Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Togetherness in Israel "It is a sin for a man to delude his neighbor; it is a crime to delude himself. " -The Rabbi of Kotsk In 1973, to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the State of Israel, the government issued a pamphlet titled Arabs in Israel. The introduction to the pamphlet reads as follows: The Israeli Arabs Since the creation of the State of Israel its minority population has grown from 150,000 to 400,000. During the 25 years of statehood remarkable accomplishments in many fields have been achieved by this minority. The principle of equal rights for the Arabs of Israel, proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, has indeed been realized. The minorities enjoy religious freedom, full voting rights and the right of founding political organizations, both nationally and locally. The educational system has developed considerably. The number of students and pupils has grown from 10,000 on the eve of the foundation of the State, to 125,000 today. 10,000 students attend secondary schools, and more than 1,000 study at institutes of higher learning. The Arab village has changed its face since the creation of the State. In the framework of two five-year plans basic services were established: roads, water, electricity, schools, health centers and other institutions of public interest. The completion of these services marked the beginning of the industrialization of the Arab village. Factories and workshops, which also employ Arab women, were opened; modern, mechanized agricultural systems were introduced, which enable a more efficient and intensive exploitation and thus a higher yield. 45,000 (11,250 acres) dunams are now being irrigated by artificial means, as compared to 8,000 (2,000 acres) dunams before the introduction of the new systems. The socio-economic development of this section of the population greatly advances its integration into all fields of life of the State of Israel. An idyllic description of Jewish-Arab togetherness in Israel.
It is three years later, March 30, 1976. Nine A.M. The Galilee, northern Israel, home of 300,000 Israeli Arabs. The village of Sakhnin, a model of social and economic progress since 1948. It has good roads, electricity, water, schools, appliances, television sets in every home. It has "greatly advanced its integration into all fields of life of the State of Israel.” More than 1,000 equal citizens of Israel - Arabs - are in the street facing a small number of police and soldiers. It is "Land Day," and the crowd grows larger by the minute. "Falastin, Falastin!" ("Palestine, Palestine!"), the mob roars. Other chants and shouts are heard: "The Galilee is Arab!" "We will free the Galilee with blood and spirit!" Rocks are suddenly thrown in the direction of the soldiers and police. The small group of security men stare in disbelief and growing nervousness. A fiery Molotov cocktail smashes against a wall a few yards away. More and heavier stones, flaming torches, lighted cans of gasoline, and by now the soldiers are surrounded by a growing circle of hate-filled faces. "Our villages do not belong to Israel," shouts a young Arab. "We belong to the State of Palestine!” The Israeli papers report what happened: "The dams burst. 'We are all Fatah,' men and women shouted in chorus, even as they threw stones and other objects at the police. The police fired warning shots into the air which only increased the agitation. The rioters began to move toward the police and soldiers, threatening to trample them. Not even the pointing of the rifles at them stopped the mob. They're overrunning us,' the police shouted into their radios" (Maariv, March 31, 1976). "The mob wandered through the main street, raining stones, torches, and firebombs on the military and police vehicles. Some of the excited youth wanted to set up roadblocks. Others moved closer to the security forces - with clear intent to burn the vehicles. In face of the dangerous situation the soldiers fired into the air, but it seemed as if no one in that crowd of burning passions paid any attention. "The mob of demonstrators noticed the Israeli force beginning to withdraw. The large crowd began close pursuit of the Israeli forces. Running hysterically, they threw stones and roared: 'Charge them - Eleyhomt Thousands moved toward the soldiers, and at that critical moment, the commander of the force gave orders to fire ..." (Yediot Aharonot, March 31, 1976).  