points of view
EDITORIAL BOARD:
Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz
Chief Operating Officer: F. Kevin Browett
Interim Editor: Alan Hitsky
Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar
Contributing Editor
Editorial
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The Currents
Of Citizenship
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j1,44414.4
I
CJAED hosts an
annual business
forum for
Jewish and Arab
policymakers,
academics and
business people
in''Israel.
Jewish-Arab Bridge Building
I
srael's future as an economic
dynamo within safe, secure
borders hinges in large part
on mutual trust developing
between Israeli Jews and Israeli
Arabs — a common ground that
has been elusive.
It's a trust that can't come soon
enough if the Jewish state is to
realize equality, pluralism and
coexistence — and truly flourish.
Enter the Herzliya-based
Center for Jewish-Arab Economic
Development (CJAED). It seeks
to integrate the Arab community
into partnership with the Jewish
community through economic
empowerment and
cooperation. Its mis-
sion is daunting: To
cultivate fertile ground
for peace, understand-
ing and economic sta-
bility not only within
Israel, but also the
beleaguered region.
Arabs constitute
20 percent of Israel's
7.4-million citizens
yet remain largely dis-
enfranchised with limited access
to business credit, skills training
and marketing opportunities.
They comprise just 4 percent of
the high-tech workforce. More
than 45 percent of Israeli Arab
families fall below the poverty
line in contrast to only 15 percent
of Israeli Jewish families. Of the
47 municipalities in Israel with a
higher-than average jobless rate,
46 consist of Arabs.
In a state and a region awash
with political and cultural tur-
moil, CJAED is strictly nonpo-
litical. Jewish and Arab business
leaders came together to create
the nonprofit in 1988, a partial
success story despite legitimate
Jewish distrust of many Israeli
Arabs who enjoy Israeli freedom
but who also despise Jewish con-
trol.
A Brighter Future
"For American Jews commit-
ted to Zionism and interested
in the well-being of Israel, but
disenchanted by extremism, we
offer a positive message for the
future — one of a vibrant and
flourishing shared
society," says Israeli
Arab Helmi Kittani,
executive director of
CJAED.
He visited Metro
Detroit from March 30
to April 1 to build sup-
port for the belief that
an economic vitality,
fostered by startup
enterprises as well as
women's empower-
ment, high-tech recalibration and
business cooperation, can help
derive a peaceful coexistence in
the culturally embattled Middle
East. At the behest of Israel's
consul general in Chicago, Kittani
toured the Midwest to tell his
important story.
Kittani isn't pitching pipe-
dreams, however difficult his pur-
suit is. He's right: Israel's primary
resource is its people. Its strength
lies in its diversity and democ-
racy. Time will determine how
visionary CJAED is. But the orga-
nization isn't dawdling. It boasts
active operations throughout the
country, especially in areas where
Jews and Arabs live and work in
close proximity.
High-Tech Hurdles
Why Israel's high-tech revolution
never really took off in the Israeli
Arab community isn't a secret,
Kittani told the IN. For starters,
Arabs are concentrated in the
periphery; Jews are concentrated
mainly in central Israel. Also, the
absence of social ties between
Arabs and Jewish high-tech
workers limits Arab exposure to
higher-potential job options.
In addition, Israeli Arabs —
exempt from military service
— rarely take part in military
technology units that are proven
incubators for building high-tech
social relationships. Further,
employers tend to hire their own
kind. Arab applicants often face
other obstacles: The social skills
to get through job interviews,
language barriers and the feeling
that opportunities are limited to
begin with.
"And finally, despite legislative
efforts," Kittani related, "residual
discrimination remains at many
workplaces."
Diaspora Jews aren't privy to
that kind of reverse Israeli Jewish
bias. Still, I wonder how many
Arabs feel they would be dimin-
ished working for Jews despite
the potential to have a much
higher standard of living in Israel
than in neighboring Arab lands.
Bridge Building on page 27
26
April 28 - 2011
sraeli citizenship is neither a privilege nor a prize,
but rather a protected right. It provides the flow
meter for Israeli democracy. When it is denied,
other rights and liberties become threatened. That's
why Knesset approval of an amendment to allow citi-
zenship and residency status to be revoked for any-
one convicted of terrorism, espionage and treason is
troublesome.
The amendment, passed on March 28, isn't intended
to reinforce national security. Even Israel's security
chiefs state that the national penalty code already
provides enough punch for that. We fear the amend-
ment, the brainchild of Israel Beitenu, the right-wing
nationalist party, is meant to discriminate against, if
not humiliate, Israel's Arab citizens by implying that
citizenship is conditioned.
The amendment to the Citizenship Law of 1952
authorizes citizenship and residency status to be
revoked as part of the court's sentencing of people
convicted of terror and espionage, or, alternatively, by
the decision of the Interior Ministry. Israeli law already
allows the Interior Ministry to revoke citizenship on
grounds of "breach of trust," though sets this revoca-
tion as a separate and unusual administrative option.
The Shin Bet, Israel's highly respected General
Security Services, announced opposition to the amend-
ment because existing laws provide sufficient deter-
rence and punishment and because the wording is
too wide and lacks checks and balance, reports Oded
Feller, attorney for the Association for Civil Rights in
Israel.
Clearly, the Jewish state is continuously in the
sight lines of Palestinian and other Islamist terror-
ists. It should be more concerned with preventing
terror, securing its borders and tracking intelligence
than imposing a symbolic and arguably racist law that
rejects citizenship for evil doers.
Robert Rockaway is a professor emeritus in the
Department of Jewish History at Tel-Aviv University.
In an essay of his shared with the JN, the for-
mer Detroiter puts the amendment and other new
Israeli laws curtailing civil liberties in perspective:
"Historically speaking, Jews have flourished and
achieved success under liberal democratic regimes.
Israel's founders knew this and wanted their state to
reflect liberal and democratic values. They enshrined
their views in the country's 1948 Proclamation of
Independence."
The proclamation declares that the state "... will be
based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace
taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full
social and political equality of all its citizens, without
the distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full
freedom of conscience, worship, education and cul-
ture; ... and will dedicate itself to the principles of the
Charter of the United Nations."
A safe Israel requires a secure, but also democrati-
cally strong Israel. So when America's closest ally in
the Middle East, the only real democracy in that trou-
bled region, starts chipping away at democratic values,
we get nervous.