Sunday, December 3, 2006
It's actually a bit more than that, they want their own educational system and changes to the flag and national anthem.
The paper, written in close coordination with the Israel Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, was presented as part of the week-long Second Annual Days of Mossawa Festival and Nazareth Film Festival, which ended yesterday.
"Our goal is to achieve a historic compromise with the Jewish community in Israel," Mossawa Center director Jafar Farah told the conference. "The move by refugees of 1948 to their villages will not change the demographic balance or endanger the Jews. Unlike the refugees in Arab states, we are [already] here," Farah said. "The internal refugees [residents forced to leave their villages in 1948 who moved to other Arab communities within Israel] represent about one-fourth of the Arab population in Israel today."...
There is, of course, a disturbing and unstated sub-text here -- drawing the Israeli Arab population's loyalty and identity closer to non-Israeli Arabs, and away from the State.
Another participant, Dr. Raef Zreik, said the position paper does not refer to the Israeli Arabs' position regarding the Jewish majority in the country. He said the Israeli Arabs can officially recognize the right of the Jewish public to a state only as part of an overall peace agreement with the Palestinian people.
Interesting to look at who's funding this "Mossawa Centre" that's behind this effort: "European Commission, New Israel Fund, Moriah Fund, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Albert E. Marks Charitable Trust, Oxfam UK, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany"
Note that this Mossawa Centre isn't simply running a humanitarian relief agency, but is actively involved in lobbying on internal political matters -- matters that it may not unreasonably be argued contribute to the undermining of the State and the continued questioning of the level of loyalty of its Arab citizens. Why are the EC, the New Israel Fund and others putting their resources behind such a thing...?
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Seemslike a perfectly reasonable request.
Suely Jewish-Israelis understand the desire to return to the home you were forced from??
No, Michael, it's not the same thing at all. Do you live in the US? Why don't you give back the land you live on, it was probably stolen from Indians?
I also want my father's house he vacated when his family was dragged to Auschwitz, where my grandparents perished, and the house of my grandfather in Russia he was forced to flee from...and what about the thousands of Jews, hundreds of thousands, forced from Arab lands?
None are asking for a return. Life goes on. They lost, the other side "won", and that's that. The Arabs as or more often left rather than were forced out, since their brethren chose to MAKE war on the tiny strip of land to be designated "Israel" in 47, and yes, too bad, they've paid the price of losers ever since.
Get over it. They should, for otherwise, there will never be peace. If they don't want to, too damn bad. They can keep fighting..and dying...if they think it's worth it.
Michael,
Most of them are descendants of immigrants from other countries in the Middle East in the first decades of the 20th century, having been attracted to it when the land started to bloom... in the hands of us Zionists, of course. Before that, the land had been as Mark Twain described it--not totally without people, but not with a copious population either, and certainly not a whole "ancient indigenous people" filling it. Not until its REAL ancient indigenous people came back to it--us Jews. And that according to G-d's promise in His book, just so you know who you have an argument with.