An Israeli journalist who attempted to get past a roadblock in thevillage was attacked by Arabs shouting: "Get out of here! This is Palestine!" He later reported: "It was terrible there. I do not remember such chaos since 1948. Every Jew was a candidate for murder. I saw them with the lust for murder burning in their eyes. Slogans such as 'Eleyhorrf and Itbach Al-Yahud ["slaughter the Jews"] are moderate in view of what I heard. From all sides came cries for the liquidation of Israel, to destroy all the Jews, for a jihad ["holy war"]. It is difficult to believe that such a scene could take place in the State of Israel, 1976.” The journalist added: "Such hatred of the state and the Jews is difficult to comprehend. What happened there was not mere rioting or chaos. It was a revolt. The Arab revolt of 1976 ... It was a revolt in the full sense of the word." (Maariv, March 31, 1976). The revolt spread to villages and towns, throughout the Galilee and the "Triangle," the two main centers of Arab population in Israel. In Sakhnin, Araba, Deir Hanna, Beth Netora, Tira, Tayba, Kalansuwa, Kfar Kana, Nazareth, and dozens of other places, violence and rioting occurred. For the first time in Israel's existence, its Arab citizens had called a political general strike. When quiet was finally restored, six Arabs were dead and more than thirty-five Israeli soldiers and police injured. In the words of Maariv correspondent Yosef Valter, returning from the Arab village of Umm al-Fahm: "It was not pleasant for a Jew to wander there. ...” The pamphlet issue by the Israeli government in 1973 attempted to give the impression that the Arabs of Israel feel themselves part of the state and that the years since 1948, years that have brought them social and economic benefits, have also made them loyal to Israel, have made them see their destiny and that of the Jewish state as mutual. It is a devoutly desired illusion that every Israeli leader and official spreads. It is a persistent delusion that grows louder and more frantic, the more obvious its patent falsehood. Together with oranges and diamonds, it ranks as one of Israel's major exports, this myth of the loyal, loving Arab of Israel. It is shouted forth -- to the accompaniment of loud and happy American Jewish applause -- at breakfasts, brunches, lunches, teas, dinners, suppers, and other stomach frameworks for fund-raising. The soothing legend of "our good Arabs who are equal and free and who appreciate and love Israel" is fed, along with liver, chicken, and stuffed derma, to the Hadassah's portly and younger suburban matrons. Long
Island Jewish Centers, UJA and Israel Bond donors, and the ever-agingand ever-fewer "Zionists" who compose the ranks of the Zionist Organization of America. It is adopted by Reform and Conservative rabbis whose ignorance of the Israeli scene complements similar lack of knowledge of Judaism. It ranks among the hoariest of the legends and myths of world Jewry. To look at reality and to think otherwise is simply too unbearably painful. And yet, even the Jerusalem Post was forced to see what was before its very eyes. In an article titled "Shattered Illusions" (April 2, 1976), the Posts Yosef Goell wrote: "Part of the Israeli Arab community hates Israel with barely veiled, intense hatred." True. And one could also add: The greatest part of the Israeli Arab community is hostile to and alienated from the state and would dearly love to exchange it for a "Palestine.” What happened? What occurred to "change" the Israeli Arabs? What has caused an eruption of sheer hatred against the State of Israel by its own Arab citizens? After the Land Day revolt, almost everyone asked those questions. Gallons of ink and reams of paper and countless words, words, and more words were produced in an effort to understand. One could almost hear the shattering of the urgently held illusions of nearly three decades. Pity. For had people only wished to see, the signs were there, and had been there for many years, clear and obvious. The Arab revolt of 1976 and all the future greater and bloodier ones are immutable and inevitable. There is hatred and hostility on the part of the vast majority of Israeli Arabs for the state in which they live. And it is neither a recent development nor a limited phenomenon of Land Day, 1976. It takes many forms - words, attitudes, violence. All form a picture of a large and growing minority that poses a threat to the very existence of the Jewish state - a time bomb ticking away. Consider: The majority of the chairmen of Arab local councils in Israel - the recognized spokesmen of Israel's Arabs and the touted "moderate" body - - on January 20, 1979, approved a resolution "welcoming the struggle of their brethren in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against the occupation, annexation, and colonialist settlements and expressed their solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people under the leadership of the PLO to establish its independent state.” In the Jerusalem neighborhood of East Talpiot on November 26, 1979, kindergarten teacher Yael Aviv was playing in a small park with the

