by Mike Prashker* , August 2006
While Hezbollah’s missiles are hitting both Jewish and
Arab-Israeli communities, it is already clear that the war is placing
still more strain on relations between Israel’s Jewish majority and
Arab minority.
Many Jewish and Arab-Israelis, even colleagues
in the “co-existence” education community, seem shocked at how
differently we view the war. Not content with arguing over the facts
and their interpretation, we even argue about the way we should
respectively feel. But it is well known that collective memories and
distinct historical experiences powerfully shape the way in which we
understand the world. So we should not be surprised or dismayed.
Jewish
and Arab-Israeli citizens generally view the war very differently. Many
Israelis remain insensitive to the genuine pain and fears of their
fellow citizens. Jewish-Israelis need to appreciate that Arab-Israelis
are inevitably torn by the fighting between their State and their
People. Many Arab-Israelis have family in Lebanon and this war, like
those that preceded it, arouses their most painful memories and deepest
fears.
But many Arab-Israelis have either not felt or
demonstrated empathy for the genuine fears of most Jewish-Israelis.
Arguments about Israel’s far greater military strength as compared to
Hezbollah, fail to recognize the primal Jewish “expulsion-holocaust”
nerve that Sheik Nasrallah and his Iranian backers, intentionally or
otherwise, have touched. Arab-Israeli complaints of fatigue after
almost 60 years of bearing the weight of painful Jewish history and
living under the stubborn shadow of suspicion, might be understandable,
but are unhelpful.
Understanding the fears and anxieties of
Jewish-Israelis does not of course mean that Arab-Israelis cannot
condemn the war, which is the legitimate democratic right of every
Israeli citizen.
We all need to do better at acknowledging and
accommodating each others’ now intimately interwoven traumas. If we
cannot do so, Israeli society could fragment. The Balkan experience
and, ironically, the Lebanese one, are unfortunately both relevant.
While
the guns are firing, everyone involved in building better Jewish-Arab
relations needs to operate in a damage-control mode. We need as much
dialogue as possible within our community, to listen to each other much
more and judge each other far less.
Once the guns fall silent,
we will need to work much harder to construct a shared civic
consciousness that is meaningful for all Israelis – something that we
are yet to achieve. We will need to address the underlying causes of
the deep tensions that the war has highlighted and aggravated. Young
Jewish and Arab-Israelis, who live and learn separately, will need to
be educated to overcome mutual ignorance and prejudice, to become more
comfortable with their fellow citizens.
The deep social and
economic inequalities fatally highlighted by the lack of bomb-shelters
in Arab-Israeli communities, will need to be addressed. The levels of
economic disparity between Israel’s rich and poor that have already
eroded solidarity between Jewish-Israelis are even wider and more
corrosive between Jewish and Arab-Israelis.
Jewish-Israelis
will need to finally come to terms with the fact that fully 20% of
their fellow citizens (and a third of all school students) are Muslim,
Christian and Druze. Political and public discourse will need to
belatedly change to include and thereby dignify all Israel’s citizens.
Such
a newly inclusive civic awareness and reality can be crafted in ways
that need not threaten, but can rather reinforce, Israel’s unique
status as national homeland to the Jewish People. Alongside achieving
equal rights and opportunities for Arab-Israelis, practical steps could
be taken that would themselves go a long way to addressing deep
alienation. The instigation of a “Citizens’” day to celebrate the
diversity of Israeli society and the development of a civic service
corps as an alternative to military service for Arab-Israelis could be
two such positive steps.
And finally, as this war is so
tragically highlighting, we all need to hope and work for regional
reconciliation. While not a prerequisite to sustainable co-existence,
such an accommodation, along with all its blessings, will make normal
civic relations between Jewish and Arab-Israelis far simpler, by
reducing mutual fears and extracting Arab-Israelis from between the
rock and the hard place that they currently inhabit.
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*
Mike Prashker is founder and
director of “MERCHAVIM – The Institute for the Advancement of Shared
Citizenship in Israel”.
