. Nearly 40% (73 000 donams) of this land area is private property of Palestinian-Arab inhabitants in the neighboring villages (over half of it planted with olives and other fruit trees, and the rest are plots for seasonal cultivation), whereas the remaining 60% of these 183 000 donams are state lands which were confiscated from their Arab owners in earlier periods. The issue here is that while 8 000 Jews were given 183 000 donams, the 48 000 Arabs in the three nearest villages to Misgav were left with 25 000 donams only.

The same ideology and attitude are reflected in the project "Galilee 2000" which the Israeli Government is now carrying out in full pace. This project is designed exclusively for the development and expansion of the Jewish settler community in the Galilee towards the year 2000. In all the plans and maps of the project, no consideration whatsoever is given to the nearly half-a-million Palestinian-Arabs in the area, nor to their human rights and needs; as if these ‘Arabs’ are simply non-existent. The Israeli Government’s prospect for the Galilee in the year 2000 is thus a prospect of a highly developed Jewish Galilee.

The discrepancy between token equality on the emotional level and substantive discrimination on the structural level makes Palestinians in Israel believe that Israel is interested in making them not equal citizens, but quiscent, powerless subjects who could be deprived of their rights and resources without being able to resist or protest. More and more Palestinians in Israel now feel that the Israeli policies and practices towards them intend to dissolve them in the Israeli population without integrating them in the Israeli state; to make them Israeli subjects while excluding them from both the state’s apparatus and the society for which that apparatus operates.

O, our people in the Galilee! O, our people in this precious homeland! The confrontation has begun. The battle for our survival on our land has begun; the battle of whose severity and viciousness we have been warning for so long time. Today, after that the influential leadership has sold our people... Today the colonial octopus began to invade the doors of our houses and swallow the last span of our land. O, Our people! We have become orphans around the table of the mean. So how long? How long shall we be driven to our death like sheep? (Important Communiqué." Sons of the Village Movement, September 29, 1995)

However, after 45 years of harsh experience the Palestinians in Israel have learned how to play the democratic game in Israel. They make use of the allegedly peaceful, open and democratic environment in the country in the era of peace, in order to challenge the sincerity of the Israeli authorities’ proclaimed willingness for equality --If Israel is indeed willing to pursue equality and reconciliation, it should then pursue substantive equality on the structural level rather than token equality which covers up for substantive discrimination. Therefore, what the leadership of the Palestinian community in Israel (embodied in the Regional Committee of the Chairmen of Arab Local Councils, and the Regional Committee for the Defense of Arab Lands) is now demanding from the Israeli Government is (1) halting all the governmental plans for the confiscation of Arab lands, and (2) immediate redistribution of the state lands, which were seized or confiscated from their Arab owners and handed to Jews, on the bases of equality and according to the needs and requirements of inhabitants irrespective of their religion or ethnicity. One of the hottest issues in this regard is that of the over 200 000 internal Palestinian refugees (both Muslims and Christians) who are now demanding the right to return to their original communities. These communities are no more than heaps of stones, with their agricultural lands being occupied by Jewish Kibbutzim and villages, yet these refugees have never juridically relinquished their ownership rights on these lands. The rising issue of internal refugees in Israel is the most extreme manifestation of the pragmatism of the Palestinian community in Israel in its adaptation to the new conditions brought about by the ongoing peace process. It pushes the Israeli ‘democracy’ to its utmost limit, and poses the ultimate challenge to Israel’s proclaimed willingness for equality, reconciliation and peace.

Logic demands that before the leaders of Israel make peace with their neighboring countries they should make peace within their own country. A housewife cleans up inside the house and then goes out to clean the yard. She does not begin outside and then go to clean inside the house. They should first clean up within their borders and give all the oppressed their rights, and then go out to make peace with the neighbors. (A refugee man from Iqreth, a demolished Christian village in the Galilee)

The Israeli authorities have thus far responded to these Palestinian demands with categorical rejection, for the simple reason that these demands clash front-to-front with the plans for further Judaization of the country. Structural discrimination and exploitation of the Palestinians in Israel are thus continuing as before. What Israel has rather been doing on the ‘equality’ front is promoting the process of Israelizing ‘its Arabs’. During the last two years systematic efforts and large amounts of money have been invested in the creation of an "Israeli-Arab culture" which is intended to be neither fully Israeli, since it is Arab, nor fully Arab, since it is Israeli. This includes songs, music, theater, literature, fine arts, folklore collections and similar activities. This systematic ‘cultural’ Israelization of the Arabs has become a quite visible feature in the Palestinian reality in Israel, due to the fact that this Israelization is carried out by Israeli financed and controlled forums enjoying strong monopoly over the Arab public in the country, such as the Israeli radio and television broadcastings in Arabic, publishing houses, newspapers, theater places, cultural centers, clubs, museums and the like.