children in her care. Suddenly six Arabs appeared, who began throwing stones at the terrified children and shouting: "Jews, go home!" A group of young girls across the street burst into hysterics and it took an hour to calm them. Said the teacher: "I will not take the children there anymore. That is enough for me." Said Sara Graetz, a resident and a survivor of the Holocaust: "I would have never believed that this could occur in an independent Jewish state." As this was happening, the family of Binyamin Sachar was recovering from an attack on their automobile as they drove through the Arab village of Bet Tzafafa, at Jerusalem's southern edge. Stones smashed the windows of the car and a shaken Sachar said: "I never thought that here in Jerusalem I would have to worry about attacks.” The head of Israel's northern command. General Avigdor Ben-Gal, told an interviewer in the army magazine Bamachane (September, 1979) that numerous Jewish settlements in the Galilee had turned to him with requests for protection from local Arabs. The Jews claimed that "they feel themselves isolated and asked for Israeli forces to protect them." Numerous incidents of Arab attacks on persons and property were listed. Ben-Gal approved the paving of parallel roads to Jewish settlements so that the Jewish settlers would not have to pass through Arab villages at night. "Lately I hear, even from the most moderate of Arabs, open statements such as: 'Get ready. Soon you will have to move out of your house. We will get your house and the houses of all the Jews of the Galilee. It is ours! All the Galilee is ours.'" The speaker is Micha Goldman, thirty, the young chairman of the Jewish settlements in the Galilee, in an interview for Maariv (August 17, 1979). He continued: "I meet a great deal with Arab leaders in the Galilee. What I hear from them now is incomparably more serious and extreme than anything said just two and three years ago. Not only extremists but those who were considered 'moderates' speak today about the nonrecognition of Israel, and about their demand for 'Arab autonomy' in the Galilee, a la Sadat. The extremists go further and talk of a Palestinian state of which the Galilee would be part. Even one who just passes through the Galilee sees frightening manifestations. For example, you drive behind an Arab automobile and they put their hands out and signal 'We will slaughter you' or 'Get out.' "The real change came after Camp David ... which was seen by the Arabs as a far-reaching sign of Israeli weakness. ... Today, there is no doubt among the Galilee Arabs that a Palestinian state will arise, and they tie their own future to it.” 6 On July 2, 1979, no fewer than eighty buses and trucks brought 6,000 Israeli Arabs to the Knesset in Jerusalem. There, in front of the symbol of the Jewish state, the mob of Israeli citizens roared: "The Galilee is Arab - Jews out!" "With blood and soul we will free you, mountains of Galilee!” Jewish women on buses heavily travelled by Arabs are subject to pawing and sexual advances. The same is true in the marketplace of the Old City of Jerusalem. Following the Land Day riots of March 1976, Maariv reporter Dalia Mazori described her visit to the Jewish town of Upper Nazareth. She quotes a young Jewish girl: "'Young Arabs suddenly began to rub against me, a thing that never happened in Nazareth,' said a pretty young Israeli. According to her, when she protested, they responded with loud curses. ... Many of the Jewish women said they would not go down to Nazareth to purchase any more, preferring the higher prices to the degrading treatment they have recently been accorded. 'The main thing is to avoid the looks of hate,' one said. "In discussing whether the question was 'land expropriation,' all agreed that the expressions of hatred were a sign of something much deeper and serious, much more worrisome.” In the very heart of Israel, the area of Emek Yizrael, south of the Galilee, sits the "Triangle." There, along the main road from Hadera to Afula and the surrounding area, are concentrated no fewer than 50,000 Israeli Arabs. In the Wadi Ara area, surrounded by this huge Arab population, sits one lone Jewish settlement, Mei Ami. Its nearest neighbor is the largest Arab village of them all, Umm Al-Fahm, one of the most openly anti-Israel centers. (On January 20, 1980, a bloody attack was made on a visiting Jewish soccer team. Cries of "Down with Zionism" and "Khomeini" were shouted, and police had to use tear gas and fire into the air to rescue the Jews, as hundreds of Israeli Arabs tried to break down the door to the locker room. Said a police official: "This is more than the usual soccer riot. ..."). In the summer of 1979, arsonists set three consecutive fires that burned down 11 dunams (2,705 acres) of Jewish National Fund trees owned by Mei Ami. Police traced the tracks of the arsonists to one of the nearby Arab villages. The bitter Jewish settlers accuse the Arabs of Umm Al-Fahm of the destruction of a tractor and claim that millions of dollars in damage have resulted from Arab activities. The secretary of the settlement, Oren Mitki, complains of shots fired at night at Mei Ami. Police know that hundreds of stolen automatic weapons have reached Arab villages in Israel. All the Jewish settlements

