BACKGROUND
How Israel
treats its Arab
citizens may offer
an important
model for Mideast
peace.
Towards a 'Shared Civility'
NOAM M.M. NEUSNER
Staff Writer
A
s negotiators wran-
gle over the nitty-
gritty of Middle
East peace talks,
several organiza-
tions are trying to alert
American Jewry to a not-so-
insignificant part of the puz-
zle — Israeli Arabs.
Although citizens in every
legal sense, Israeli Arabs
have not shared in the en-
thusiasm of building the
Jewish state. The Israeli
government has recipro-
cated with financial am-
bivalence and animosity
toward Arabs and Arab
villages. Only last year, the
government finally prom-
ised to spend equal amounts
on Arab and Jewish villages.
According to several
American fund-raising
groups and foundations,
these problems call into
question the very nature of
Israel's democratic values.
"Internal problems can be
•
just as dangerous as exter-
nal threats," said Eugene
Weiner, the founding direc-
tor of the Abraham Fund,
which raises funds and
awareness for coexistence
between Israel's Arabs and
Jews.
The Abraham Fund Direc-
tory, which was published
last month, describes in
detail over 700 projects aim-
ed at helping Israel's Jews
and Arabs get along better.
The fund also is starting to
collect donations for those
projects.
"There's a hole in the con-
sciousness of American Jews
of the reality of Israeli Arab
citizens," Dr. Weiner said.
"The fact that Israel has not
turned out to be like Leb-
anon or Yugoslavia is an
enormous achievement."
It may be hard to forget
Israeli Arabs in future
years. They constitute 16
percent of Israel's popula-
tion, more than blacks in
America, North Africans in
France and Indians and
Pakistanis in Britain — all
minority groups that have
challenged the central
values of their societies.
Even with massive Soviet
Jewish emigration to Israel,
that percentage is not likely
to decrease because of the
high Arab birth rate.
Of Israelis who live under
the poverty line, 64 percent
are Arab. Of 1,310 senior of-
"The fact that
Israel has not
turned out to be
like Lebanon or
Yugoslavia is an
enormous
achievement."
Eugene Weiner
ficials in the 1989 Israeli
Government Yearbook, only
17 were Arabs. Israeli Jews
themselves admit the
dilemma posed by Arab
citizens: in a 1990 poll, only
5 percent thought evicting
Arabs from the country was
a viable option.
The importance of Israeli
Arabs is not only a matter of
numbers, either.
While guaranteed by
Israel's Declaration of In-
dependence full citizenship
in the state, Arab citizens
are not permitted to serve in
the army, one of the main
vehicles of social and econ-
omic mobility. Plus, many
Arabs — even those with
university degrees — say la-
tent discrimination keeps
them out of the higher pay-
ing positions in the job
market.
At the same time, they en-
joy all the benefits of living
in a modern society. Unlike
their cousins in the West
Bank or Jordan, they can be
represented politically. As
such, they often present not
only a dilemma, but an op-
portunity.
"Some Israeli Arabs see
themselves as a bridge to
their Palestinian brothers
and sisters," said Dr. Ronald
Kronish, director of the
Israel office of the American
Jewish Committee. "In that
sense, they can be very
useful for the Mideast peace
process."
Dr. Weiner's -Abraham
Fund is motivated mainly by
this idea.
Neve Shalom/Wahat al-
Salam, one of the projects
that the Abraham Fund
supports, is a cooperative
village of about 30 families
situated midway between
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is
a showpiece for several
foundations that support it.
But because of its miniscule
size, critics say that it ac-
complishes little towards
real peace.
Other coexistence projects,
like Israel's Children
Teaching Children (which is
funded partly by North
American foundations), have
succeeded partly in bringing
Arabs and Jews together.
However, many programs
suffer from a host of
logistical problems.
Among them: Israeli
Arabs who would make
excellent leaders of coex-
istence projects are inter-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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