In Search Of True
Equality For All

New York/JTA

This view, as much as it is
held in the Palestinian and
s a member of the
Arab world, should never
executive commit-
be given any legitimacy
tee of the Jewish
because it is not only the
community interagency task
source of the ongoing war
force on Israeli Arabs, the
against Israel, but also it is
Anti-Defamation League
at the root of the suffering
believes that it is very much
of
the Palestinians for all
Abrah am H.
in the interest of Israel and
these
decades. What has
Fox man
the Jewish people to ensure
made
Israeli Arabs different
Spe cial
full equality for Israel's Arab
from
their
Palestinian breth-
Comm entary
citizens. This is so for prag-
ren is that they have lived in
matic, moral and diplomatic reasons.
Israel as if the creation of the Jewish
To get there requires leadership and
state was legitimate, even if they didn't
responsibility on both sides: the Jewish believe it to be so; for the state to sug-
and the Arab. Thus the Or Commission gest otherwise in a curriculum is to
delineated many areas of practical
encourage different and destructive
discrimination, such as in funding for
kind of thinking.
the Arab sector that needed attention
Secondly, use of the "nakba" ter-
by the Israeli government. On the other minology is a step in the direction
side, Israeli Arab intellectuals produced away from responsibility and toward
a document titled "Future Vision;'
illusion and blame, twin illnesses
which reinforced many of the Or
that have haunted the Palestinians for
Commission findings but also, disturb- decades. What was called a catastro-
ingly, asserted that true equality could
phe in 1948 was largely self-inflicted
never exist without the state giving up
by the Palestinians supported and
its Jewishness in its symbols and other encouraged by the Arab world. There
practical laws and regulations.
would have been no war had the
It is in this context that one needs
Palestinians accepted the U.N. two-
to examine the recent decision of the
state solution of 1947. There would
Ministry of Education to include in
have been no refugee problem had
the curriculum of Arab schools a ref-
the resolution been accepted. Indeed,
erence to the belief in the Arab world
there would have been a much larger
that Israel's founding was viewed
Arab minority within Israel. The real
as a nakba, a catastrophe for the
catastrophe is not what they blame the
Palestinians. Is this a legitimate rec-
Jews and the world for, but rather the
ognition by the government of Israel
decision and leadership of the Arabs.
as part of the effort to make Israel's
It is, therefore, neither moral nor
Arabs comfortable as equal citizens
helpful to Israeli Arabs nor to rela-
or is this self-destructive political
tions between Jews and Arabs to inject
correctness which rather than make
the kind of thinking that has been so
Israeli Arabs more at home will rein-
destructive in the region into the heart
force beliefs that the future demands
of an Israeli school curriculum. At a
a distancing by the descendants of the
time when the region is facing a huge
founders of the state from its original
struggle between extremists and mod-
meaning and purpose?
erate elements and where, as a result,
In my view, the Education Ministry's the Arab League is even talking about
decision clearly falls into the latter
normalizing relations with Israel, it is
category.
foolhardy to give any credence to the
After all, what does the notion of a
most retrograde notions about the
nakba" mean? First, it rests on the idea legitimacy of the Jewish state.
that the very creation of the Jewish
Let us all work for true equality
state was an illegitimate act, that the
between Arab and Jew in Israel with-
U.N. decision to partition Palestine
out falling for false and counterpro-
into two states, following the Balfour
ductive initiatives.
Declaration, the creation of Trans-
Jordan, the British Mandate, the Peel
Abraham H. Foxman is national director
Commission and the Holocaust had no of the Anti-Defamation League. This op-
validity, that indeed the Jewish people
ed originally appeared in Hebrew in Israel
had no right in its historic homeland.
HaYom.

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September 13 • 2007

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