Many Palestinians in Israel consider this Israelization process provocative, offensive, and "an insult to our intelligence," as a young university student expressed it. Palestinians react to this Israelization in two ways: On the general level, there has been a counter-process of Palestinization, whereby the Palestinianness of people’s "public heritage" is brought out and emphasized, in songs, music, theater plays, film production, literature, fine arts, history tales, folklore collections and so forth. Although in terms of funds and facilities the limited number of forums systematizing this process are severely underprivileged in comparison to the Israeli forums carrying out the Israelization process, ‘cultural’ Palestinization in the Palestinian minority in Israel is in fact overwhelming, since it builds on people’s own experience of themselves and cultivates Palestinianness in the habitual depth of people’s everyday life.

More significant, however, is the reaction on the political level, whereby a new political movement, the Democratic Patriotic Assembly, embracing tens of the most prominent Palestinian intellectuals in the country, was established in December 1994, "to defend the patriotic identity of our people in front of the process of Israelization and of dissolving our national identity." (From the Assembly’s call for the first meeting on December 16, 1994) What is new about this rising political reaction in the Palestinian minority in Israel is its call for transforming the political system in the country from a Jewish state to a binational state. In its call for the first meeting, the Democratic Patriotic Assembly mentions the following as the third among its principles:

Transforming Israel to a democratic state, a state for all of its citizens, Arabs and Jews alike, and working for the abolishment of racial structures and all the laws and practices which reinforce the Zionism of Israel and sustain the situation of national and political discrimination against the original sons of this country. (My translation from Arabic)

This solution to the Palestinian problem, in the form of a binational, democratic state in all Palestine based upon equality for all, is receiving more and more followers among the Palestinians in Israel.

Left in the Shadow of Peace:

Palestinians in Israel

A 50 min. TV film, by Frode Storås, Moslih Kanaaneh and Rolf Larsen

MOSLIH KANAANEH

Much has been written and shown about Palestinians and Israelis. Yet, one part of both the Palestinian people and the state of Israel which has been left out by the general media as well as by media anthropology is the Palestinian minority in Israel. If the logic behind this is: "You don’t exist as long as we don’t see you," then the logic the Palestinians in Israel intend to convey through this film is: "We exist whether you see us or not, so you better see us the way we are." The major aim of this film is thus to show how it is to be Palestinian-Arab in a state which defines itself, and operates on all levels, as purely and exclusively Jewish.

The story is told through Samiyeh, a 20 years old Palestinian woman, and her cousin Nidal. Like all young people in the Arab world which has been bombarded by Western ideals and values, Samiyeh and Nidal have their own hopes and frustrations, sweet dreams and nightmares. Yet the heavy presence of Jews and ‘Jewishness’ in Israel intrudes into the most minute details of their (Palestinian-Arab) lives.

The Palestinians in Israel are prospering along with the rest of the Israeli society. But "money is not everything," as Samiyeh’s father, a construction worker, puts it, "money comes and goes. But dignity; if dignity goes it can never come back."

The Recent Knesset Elections:

A Turning Point for the Palestinian Minority

The recent elections to the Knesset on may 29, 1996 can be seen as a turning point in the history of the Palestinian minority in Israel. Concerning this minority, the differences between these elections and previous ones are undoubtedly crucial.

MOSLIH KANAANEH

1) In all previous Knesset elections the Palestinians in Israel ran the elections in many small parties and electoral lists, most of which did not pass the election threshold. This prevented full utilization of the Palestinian minority’s true potential. In 1992, for instance, about 140 000 Palestinian votes were wasted due to this fragmentation. This year, however, the Palestinians in Israel showed a high degree of political maturity by running the elections in two major coalition blocks: The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality led by the Communist Party, and the United Arab List led by the Islamic Movement.

