A NON-PROFIT CULTURAL PROGRAM OF OAKLAND UNIVERSITY
Meadow Brook Music Festival
IN COOPERATION WITH
Vetroit _free Wee° & WQRS
'Riots Have Increased
Arabs' Alienation'
DAVID HOLZEL
Staff Writer
erusalem — In 1982,
Attalah Mansour ac-
companied Israeli
troops in their push into
Lebanon. There, among the
Palestinian population which
fled Israel's war of in-
dependence, Mansour en-
countered childhood friends.
"Israel is not willing to take
them back. Israel wants them
to go away," Mansour said
matter of factly.
Mansour, 54, a columnist
for the Hebrew-language
newspaper Ha'aretz, is an
Israeli Arab. "We are the rem-
nants of the Palestinians who
decided to live under Jewish
rule," he said of the more than
700,000 Arabs with Israeli
citizenship.
The 40-year-long Israeli
Arab experience, he said, is
the story of a steady integra-
tion into Israeli life, but a
nearly 360-degree swing in
identity.
What in 1948 was an Arab
identity, evolved into an
Israeli Arab identity. Since
the 1982 Lebanon War, Israeli
Arabs have begun to see
themselves more and more as
Palestinians.
In the Lebanon War, Israel
battled Palestinians for the
first time "That widened the
gap between us and the
Israeli [Jews]," Mansour said.
The intifada, which began
last December, cemented the
Israeli Arabs' identcation
with the Palestinians in the
territories. "We went on
strike. We collected money to
buy medicine and food. We
channeled our feeling of
frustration and anger in a
democratic, civilized way," he
said.
While affirming their
allegiance to Israel, the coun-
try's Arabs consider
themselves as an opposition
bloc in national elections and
to Israel's treatment of the
uprising. "We are totally op-
posed to government policy,"
Mansour said. "But we also
oppose any illegal act of pro-
test!'
The Palestine Liberation
organization is not anathema
to Mansour as it is for most
Israeli Jews. "We support
talks between Israel and the
PLO if the PLO is willing to
talk to Israel."
He said the PLO must earn
Israel's trust if the organiza-
tion is to be a negotiating
partner. He offered a litmus
test of whether an agreement
j
with Arafat will bring peace
with the Palestinians:
"My advice to [Prime
Minister Yitzhak] Shamir is:
Tell Arafat, 'We will talk after
three months. In the mean-
time, no stone throwing, no
violence, no arson.'
"Israel should not give the
PLO anything unless the
PLO will be able to bring
peace and be able to deliver
the goods!'
According to Mansour, it is
only relatively recently that
Israel's Arabs have begun to
feel the tugs of dual loyalty —
to Israel which is their coun-
try, -and to the Palestinians
who are their brethren.
"The wars of '56 and '67
were not really a conflict for
us," he said. "Israel fought
Egypt and we are not Egyp-
tians!'
In the 20 years preceding
the Six-Day War, "the Israeli
government and establish-
ment said that they were will-
ing to make peace with the
Arabs and discuss the
repatriation of refugees. The
Arabs were not willing to
make peace. That made it
easier in the question of dou-
ble loyalty.
"Since 1967, Israel is less
willing to talk to Arabs. More
and more, Israel has its own
preconditions.
"Arabs have not gone the
entire circle, but they seem to
be changing chairs with the
Israelis. There are enough
Arabs - who are willing to
make peace with the Israelis,"
he asserted.
Mansour described how the
intifada has strained his
family and called into ques-
tion his choice of being an
Israeli. His 16-year-old
daughter became obsessed
with a film clip of Israeli
soldiers beating a Palesti-
nian. She watched the scene
over and over.
"She jumps on me. 'Why do
you write for those bastards?'
she says. 'You have your
Jewish friends over and you
want me to serve them juice.
How could you?'
"I say, 'Samar, these are not
Jews. These are three angry
young soldiers! "
Mansour said Israeli Arabs
need peace to heal their
families and to erase their
feelings of dual loyalty and
alienation. Because of their
precarious position within
the Arab-Israeli conflict, they
appear as neither good
Israelis nor good Arabs.
"Peace," he said. "I need it
more than a Jew."
WELCOME
Israel
Philharmonic
Kurt Masur, conducting
TWO PERFORMANCES!
Tuesday, August 16
Thursday, August 18
HAYDN:
Symphony No. 6
BEETHOVEN:
Symphony No. 5
MUSSORGSKY-GORCHAKOV:
Pictures at an Exhibition
MENDELSSOHN:
Hebrides Overture
MENDELSSOHN:
Symphony No. 4 ("Italian")
BRAHMS:
Symphony No. 1
Pavilion $30, $25 Lawn $15
Pavilion $30, $25 Lawn $15
Chicago
Symphony Orchestra
David Zinman, conducting
Cho-Liang Lin, violinist
Friday, August 5
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto
DVORAK: Symphony No. 7
Pavilion $35, $27.50 Lawn $15
SAVE $5 on tickets for these concerts!
Visit one of the metro Detroit Harmony House
stores to obtain special money saving coupons!
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Concerts begin at 8:00 p.m.
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