BACKGROUND
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45th
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Radicalization of Israeli Arabs
Is Shown By. Galileean Arson
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HELEN DAVIS
Foreign Correspondent
T
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36 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1989
here were no signs of
contrition when
Mohammed Abu-Din
stood before Judge Chaim
Eilat in a Jaffa court, charg-
ed with setting fire to
carpentry workshops, a
shopping center and an air-
conditioning plant in the
town.
"I do not regret what I did;
I am pleased about it," said
the Israeli Arab, an Islamic
fundamentalist. "Today,
there are few people who
think as I do. But in five
years there will be more, and
within 10 years everyone
will be like me."
"Then," he warned Judge
Eilat, "there will be no place
for people like you. Leave
Palestine now, before it is
too late."
These words chilled the
hearts of many Jewish
Israelis who are proud of
having maintained cordial
relations with their Arab
fellow-citizens.
After all, Israeli Arabs,
who constitute one-sixth of
Israel's population, have liv-
ed within their midst, en-
joyed the fruits of the only
democracy in the region and
benefited from the progress
of the state over the past 42
years. •
Israeli Jews had confident-
ly assumed that, if only for.
reasons of self-interest,
Israeli Arabs would remain
Israelis first in times of
difficulty.
Last month, however, as
Jewish Israelis prepared to
welcome the New Year, a
large question mark was
drawn around this assump-
tion when the words of
Mohammed Abu-Din found a
savage echo in the Galilee:
arsonists, apparently local
Druse youth, set fire to the
Carmel Forest, destroying
about 1,000 acres of trees.
Just as the Jewish New
Year is an occasion for spiri-
tual regeneration so, too,
have trees become a symbol
of Israel's physical regenera-
tion.
Thus the fire, in an area of
Israel that is far from the
disputed territories, assum-
ed an, additional dimension;
a bitter, double blow for
Israelis whose inability to
halt the Palestinian upris-
ing in the occupied West
Bank and Gaza Strip had al-
ready strained the national
nerve.
goat at Mount Carmel sanctuary.
The fire was the most
dramatic manifestation of
the growing radicalization of
Israeli Arabs, the most com-
pelling evidence of their in-
creasing identification with
the Palestinian cause. It was
not, however, the only
manifestation of this
phenomenon, which has
been nurtured by the in-
tifada.
In recent months, Israeli
officials have noted a signifi-
cant increase in acts of polit-
ically motivated violence
and rhetoric by Israeli Arabs
in both the Galilee and and
the Negev, areas that have
been`part of Israel since its
inception.
Just last week, a senior
security source in Jerusalem
warned that contacts and co-
operation between Israeli
Arabs and the PLO were in-
tensifying, and that PLO
funds were increasingly be-
ing channelled to Israeli
Arab organizations.
Public declarations by
Israeli Arabs were becoming
more strident and radical,
and there was a growing
tendency toward separatism.
Israeli security forces, he
added, were experiencing
greater difficulty than ever
in enforcing the law — in-
c luding the civil law —
among Israeli Arabs.
The extent of the Jewish
anguish at the latest turn of
events could be discerned in
the Hebrew-language daily
Ma'ariv following the fire-
bombing of a bus which had
stopped to collect workers at
the Israeli Arab village of
Barta last week.
Hostility is growing, noted
the paper, "and it is time to
clarify unequivocally to the
Israeli Arabs that the state
will not tolerate a situation
similar to that of Northern
Ireland."
While conceding that the
security threat posed by
Israeli Arabs was not as se-
rious as that posed by the
Palestinians in the occupied
territories, the paper never-
theless warned that "the
issue of the Israeli Arabs is
immeasurably more serious
than that of the intifada.
"The government," it add-
ed, "must provide the means
for stopping this
phenomenon with a firm
hand."
In the south, Negev Police
Commander Chaim Ben-
Ayun reported that since the
start of the intifada almost
150 politically hostile acts
had been perpetrated by Be-
duin. These ranged from
throwing stones at Israeli
vehicles to erecting road
blocks, burning Israeli flags
and, in one case, shooting at
a group of soldiers.
In the north, where the
figures are far higher —
some 430 incidents in the
first half of this year —
Galilee Police Commander
Albert Musafiya also ex-
pressed alarm about the rise
in hostile acts.
He bluntly warned that
propaganda, both political
and religious, had become a
feature of the Arab society in
the area and that "hatred is
hard to uproot, particularly