Togetherness in Israel

17

b•In the very heart of Israel, the area of Emek Yizrael, south bof the Galilee, sits the “Triangle.” There, along the main road bfrom Hadera to Afula and the surrounding area, are concen- btrated no fewer than 50,000 Israeli Arabs. In the Wadi Ara area, bsurrounded by this huge Arab population, sits one lone Jewish bsettlement, Mei Ami. Its nearest neighbor is the largest Arab bvillage of them all, Umm al-Fahm, one of the most openly anti- bIsrael centers. (On January 20, 1980, a bloody attack was made bon a visiting Jewish soccer team. Cries of “Down with Zionism” band “Khomeini” were shouted, and police had to use tear gas band fire into the air to rescue the Jews, as hundreds of Israeli bArabs tried to break down the door to the locker room. Said a bpolice official: “This is more than the usual soccer riot. . . .”)

bIn the summer of 1979, arsonists set three consecutive fires bthat burned down 110 dunams (2,705 acres) of Jewish National bFund trees owned by Mei Ami. Police traced the tracks of the barsonists to one of the nearby Arab villages. The bitter Jewish bsettlers accuse the Arabs of Umm al-Fahm of the destruction of ba tractor and claim that millions of dollars in damage have re- bsulted from Arab activities.

bThe secretary of the settlement, Oren Mitki, complains of bshots fired at night at Mei Ami. Police know that hundreds of bstolen automatic weapons have reached Arab villages in Israel. bAll the Jewish settlements in the area are plagued by Arabs who bsteal anything that is not nailed down. One member of Kibbutz bAyal told Maariv reporter Amos Levav, “We will open a new bindustry—attack dogs. We cannot take it anymore.”

b•The village of Ma’ilya was always known as a “moderate” bArab village, being the subject of various Israeli myths. It was bChristian, educated, and had prospered greatly under Jewish brule. Ergo—it was surely moderate. On the morning of July 9, b1979, hundreds of the “moderate” inhabitants charged a Jewish bNational Fund tractor, bloodying two of its drivers (who had to bbe hospitalized), while one woman shouted: “Sons of dogs! bYour day will yet come!” The tractor, under court order, was battempting to pave a road as part of the project to establish a bJewish outpost on state land near Ma’ilya. The Arabs swore not bto allow the outpost to go up and at a meeting held earlier, for bthe first time, called the police and the state “the enemy.”

b•On January 5, 1980, sixty Bedouins attacked Israeli b