in the area are plagued by Arabs who steal anything that is not nailed down. One member of Kibbutz Ayal told Maariv reporter Amos Levav, "We will open a new industry - attack dogs. We cannot take it anymore.” The village of Ma'ilya was always known as a "moderate" Arab village, being the subject of various Israeli myths. It was Christian, educated, and had prospered greatly under Jewish rule. Ergo - it was surely moderate. On the morning of July 9, 1979, hundreds of the "moderate" inhabitants charged a Jewish National Fund tractor, bloodying two of its drivers (who had to be hospitalized), while one woman shouted: "Sons of dogs! Your day will yet come!" The tractor, under court order, was attempting to pave a road as part of the project to establish a Jewish outpost on state land near Ma'ilya. The Arabs swore not to allow the outpost to go up and at a meeting held earlier, for the first time, called the police and the state "the enemy.” On January 5, 1980, sixty Bedouins attacked Israeli troops who were attempting to remove Bedouin trespassers from state land. Said one soldier: "'I saw one Bedouin attack a soldier with an ax ... others took out knives. One Bedouin scout serving with the army loaded his rifle and threatened to shoot US'" (Yediot Aharonot, January 6, 1980). The following was the headline of a page-one story in Maariv (June 19, 1979): "The Plague of Weapons Thefts from the Army and Their Sale to Arabs Worsens." The story said: "Recently an Israeli Arab, resident of Araba, was arrested. In his possession were seven 'Uzis' [automatic weapons] and two pistols." The question is: What purpose do the Arabs have in mind for these weapons and how many of them are in their possession today? With little fanfare, Israeli Arabs have taken part in terrorist actions against Israel and have joined the ranks of the PLO as active agents. The following is a small but representative list that tells part of the story of Israeli Arab ties to terrorism: 1. In July 1980 five Arabs from the Israeli village of Makr were arrested. They were charged with operating a Fatah (PLO) cell in their village and of having planted bombs in crowded Jewish areas on five separate occasions. The police chief of the Galilee, David Franco, told a press conference on July 20 that the fact that the five were Israeli citizens was cause for serious concern. The residents of the village of Makr, some four miles from Acre, live in brand-new apartments built for them by the government.
2. Headline in Maariv, October 29, 1979: "PLO Allocates Funds to Organize Young Arabs in Israel.” 3. "A young 24-year old Arab has been arrested for cooperating with Iraqi intelligence. ... The arrest surprised many in the old city of Acre, where he lives" (Yediot Aharonot, February 21, 1979). 4. Headline: "Mansour Kardush, Leader of El Ard (Anti-Israeli Group), Suspected of Connection with Terrorist Group" (Yediot Aharonot, February 18, 1979). 5. Headline: "Israeli Arab Arrested in Connection with Attacks as PLO Agent" (Yediot Aharonot, March 5, 1978). 6. "A secret wireless radio station capable of long-range transmissions has been discovered in the home of an Arab of the village of Kalansuwa in the Triangle, Salah Gzawi, 25. ... In Gzawi's home were also found two pistols and an 'Uzi' ..." (Maariv, February 22, 1976). 7. "Haifa: The police yesterday arrested five young Arabs in connection with the delayed-action hand grenades discovered in local cinemas. ... Three of the men are residents of the West Bank and the other two from the Acre area" (Jerusalem Post, July 18, 1973). 8. Headline: "Ten Arabs Arrested in Galilee; Suspected of Organizing Sabotage" (Maariv, June 21,1973). 9. "Six young Arabs, residents of Lydda, suspected of membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, planned to carry out in the next few days a series of attacks throughout the country. This was revealed by investigation of the suspects arrested October 30" (Maariv, November 19, 1972). 10. "Terror Cell Bared in Galilee Village "The security authorities have uncovered a six-man sabotage cell in Nahf, Western Galilee. ... The investigation established that the group was preparing to ambush army cars on Galilee roads and to carry out sabotage acts in the industrial plants of Carmiel ..." (Jerusalem Posf, October 10, 1971). 11. And from Eliyahu Amikam, columnist for Yediot Aharonot (July 12, 1974): "Ziad J'bali, commander of the band of murderers that carried out the operation in Ma'alot [where more than twenty schoolchildren were killed], was born in Tayba, Israel. Ahmed Abad Alal, the 'hero' of the Nahariya murders, spent the 23 years of his life in Acre, where he was born. ... 200 Israeli Arabs recently left the country. The papers wrote that

