LIFE. LOVE. SEX.

(And other unscheduled events.)

it it rf r

o-

A very funny and very poignant musical!
Set in America where the rules keep changing and families aren't the same.

The chairman of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine shakes hands
with the head of the Israeli delegation in Damascus.

SEPTEMBER 3 thru OCTOBER 5

Conflicting Loyalties
Plague Israeli Arabs

Music by William Finn
Book by William Finn and James Lapine
Directed by Nick Calanni
Music Directed by Ben Cohen

Israeli Arab delegation's controversial diplomacy in
Damascus sparks renewed questions over their
feal:y to Israel.

AARON DEROY THEATRE

Jewish Community Center
6600 W. Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI

AVI MACHLIS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

hen a delegation of Is-
raeli Arabs returned
from a milestone visit to
Syria in 1994, then-
Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin
rushed to meet Arab Knesset
member Abdul-Wahab Darawshe
to hear about the diplomatic rum-
blings from Damascus.
But when Darawshe and an-
other 41 Israeli-Arab leaders in-
cluding politicians, mayors and
journalists, returned home from
a visit to Syria recently, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
didn't ring.
Across the political spectrum,
Jewish Israelis were alarmed at
fiery pro-Palestinian statements
some group members made in
Syria, and felt the Arab leaders
had compromised their loyalty to
the State of Israel.
The controversy surrounding
the Arab delegation's visit to Syr-
ia highlighted the tightrope
walked by Israel's 950,000 Arab
citizens, or 16 percent of the pop-
ulation, as they try to reconcile
their dual identity as Israeli citi-
zens and Palestinians.
Darawshe, leader of the Arab
Democratic Party in the Knesset,
rejected Israeli complaints that
the visit amounted to treason.
"Our loyalty [to Israel] is uncon-
ditional," he said in a telephone
interview. "We have been loyal to
the State of Israel from 1948 un-
til today, even during wars and
difficult times. But, at the same
time, we are a part of the Pales-
tinian people and a part of the
Arab world."
Despite Darawshe's oath ofloy-
alty, the visit worried many Is-
raelis. First, the Syrians dubbed
the delegation "1948 Arabs," a
not-so-subtle implication that Is-

W

OFF

rael does not exist, which ap-
peared to go unchallenged by the
group.
Then, there was an appear-
ance at the Palestinian refugee
camp, al-Yarmouk, on the out-
skirts of Damascus. According to
Israeli press reports filed by Is-
rael-Arab journalists on the del-
egation, 20,000 Palestinians
greeted the group, chanting
"Haifa and Jaffa are calling us"
and "by blood and fire we will free
you, Palestine."
Darawshe did not let down the
crowds. "The right of return to
Palestine is a divine right of the
Palestinian people. I swear to you
by Allah you will return to Pales-
tine," he declared, according to the
Israeli daily Ha'aretz.
In addition, Abdel Malik-Da-
hamshe, another Arab Knesset
member and an Islamist, pro-
claimed that "Palestine and Syr-
ia are one homeland" and said the
Arab people "will win by the
sword."
The statements were con-
demned by Knesset members
from left and right.
"We consider their behavior to
be quite unacceptable," said
David Bar man, chief spokesman
for Netanyahu. "You cannot take
positions that are anathema to
the state abroad, especially to a
country that we are still at war
with." Israel and Syria remain a
formal state of war.
Darawshe scoffed at the fuss,
saying the positions he expressed
in Damascus were no different
from what he says in the Knes-
set. "The United Nations [says]
the Palestinians have the right to
return, Oslo agreements say

PLAGUE page 98

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