Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 2011, Pages 38-39
Southern California Chronicle
Arab Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi Derides Israel's Loyalty Oath for Non-Jews
By Pat and Samir Twair
Days after she was injured by Israeli police shooting rubber bullets during a violent march by right-wing Jewish extremists through the town of Umm al-Fahm calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel, Palestinian member of the Knesset (MK) Haneen Zoabi received a standing ovation in Southern California. The occasion was an Oct. 31 program hosted by the Palestinian American Women's Association (PAWA) in the La Mirada Holiday Inn.
Zoabi, who is from Nazareth, was elected to the Knesset in 2009 as a representative of the National Democratic party. In June, on the floor of the Knesset, right-wing MKs physically assaulted her and tried to strip her of her parliamentary rights in retaliation for her being aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara en route to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid (see August 2010 Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, p. 17). On May 31, Israeli commandos violently intercepted the vessel and killed nine passengers, including a Turkish-American citizen.
"I was proud to be with other 1948 Palestinians—as we call ourselves—aboard the aid ship," Zoabi said. "But when the Israeli attack boats and helicopters swarmed us and commandos boarded firing live ammunition, we knew we had a 50-50 chance of living or dying."
The Palestinian struggle didn't start in 1967, Zoabi likes to emphasize, but in 1948, when her forebears resisted expulsion and were banned from calling themselves Palestinians.
"Part of the Israeli strategy was to rob us of our identity and impose on us the name of Israeli Arabs," she explained. "In the parliament, we are referred to as non-Jews."
According to Zoabi, the estimated 150,000 Palestinians who remained inside Israel initially internalized their defeat. Over the years they coped by developing survival skills under harsh Israeli martial law.
It wasn't until the 1970s and 80s that the 1948 Palestinians and their descendants began to struggle for civil rights and equality, not unlike new Jewish immigrants to Israel. "We were third-class citizens, but we didn't immigrate to Israel," she pointed out, "Israel immigrated to us."
None of the 538 Palestinian villages and towns destroyed by Israelis in 1947/48 were rebuilt—but 373 Jewish towns and cities were established. Palestinians comprise 18 percent of Israel's population, Zoabi noted, but only 8 percent are employed in the public sector or enrolled in Israeli universities.
"There are 23 laws that discriminate against Palestinians," she told her audience. "Our children are educated in the Israeli curriculum to learn Jewish values, culture and the promised land of Israel, but they can't read the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. Israel tries to obliterate our national legacy, but the discrimination we endure daily reminds us we are Palestinians."
Zoabi compared Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's insistence that all non-Jews swear a loyalty oath to asking all minority Americans to pledge allegiance to a white Christian government.
During a question-and-answer session, Zoabi said the international condemnation of Israel's bloody takeover of the Gaza flotilla has taught the Zionists the world will no longer turn a blind eye to its crimes against humanity.
Ilan Pappe Addresses PCRF
On Oct. 23, more than 500 friends and supporters of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) Southern California chapter flocked to the Anaheim Hilton Hotel to hear a major address by Ilan Pappe, unquestionably one of the foremost scholars on the origins of Israel and its policies.
Stating that the genetic code of the Zionist mindset hasn't changed in more than a century, the Oxford-educated Israeli historian noted that when impoverished Zionists first arrived in Jaffa, they relied on Palestinians to teach them how to farm.
The newcomers wrote letters home complaining that Palestine was full of people, he noted. "Aliens are roaming our homeland," the Zionists grumbled.
"This mindset that the indigenous population was alien has remained unchanged," Pappe averred. "Colonialist movements never looked kindly on the locals, but this was the first time the original inhabitants were viewed as hostile strangers on their own land."
The lesson the Zionists learned during 1948 was that their expulsion of the indigenous population was tolerated by the international community. Only the U.S.S.R. voiced outspoken objections, Pappe said.
Observing that Americans have never heard honest analyses of Israeli policies, he argued that what's missing is a tough stance toward Israeli actions. "American politicians aren't willing to stand up to Israel and pay the price of telling the ugly truth. I know what it's like to be called a traitor," added Pappe, who in 2007 was forced to leave his job at Haifa University due to pressure from to right-wing Israelis. He now is a professor of history at the University of Exeter and director of the European Center for Palestine Studies.
The Palestinian minority that remained in Israel was persecuted from 1948 to 1966, he said, and more ethnic cleansing was carried out in 1967. Thereafter, the policy was to make life so bitter for the Palestinians that they'd emigrate, thus making it possible for the Zionist state to appear innocent of visibly ejecting the indigenous population.
According to Pappe, these myths no longer are working in Europe, where Israelis rarely are welcome and instead are disdained as much as white South Africans were in the 1980s.
"Keep in mind," he urged, "this is not a conflict between two national movements who will kiss each other ultimately. This is not a situation like India and Pakistan. This is purely a colonialist case. The so-called peace process is a charade allowing the Israelis to colonize more Palestinian land."
He went on to insist that all Israeli policies—past and present—must be acknowledged, explaining, "This isn't about revenge but restituting a normality of life." His solution is tripartite: acknowledgement of crimes of 1947/48, 1967, and the winter of 2008/09; accountability (boycott, divest, sanction); and acceptance of living in equality on the same land.
Muath Abu Rabea, 14, who is receiving treatment at Children's Hospital in L.A., was introduced onstage. On Jan. 4, 2009, during Israel's 22-day assault on Gaza, an Israeli bomb hit his home in the southern Gaza town of Beit Lahhya. Muath suffered extensive brain injuries, the loss of most of his teeth, and had to have his right leg amputated. While undergoing treatment in Southern California, his PCRF host parents are Mohamad and Nuha Hilasey of Corona.
In the past year, PCRF has provided medical treatment to 25 children in hospitals outside the Middle East, arranged 50 medical missions to Palestine and to refugee camps, sent wheelchairs and eyeglasses to children, and sponsored summer camps for disabled youngsters in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
CAIR/L.A. Hosts Annual Banquet
More than 2,000 guests gathered Oct. 30 in the Anaheim Hilton Grand Ballroom for the 14th annual banquet of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
"The Promise of the American Muslim Community" was the title of the keynote address by Dr. John Esposito, professor of religion and international affairs and of Islamic studies at Georgetown University.
While American Muslims were under attack by some powerful Islamophobic groups after 9/11, Dr. Esposito says the good news is that the community has fast- tracked economically, educationally and in integrating within the society in a matter of decades, compared to their brethren in Europe.
"The fact that CAIR and MPAC exist is important," Esposito declared. "Statistically, 80 percent of Muslim youth in the U.S.—and by that I mean anyone under the age of 60—acknowledge Islam is an important force in their lives, 70 percent believe they will succeed, 41 percent see themselves as thriving and 31 percent are fulltime students compared to a 10 percent rate in the rest of the nation. Muslim youth are in the lowest percentile of registered voters."
Islamophobia is nothing new, Esposito said, noting that Daniel Pipes was warning about the "Muslim threat" in the 1990s. However, he sees a problem in that the Obama administration should be addressing the civil liberties violations of American Muslims by Homeland Security in the post-9/11 era.
"President Obama has a great vision," he concluded, "but we want to see American Muslim leaders have the same access to the administration as spokesmen of other faiths have."
Awards were presented to 14 individuals and organizations who have stood up for American Muslims' First Amendment rights in the past year.
Pat and Samir Twair are free-lance journalists based in Los Angeles.
