Ben-Gurion and Tewfik Toubi Finally Meet (October 28, 1966)

Introduction

THIS PAPER RECORDS A CONVERSATION between David Ben-Gurion and Arab MK (Member of Knesset) Tewfik Toubi, from the Rakach (New Communist) list. The fact that Ben-Gurion rarely met with Israeli Arab public figures makes this a unique record. Like many of Israel's leaders, Ben-Gurion was deeply suspicion of the country's Arab population, especially with regard to their loyalty to the state. Indeed he believed that any dialogue with Arabs was a waste of time, since both sides would tend to remain unconvinced of each other's viewpoint, and become more deeply entrenched in their own positions. Further, he felt that encounters between Jews and Arabs would have supplied the latter with an opportunity to accuse state officials and security forces of repressive activity. ²

The Rakach party was established in 1965, on the eve of elections to the Sixth Knesset and as the result of a split within Maki (Israel Communist Party). Although the break-away group consisted mostly of Arabs, there was also a number of Jews, including the party's leader, Meir Wilner. The new party quickly became a meeting ground for Arabs with a distinctly nationalist orientation, as was expressed by its leadership's statements, and the composition and activism of its members and other supporters. On international issues Rakach members obediently toed the official Soviet line, and especially vis-a-vis the Arab-Israel conflict. The party's dominant ideology blamed Israel for the absence of peace in the Middle East. ³

At the time of his 1966 meeting with Toubi, Ben-Gurion had been out of government for almost three and half years. He had resigned from office on June 16, 1963 and was succeeded by Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. A deep rift had developed between the two men during the years prior to Ben-Gurion's resignation, which eventually forced Ben-Gurion and his supporters to leave Mapai (Israel Workers Party) and establish a new platform, known by the acronym "Rafi" (Israeli Workers' List). Ben-Gurion led his new party in the November 1965 elections as an independent faction and suffered an electoral trouncing. The split in Mapai grew after the electoral defeat of Rafi and Ben-Gurion found himself increasingly isolated, as many of his supporters began to cast doubt, secretly and openly, as to the wisdom of his political maneuvering.

Under these political and personal circumstances, Ben-Gurion felt that the time had come to initiate a candid dialogue with a Rakach MK, whom he regarded as a tough but honest political rival.

Tewfik Toubi, a Christian Arab Communist, was a member of the Israeli Knesset from 1949 to 1990. Like other Israeli Arabs who had first hand experience of the painful rupture of the 1948 war, Toubi behaved, for all practical purposes, as if he had reconciled himself to the existence of the Jewish state of Israel. Nonetheless, he insisted that Israel fulfil its obligation to grant equal rights to the Arab minority. ⁴

Toubi was born in Haifa in 1922. He joined the Palestine Communist Party (PCP) in 1941 and two years later, together with other Arab figures, such as Emile Tome and Emile Habibi, founded the "National Liberation League," that vehemently opposed the United Nations Partition Plan. However, after hearing Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko's speech at the U.N. General Assembly in favor of partition, Toubi decided to support the plan as being the only practical solution for the region. After Israel's 1948 War of Independence, Toubi and his colleagues blamed the "imperialistic powers, the "reactionary Arab leadership," and the government of Israel for failing to establish a Palestinian state in part of Palestine. Once Israel became a fact, Toubi served in the PCP secretariat and became the party's representative in the first Knesset. In July 1990, having served forty-two years in the Knesset, Toubi resigned as a result of a dispute in the...