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Stripping Professor Azmi Bishara of his parliamentary
immunity in 2005 was another evidence of Israel’s racist treatment of
its Palestinian “minority”—the 1.3 million Palestinians who, despite all
numerous odds, have remained on their homeland, which became Israel in
1948. The Israeli parliament (Knesset), then, voted in favor of
stripping Bishara because of “his anti-Israeli remarks” and his
organizing trips to Syria—considered “enemy state” by Israel.
Unsurprisingly, this was the first time the Israeli
Knesset takes such a decision since its inception. Never had a Jewish
Parliamentarian been stripped of her/his immunity for making political
statements, though racism is the ideology that informs most political
statements made by Israeli politicians.
Bishara, one of the most charismatic, outspoken
representatives of the Israeli Palestinians heads the Tajjamu (The
National Democratic Alliance). The comments that infuriated the Israeli
establishment then were his denouncement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon’s warmongering policies in Palestine and Lebanon and his
suggestion that resistance is a legitimate response to Israeli
occupation. The Israeli officials interpreted this as “incitement to
violence” and “expressing support for terrorism.” The second accusation
referred to the trips he had organized for 800 Israeli Palestinians to
be reunited with relatives in Syria they had not seen since 1948.
This decision, the lifting of his parliamentary
immunity, was taken in order to enable the Israeli Attorney General to
indict Bishara. In other words, the Israeli establishment considered, as
it still does, its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
“legitimate,” and that any resistance to it is “illegitimate”. That, of
course, flies in the face of international law. Now, in 2007,
accusations have been hurled against Bishara in what seems to be an
organized campaign coordinated between the official Israeli media and
the security apparatus. Moreover, more serious steps are being taken as
a result of the very strong collaboration between the latter and the
political establishment encouraged by the demagogic hysteria controlling
the Israeli street after the humiliating defeat in Lebanon. As in 2005,
the target of this campaign, according to Bishara, is the Palestinian
national identity within Israel and the 1967 occupied territories.
Bishara’s statements and positions emanate from his
party’s political program. Such program poses a very serious threat to
the nature of Israel as “the state of the Jews”. Put differently, the
NDA program calls for a secular definition of the state--”the State of
all of its Citizens.” To recognize the exclusivist nature of the State
is the precondition for being welcomed in the Knesset. Different from
the Israeli Communist Party, for example, the NDA emphasizes the
national identity of Israeli Palestinians, who have been discriminated
against for 59 years. There is no Israeli nationality, while Israel
continues to define its national character as Jewish and not Israeli,
which effectively excludes all Palestinians and "non-Jews" living in
Israel. This, as noted by the UN Committee on Social, Economic, and
Cultural Rights, "encourages discrimination and accords second class
status to [Israel's] non-Jewish citizens." (1998 Concluding Observations
of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights).
A serious comprehensive solution to the Palestinian
question will not, therefore, neglect the 1948 Palestinians and those
who were expelled and dispossessed of their lands on 1948, namely,
refugees living in miserable camps. The mechanism by which such serious
issues can be resolved is not a bantustanization a la apartheid South
Africa as suggested by the signatories of the Oslo Accords. Rather, a
secular democratic state where all citizens are treated equally
regardless of their religion, sex or color, is the right solution that
brings an end to the conflict. This is partly what Bishara’s programme
is about; this is the reason behind the cuurent campaign; and this is
why the Palestinian national identity of Israeli Palestinians is
considered a threat to the Zionist establishment.
Azmi Bishara is what the official Palestinian
leadership is NOT. Charisma combined with a political vision and a
clear-cut ideological programme. Whereas the Palestinian leadership is
prepared to recognize a "Jewish state" alongside a Palestinian State
regardless of what this means, namely the discriminatory practices
applied by Israel against its non-Jewish, i.e. mainly Palestinian
citizens and residents since 1948, Bishara’s programme makes the
necessary link between all Palestinian struggles against the occupation
of Gaza and the West Bank and against Israel's ethnically-based
displacement, dispossession, discrimination and rights violations of
about 1.3 million Palestinian citizens, including some 250,000
internally displaced, as well as the 1948 externally displaced refugees,
who are entitled to return, restitution and “Israeli citizenship” under
international law.
- Haidar Eid teaches at the Department of
English, Al-Aqsa University. |
