Israeli Arabs: Fathers and Sons (and Daughters)

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bbalad group in the West Galilee village of Kabul. He is the per- bfect example of the product that Israel’s “head-and-stomach” bpolicy makers helped to produce. Rabin and Begin would surely bpoint with pride to the young Israeli Arab, a graduate of Haifa’s bIroni Aleph High School (the only Jewish-Arab high school in bthe land), as well as of Haifa University’s Department of Middle bEast History. Says this well-educated Israeli Arab: “A Palesti- bnian state in the West Bank will not solve my problems. . . . The bPLO is the only body that fights for me. . . . I do not feel this is bmy country. I don’t care if I have more materially here than bArabs elsewhere. I am willing to be poor if it is my country. . . .

b“I don’t know where a Palestinian state should be, but . . . bof course I hope it will include my village.”

bLet it be noted that his village is in the Galilee.

bOn Israeli campuses, Jewish students wear T-shirts that bread “UCLA” or “Boston Celtics.” But in May 1980 a group of bArab students took off their shirts to reveal their own brand of bT-shirt which read: “The PLO represents us.” That is the fun- bdamental belief of all the Israeli Arab students, and if there are bJews who are shocked it is merely because of their own refusal to bsee.

bThe Arab students and intellectuals are the representatives bof a new generation of Israeli Arabs, one that rejects that very descrip- btion. In a Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) article (May 5, b1977) Gil Sedan wrote: “Nor do they trouble to conceal their bincreasingly negative attitude toward the government of Israel, bthe country of which they are citizens. In the Arab village of bKfar Kana, just north of Nazareth, this reporter asked a young bshopkeeper if he was Muslim or Christian. ‘We are all Arabs,’ bwas his reply.”

bA perceptive article in Maariv was titled: “From Israeli Ar- babs to Palestinians.” That is the nub of the issue. These people bnow consider themselves Palestinian Arabs who, through trag- bedy, happen to live in Israel. It is not a situation they are happy bwith, and many are trying to change it.

bThe pity is that for years, the leaders of Israel (and, of bcourse, the American Jewish Establishment) pointed to Israeli bArab passivity and acquiescence as proof of their loyalty to, and bacceptance of, the Jewish state. Either they were fools or pre- bferred to act as such. The real reason for Israeli Arab passivity b