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AFAIWIS

pea4 357-7744

Applegate Square

Northwestern Hwy.

and Inkster

Hours:

Mon.-Sat. '10:00-5:30
Thurs. 10:00-8:00

LIFE IN ISRAEL

Israeli Arab Protests Shock
Jews From Their Complacency

HELEN DAVIS

Jewish News Israel Correspondent

T

genuinely
hey
wanted to wipe us
out. I saw the hatred
in their eyes. It was one of the
toughest days I can remem-
ber."
The veteran Israeli police
officer was not speaking of
the riots that have wracked
the West Bank and Gaza in
recent weeks. He was describ-
ing events in Umm El-Fahm.
But it was not only Umm
El-Fahm. In Arab towns and
villages throughout Israel
itself, a peaceful strike in sol-
idarity with the Palestinians
in the territories descended
into one of the darkest and
most shocking episodes in the
40-year life of the Jewish
state.
Jaffa, Lod, Abu Ghosh and
a host of other Arab popula-
tion centers in Israel — some
of which had been regarded
as staunchly loyal since the
establishment of Israel —
erupted in an orgy of hatred
against Jews and the Jewish
State.
Thousands of young Israeli
Arabs took to the streets to
burn tires, hurl rocks at
Israeli policemen, chant PLO
slogans and scream "Slaugh-
ter the Jews" and "Hitler
should have finished you off."
Israeli Jews, battered but
not particularly surprised by
the wave of riots that swept
the West Bank and Gaza,
were stunned by the depth of
hatred and the extent of
anger displayed by their Arab
fellow citizens. The enemy, it
seemed, was now within the
gates.
The knee-jerk reaction of
many Jews was to meet anger
with anger. "I was shocked by
my own response to the sight
of Israeli Arabs attacking
Israeli policemen," said one
long-time Jerusalem resi-
dent. "It was straight from
the gut. I was furious."
His reaction was widely re-
flected in a poll taken among
Jewish Israelis the following
day: Fully 80 percent sup-
ported the expulsion of Israeli
Arabs who instigated and
participated in violent dem-
onstrations, while 47 percent
said the riots, both in Israel
and the territories, had hard-
ened their political attitudes.
The disturbances also
evoked anger among Israeli
leaders representing a wide
range of the political spec-
trum. President Chaim Her-
zog, a leading advocate of

An Arab student: Is it inequality or Islam that fuels the hatred.?

Arab-Jewish coexistence, ex-
pressed the sentiments of
many when he charged that
the behavior of the Arab
rioters was inconsistent with
loyalty to the state.
Did the Arabs not simply
seize on the occasion to
demonstrate their hostility to
Israel, he wondered out loud.
After all, they had shown no
such concern when the Pales-
tinians were butchered by the
Jordanians in 1970 and by
the Syrians in Lebanon in
1976.
Addressing a meeting of
Jewish and Arab teachers,
Herzog said Israeli Arabs
were alone in the Middle East
in enjoying the benefits of a
democratic society: "Is it
wise," he asked, "to jeopardize
this?"
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir was characteris-
tically more blunt, offering
Israeli Arabs a stark choice:
they could follow the PLO or
remain loyal citizens of Israel.
But if they chose the path of
the PLO, he warned, there
would be "dire conse-
quences."
This message found an echo
in the moderate Hebrew-
language daily Ma'ariv when
it addressed the Arab popula-
tion directly: "Israel will not
tolerate another such spec-
tacle," said the newspaper.
"Israeli Arabs have more to
lose than others if they break
the rules of the game. You
have been warned."

Editorials in the Israeli
press focused on the sense of
inequality which has fed the
frustratipn of Israeli Arabs
and nourished the extremist
elements that transformed
the peaceful strike into a
violent demonstration.
According to the independ-
ent Hebrew-language daily
Ha'aretz, "common sense dic-
tates that every effort should
be made to defuse the situa-
tion and neutralize the
danger."
The only lasting solution,
said the paper, was a political
settlement of the Arab-Israeli
dispute.
But the immediate question
for both Jewish and Arab
Israelis is where they go from
here. To be sure, the relation-
ship was not idyllic even
before the recent eruptions.
According to a survey con-
ducted a few months ago, 60
percent of Jewish high school
students felt Arabs should
not enjoy equal rights, while
another survey, among Jew-
ish adults, found that 83 per-
cent perceived Arabs as pos-
ing a danger to Israeli securi-
ty. In addition, 68 percent
would not be prepared to
work under an Arab super-
visor and 81 percent felt that
Jews should be hired before
Arabs.
At the same time, a survey
of Arab Israelis found that 40
percent did not accept the pre-
sent borders of Israel, 82 per-
cent believed Israel should