2) This unity was directly motivated by the Knesset’s decision to raise the election threshold up to 45 000 votes; a decision which posed real threat to the Palestinians’ representation in the Knesset. The Palestinians then had to choose, either unity or the loss of parliamentary power in the state. But what made the accomplishment of this unity possible was the introduction of two political movements to the Palestinian arena, both particularly interested in maximum utilization of the Palestinian minority’s potential. One is the Islamic Movement, which has been riding on the rising wave of personal religiosity among frustrated Palestinians, and the other is the Democratic Patriotic Assembly; an embodiment of the Palestinian intellectuals’ awareness of the logical, ideological and ontological implications of the ongoing peace process to the future of the Palestinian-Arab society in Israel. (The Assembly’s leader and ideologist is Azmi Beshara, a young Christian man from Nazareth, professor of philosophy at Birzeit University.)

3) Due to this unity, the Palestinians in Israel have never been closer than now to fair representation in the Knesset. Constituting 12% of the Israeli electorate, the Palestinians are entitled to 14 members in the Knesset. In the outgoing Knesset they had eight members, whereas in the incoming Knesset they will have 12 members: five from the Democratic Front, four from the United Arab List, two with the Labor Party, and one with Meretz -Democratic Israel.

4) During the 1980s the election campaign among the Palestinians in Israel evolved around two major issues: (a) Filling the gap between Arabs and Jews in terms of municipal funds, work wages, job opportunities, university attendance and so forth, and the struggle against land expropriation and suppression of freedom; (b) supporting the Palestinian cause in terms of demanding Israeli recognition of the PLO and the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. In the recent elections this year, the focus of the campaign was shifted to internal issues, and support for the Palestinian cause was replaced with an attempt to define the place of the Palestinian minority within the Israeli state. After Oslo Agreement Palestinians in Israel feel they have done what they can to support the rest of the Palestinian people and it is now time to concentrate on their own problems. Since the PLO decided to pursue this kind of peace with Israel, then the PLO should now be able to take responsibility for its own decisions, and the rest of the Palestinian people should now be able to take care of themselves. And since the PLO, the Arab world and the international community at large decided (implicitly or explicitly) that the Palestinian minority remains forever part of the State of Israel, then the only thing the Palestinians in Israel can do in order to survive culturally without remaining oppressed and exploited is to redefine and reshape the political system in which they will be living. Therefore, support for the Palestinian cause was now replaced with questioning the Jewish character and resenting the Zionist nature of Israel. This was the most significant development in the politics of the Palestinian minority in Israel in the first elections after Oslo Agreement. The slogan which headed the campaign of all the Palestinian parties which participated in the recent elections was "turning Israel into a state for all of its citizens."

5) Questioning the Jewish character of Israel was a predominant issue in the resent elections to the Knesset, not only in the Palestinian minority but in the Jewish majority in Israel as well. In its editorial on February 5, 1996 the Israeli newspaper Hatzofeh described this year’s election campaign as "fateful" for Israel, not only due to its implications to the ongoing peace process, but because it primarily evolves around "the struggle over the country’s character as a Jewish state. Will the State of Israel be a Jewish state, or a state of all its citizens, as the Israeli left would have it?" On February 12, 1996, Ha’aretz -one of the most popular newspapers in Israel- also admitted the centrality of this "struggle" in this election campaign, but warned the "Arab sector" from involvement in it. In a highly threatening tone Ha’aretz states in its editorial: "there is one sphere in which the Jewish majority has the right to make its voice heard and recommend that the Arab minority pay close attention: a majority of the citizens of the country will not tolerate any political movement which calls for the elimination of the Jewish character of the state... [The Arab Minority] is mistaken when it claims that full equality means the cancellation of the Law of Return or the application of the right of return to the Arabs of the diaspora." So, the Jews in Israel allow themselves to struggle over the Jewish character of the state, but the Jews in Israel do not allow the "Arabs" in Israel even to question this character. It is precisely such attitude which makes the Palestinians in Israel eager to question the Jewish character and resent the Zionist nature of Israel.