What does it mean to be a Palestinian in Israel?

Palestinians trapped in Israel have a different life compared to those in Gaza and West Bank. But very often, their stories goes unheard.

The Palestinians in Israel right from 1948 suffer from marginalization, segregation and democratic illusion. Haneen Zoabi, the first lady to represent Palestinians in Israeli Knesset (Parliament),  revealed the depth of atrocities being carried out by the Jewish State.

She stated ‘Even calling ourselves Palestinians is derogatory. Hence, we are called as ‘Israeli Arabs’. In 2007, Palestinians have been termed as ‘strategic threat’ for Israel. A couple of decades after 1967, Israel was not very frightened with peaceful Palestinian protests. But the power of first and second Intifadah changed everything.

Land Confiscation by Jewish National Fund has become prominent. In the coming months, 8000 dumas of Palestinian land in South of Israel is going to be confiscated. Also, Israel promotes foreign workers instead of Palestinians. Right after 1948, rich and educated Palestinians were expelled from Israel so that they do not get a chance to promote their culture. Hence today, there is no cinema, clubs or vibrant nightlife in Israel.

Palestinian peasants are not allowed to grow certain crops. Milk and butter is rare for them. They are made dependent on Israeli market products to exist. Also, the mantra of hating Palestinians have been cultivated in the minds of the Israelis so that they can manufacture a certain idea of unity amongst themselves. Normal citizens are taught, right from their birth to be Zionist.

Haneen questions that in the past few years, Israel has grown obsessive with being called a democracy. This lunatic obsession states that Israel is insecure and hence, would do everything possible to attain the respect at international platform.

Like every politician Haneen does not just blame the Israelis for the plight of Palestinians but also states that even her own Arabs and Palestinians have a role to play. For example, Hamas and Fatah, both do not pay heed to the problems suffered by Palestinians inside Israel. Very often, their issues are ignored as an ‘internal or domestic problem’.

Haneen stated that ‘Negotiation can not be a substitute for struggle.’ When asked, where she gets her strength from, she simply replied ‘There are two options. One is to struggle hard while the other is to give up. For me, giving up is the most difficult part. Hence, I choose to struggle.’

Due to her audacity and frankness, the Israeli parliament is currently looking for political issues through which they can strip her off from the Knesset. With 1000 voters for her Balaad party, Haneen Zaobi tries to avoid revealing the tensions behind her smile as a disguise.

Book Review: Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy

Ben White in his recent book ‘ Palestinians in Israel’ takes a stand to explain how the Israeli gaze has turned towards to the unfinished war of 1948.
Palestinians in Israel suffer from ‘segregation, discrimination and democracy‘. The Jewish National Fund, Jewish Agency and new umbrella council of NGOs have deliberately curtailed the ‘Bedouin Expansion‘. “Judaising Negev and Galilee‘ is one of the prime agendas of Israel’s ethnocracy. Upper Nazreth scares the government for being the largest Palestinian city inside the pre 1967 borders. That’s exactly why Menachem Begin’s government planned for a series of settlements called Mitzpim to be placed at the higher topographical points in Upper Nazreth.

Ben White has dedicated this book to Ameer Markhoul, his wife Janin and their 2 daughters. Markhoul, the director of Arab NGO Network Ittijah was arrested in May 2010. He was convicted of espionage for Hezbollah and has been detained for the past 2 years without any legal trial.

A brief glimpse is provided into Haneen Zoabi‘s life and how she has become object of hatred, along with being physically assaulted for her pro-Palestinian views in the Knesset. MK Yarin Levin, the Head of House Committe has even called her a disgrace in the Knesset. Haneen wrote the preface for this book and she describes how Palestinians being called as ‘Arabs in Israel’ or “Israel Arab’s is creating a new Israeli Arab identity, ie, one of the tacit goals of the state.’

The 15th Knesset (1999-2002) has played an active role in redrawing the boundaries of Arab citizenship, enacting a number of discriminatory laws affecting Palestinian citizens political expression, family life and economic status. Also, Netanyahu’s government replaced all Arab names on road sides with Jewish ones and the Palestinian citizens were forbidden to teach Nakba.

In just 100 pages, White has produced an interesting account of how Israel has been using the ‘exclusionary land regime‘ game to discriminate Palestinians. The three main tools include dispossession, the regime for ownership and privatisation of non-private land and system regulating land development and land use planning. The passing of ‘Absentee Property Law’ in 1950 made it even more difficult for Palestinians to claim ownership of their own land.

The ‘Green Patrol’, a paramilitary enforcement unity has removed 900 Bedouin villages in the past years. As a result, Palestinian minority that makes 20% of the population, holds only 3.5% of the states land.  The Palestinians face the deliberate discrimination in education and job markets also. Israel has been intelligently imparting low-class education and investment on Palestinian students so that there is a huge gap between them and Israeli students in the later job market stage.

In the last chapter, ‘Rethink and Re-imagine’, White explains how Palestinian people know from decades that even the smallest gains in their struggle for liberation are not achieved without a fight or a cost. He urges the readers to ‘think that how as a result of Israeli policies and legislation, one in seven Palestinians is a 2nd class citizen, a third are under military rule without citizenship and half of all Palestinians are outside the borders, disposed and forbidden from returning.’

He concludes with the words of Ameer Markhoul from the prison, ‘For in a dictatorship, everything goes well until the last 15 minutes’