Dialogue, Conflict Resolution, and Change: Arab-Jewish Encounters in Israel

CHAPTER 3. ARAB-JEWISH CONFLICT IN ISRAEL: HISTORICAL, SOCIAL, AND POLITICAL BACKGROUND

1 Arab-Jewish Conflict in Israel zyxwvutsrqponmlkji Historical, Social, and Political Background CONTEXT OF ARAB-JEWISH RELATIONS IN ISRAEL With the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, a minority of 156,000 Palestinians of an estimated 1.5 million remained under the authority of the newly established Jewish state. This resulted in a sudden shift in the status of this small Palestinian community from being members of an Arab majority to being a minority. There are 700,000 Arabs in Israel and they comprise 17 percent of the Israeli population.1 Since 1948, the Arab-Jewish conflict in Israel has been predicated on three main factors: 1. The establishment of the State of Israel on Arab lands, followed by Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, and the absence of a political framework of self-determination for Palestinians in general.2 2. The social, economic, and political inequalities resulting from a discriminatory policy inherent in the definition of Israel as a Jewish state. 3. The Arab traditional and nonindustrial social and cultural structure as opposed to the dominant Western-type Jewish social and cultural structure. Much research and many studies present empirical data supporting the influence of each of these three main sets of factors on the Arab-Jewish conflict in Israel: Rosenfeld, 1980; Tessler, 1980; A1 Haj, 1987; Smooha, 1984; Smooha and Peretz, 1980; Mari'i, 1978; Zuriek, 1979; Lustick, 1980; and others. 29 Arab-Jewish Conflict in Israel zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYX 30 Ian Lustick's (1980) research considers the three previous categories in one of the most comprehensive studies. According to his analysis, the Jewish Zionist movement, represented by the Israeli government from 1948, managed to control the Arab community in Israel by establishing a control system that has three main components: (a) Segmentation compromises both isolation of Arabs from Jews and the internal fragmentation of the Arab community, (b) Dependence constitutes the conditions created to perpetuate the economic and political reliance of Arabs on the Jewish majority, (c) Cooptation is described as the use of side payments to Arab elites, or potential elites, in order to extract resources and maintain effective surveillance of the community. (Lustick, 1980:77) Such a control system resulted in a great deal of inequality and discrimination against Arabs on all levels of legal status, economics, and policy. Kretzmer (1991) listed overt statuary discrimination, covert discrimination , and institutional discrimination as three different types of direct and indirect discrimination toward Arabs in Israel. The main source of discrimination is reflected in the Jewishness of the state, which is expressed in the flag, anthem, celebrations, feasts and national holidays, language, and other cultural symbols. Legally, there are several laws to ensure the Jewishness of the state. The law of return ensures the ultimate right of any Jew on this earth to immigrate to Israel. Such a right is granted to any person with a Jewish mother and to his or her children. The law of citizenship grants Israeli citizenship to any Jewish immigrant and to those who were present in Israel after 1952. The law of the land indicates that lands in Israel belong to the Keren Kiemit of Israel (a Jewish organization). These lands cannot be transferred or sold to nonjews. Thus, Israel is a national property of its Jewish citizens, and it cannot reflect any national aspiration of the Arab minority. Any Israeli company that has a Jewish national goal excludes the Arabs from its services, membership , and interest. The application of such laws contradicts the democratic principles that Israel claims to follow in the independence charter, which indicates that all Israeli citizens will be treated equally without regard to race, religion, gender, and so on. In terms of official policy, the main consideration of the Jewish government since 1948 regarding Arabs in Israel is described by Bligh (1991), who divides the government policy toward its Arab population into three phases: (a) 1948 to 1966, (b) 1967 to 1977, and (c) 1978 to 1987.3 Until 1987, the policy was one of segregation and separation in order to prevent the integration of Arabs into Israeli high governmental offices and, ostensibly, to protect the security of Israel. Such policy guided the 31zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDC Arab-Jewish Conflict in Israel military administration of Arabs from 1948 to 1987. However, since 1987, Bligh argues, there has been a decrease in the security-oriented policy because there has been...