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I am a Palestinian from Nazareth, a citizen
of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.
But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of
France's Dreyfus affair -- in which a French Jew was accused of
disloyalty to the state -- the government of Israel is accusing me of
aiding the enemy during Israel's failed war against Lebanon in July.
Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a foreign
agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law, anyone -- a
journalist or a personal friend -- can be defined as a "foreign agent"
by the Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can lead to life
imprisonment or even the death penalty.
The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah -- Israel's
enemy in Lebanon -- has independently gathered more security information
about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide. What's
more, unlike those in Israel's parliament who have been involved in acts
of violence, I have never used violence or participated in wars. My
instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are simply words in books,
articles and speeches.
These trumped-up charges, which I firmly
reject and deny, are only the latest in a series of attempts to silence
me and others involved in the struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens
of Israel to live in a state of all its citizens, not one that grants
rights and privileges to Jews that it denies to non-Jews.
When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were
expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that escaped
that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long lived. The
Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked immediately on
transforming us into foreigners in our own country.
For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood,
we, as Israeli citizens, lived under military rule with pass laws that
controlled our every movement. We watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up
over destroyed Palestinian villages.
Today we make up 20 percent of Israel's population. We do not drink at
separate water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and can
serve in the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and informal
discrimination in all spheres of life.
More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly
privilege Jews over non-Jews. The Law of Return, for example, grants
automatic citizenship to Jews from anywhere in the world. Yet
Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to the country they
were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty
-- Israel's "Bill of Rights" -- defines the state as "Jewish" rather
than a state for all its citizens. Thus Israel is more for Jews living
in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for native Palestinians.
Israel
acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious group.
Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal citizenship
cannot exist under such conditions.
Most of our children attend schools that are
separate but unequal. According to recent polls, two-thirds of Israeli
Jews would refuse to live next to an Arab and nearly half would not
allow a Palestinian into their home.
I have certainly ruffled feathers in Israel.
In addition to speaking out on the subjects above, I have also asserted
the right of the Lebanese people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, to resist Israel's illegal military occupation. I do not
see those who fight for freedom as my enemies.
This may discomfort Jewish Israelis, but they cannot deny us our history
and identity any more than we can negate the ties that bind them to
world Jewry. After all, it is not we, but Israeli Jews who immigrated to
this land. Immigrants might be asked to give up their former identity in
exchange for equal citizenship, but we are not immigrants.
During my years in the Knesset, the attorney
general indicted me for voicing my political opinions (the charges were
dropped), lobbied to have my parliamentary immunity revoked and sought
unsuccessfully to disqualify my political party from participating in
elections -- all because I believe Israel should be a state for all its
citizens and because I have spoken out against Israeli military
occupation. Last year, Cabinet member
Avigdor Lieberman -- an immigrant
from Moldova -- declared that Palestinian citizens of Israel "have no
place here," that we should "take our bundles and get lost." After I met
with a leader of the Palestinian Authority from Hamas, Lieberman called
for my execution.
The Israeli authorities are trying to
intimidate not just me but all Palestinian citizens of Israel. But we
will not be intimidated. We will not bow to permanent servitude in the
land of our ancestors or to being severed from our natural connections
to the Arab world. Our community leaders joined together recently to
issue a blueprint for a state free of ethnic and religious
discrimination in all spheres. If we turn back from our path to freedom
now, we will consign future generations to the discrimination we have
faced for six decades.
Americans know from their own history of
institutional discrimination the tactics that have been used against
civil rights leaders. These include telephone bugging, police
surveillance, political delegitimization and criminalization of dissent
through false accusations. Israel is continuing to use these tactics at
a time when the world no longer tolerates such practices as compatible
with democracy.
Why then does the U.S. government continue to fully support a country
whose very identity and institutions are based on ethnic and religious
discrimination that victimize its own citizens?
Azmi Bishara was a member of the
Knesset until his resignation in April. |