'apparently' they will join the terrorist groups. Two Hebrew U. graduates, attorney Sabry Jareis and Jazi Daniel, are now numbered among the ideologicians of the 'Palestine Liberation Movement.'“ A random sample; there are many more. Of course, the professional apologists will point out how many Arabs did not participate in anti-state activities. The Nazis might have also "proved" the "loyalty" of Belgians, Frenchmen, and Dutchmen by the low number of active underground people in these countries. Of course, few people have the courage to participate in dangerous activities. The question is: How many Arabs privately sympathize with and support the minority? The answer is: Many, very many. For years the signs have been there, the signs of an Israeli Arab population rapidly growing - in quantity, in quality, and in boldness. The alienation from and hatred of the Jewish state is so palpable as to be clear to all but those who will not see. And every so often voices are raised - voices of warning. Eli Reches is director of Tel Aviv University's Shiloah Institute for Middle Eastern Studies. On February 23, 1978, he spoke at a "day of study" of the Arab-Israeli question and issued the following warning: "Too little attention is being paid to the growing radicalization of Israeli Arabs, with the elite strata becoming increasingly ultranationalist." He added that even ostensible "moderates," like the Committee of Local Council Chairmen, have swung close to "extremist" lines. Reches is what is termed an "Arabist" - to wit, an official expert on Arab affairs. Israel, of course, abounds in such experts, all of whom raise fascinating questions, issue solemn warnings, and have not the slightest solution to offer. Worse, the majority of Israelis, including those in government, simply refuse to think seriously about the awesome problem. Like all governments that face excruciating questions, the Israeli government simply pushes the Arab problem out of sight and mind, hoping that it will somehow go away or that if the dam finally does burst, it will be after the present government has gone. But the hate and the danger grow and will not go away. A Hasidic Jew, Meir Yuskuvitz, went to the Western Wall to pray on the night of September 15, 1979. It was the eve of the Jewish Days of Penitence. His automobile broke down in the heart of the all-Arab area, and his son-in-law went for help. When he returned, he found Yuskuvitz shot dead. Terrorists took credit for the murder.

Not a week goes by that Jews are not beaten and women molested in the Old City of Jerusalem. Arab boldness grows in relation to the police response that they simply "cannot handle the situation." The pity, of course, is that more than half of the Old City police are Arab. ... But Arab boldness and brazenness are hardly limited to Jerusalem. When the settlers of Mei Ami complained to the local police about attacks by Arabs of the Triangle, Aaron Dolov of Maariv wrote (August 17, 1979): "To the great surprise of the settlers, they heard from the officers that 'we cannot cope with the problems. ... The Arabs of the Triangle hide their weapons in places that are difficult to uncover.'" Those weapons will someday be used against Jews. Hate? On May Day, 1976, at a huge Arab rally in Nazareth to celebrate brotherhood and solidarity, Samiah Al Kassen, an Israeli Arab poet, delighted the crowd by reading one of his works. The full text appeared on May 7 in the Arab-language newspaper Al-Atihad It reads, in part: O Joshua, son of Nun Listen! You stopped the sun on the walls of Jericho Did you satisfy the desire of your murderous God? You will murder in the day and inherit the murdered All the oceans in the world cannot clean your hands ... Who has the deed to the land, to history? Who has the deed? You have the weapons, the army, the clubs You have the flag, the newspapers, the embassies True, true: but in my pocket, I will preserve the deed; As long as there are stones on this land as long as there are empty bottles we will throw them on your tanks. Poetry is the marching tune of national rebellion. Israeli Arabs honor their poets especially when they write of the destruction of the Zionist

state. In February 1977 the PLO's press attache at the UN, Rashed Hussein, died in a New York City hotel fire. He had been born in the Israeli Arab village of Musmus, and on February 8 the Israeli government allowed his body to be buried there. Thousands of Arab citizens of Israel streamed through a muddy, winding path to hear Arab Knesset member Tewfik Zayad declare: "We shall never give in until the goal that Rashed Hussein and his friends [sic] advocated, fought for, and struggled for is fulfilled.” Hussein's "friends" are the PLO. We all know what they have "advocated, fought for, and struggled for." When an Israeli Arab, a Knesset member (and mayor of Nazareth), pledges to see that these are "fulfilled," what does that say about the Arabs of Israel? Too many simply do not understand that the Arab-Israeli question is not limited to one side of the "Green Line," the pre-June 1967 border. Of course, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) are claimed by the "Palestinians." But it is not only their cities and towns -- Hebron, Bethlehem, Shechem, Jericho -- that are in question. Nasir Ad-Din anNashashibi's book. Return Ticket, expresses the total aim: "Do you not remember Jaffa and its delightful shore, Haifa and its lofty mountain, Beth Shean and the fields of crops and fruit, Nazareth and the Christian bells. Acre and the fortress, the streets of Jerusalem, my dear Jerusalem, Tiberias and its peaceful shore with the golden waves ...?” Every one of the places mentioned is inside the State of Israel. They are what Nashashibi wishes to see under Arab rule. They are what every Israeli Arab - in different ways - would like to see under Arab rule. Do not underestimate the intensity of the desire or the hatred. The passionate hatred that an Israeli saw in the eyes of Israeli Arabs in Sakhnin on Land Day is reflected in Nashashibi's book: "I shall see the hatred in the eyes of my son and your sons. I shall see how they take revenge. ... I want them to wash away the disaster of 1948 with the blood of those who prevent them from entering their land. Their homeland is dear to them, but revenge is dearer. We will enter their lairs in Tel Aviv. We will smash Tel Aviv with axes, guns, hands, fingernails and teeth. ... We shall sing the hymns of the triumphed, avenging return.
II At a conference of the Galilee council held in Acre on December 26, 1979, delegates were told that at least four Arab villages in the Galilee now get substantial PLO funding in addition to Israeli government support. One name given was that of the village of Dir-AI-Asad, which 12 was sent $20,000 from a Scandinavian address. The money was used to defeat the council head and give victory to an "extremist.” On August 10, 1979, thirty-six Knesset members took part in a tour of the Golan Heights. Their guide was the head of the northern military command. General Ben-Gal. At Kibbutz Ein Zivan he told the thirty-six legislators: "First priority, today, must be given to the Jewish settlement in the Galilee, because of the growing strength of the Arab residents there. Their hatred of Israel is growing. Tliey are becoming a cancer in our body. ... They are waiting for the moment to hit us.” No matter that Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, engrossed in his love affair with the Arab on the Nile, criticized Ben-Gal, declaring that "the Arabs of the Galilee are citizens of Israel and no one has the right to question their loyalty." No matter that on top of that nonsequitur he ordered the general to "correct" the statement. No matter. Ben-Gal knew exactly what he was saying, because he understood the full dimension of the situation. When a general in the Israeli Defense Forces calls Israeli Arabs "a cancer," one is again confronted by the thousands of stunned Jews who ask: "What happened? The Arabs of Israel were always quiet, loyal citizens enjoying progress and equal rights. What caused them to change? What happened?' The answer is: Nothing. Nothing basic, nothing fundamental, has changed at all. The hatred was always there. The alienation was never absent. Objective, historical reasons prevented the reality from emerging during the first twenty years of the State of Israel, but those have passed. And the real reason Jews are so shocked today is that Israel never wanted to see the reality. The government and the people built elaborate illusions and self-delusions. We believed what we wanted to believe. But truth will out, and with a vengeance. The illusions are shattered, the delusions battered, and there is left only one last chance to face bitter reality