1-03-07, 9:47 am
'Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel' (Future Vision) published by the Higher Follow Up Committee of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel last month is extraordinary in a number of senses. First, the 27-page detailed programmatic document was issued under the auspices of the Higher Follow Up Committee, which is by far the most representative body of Palestinian society. Second, the document is based on a wide consensus reached by scores of academicians and public figures who come from all sections of the Palestinian public in Israel. Third, the document presents, in addition to a clear bill of indictment against continuing discrimination by all Israeli governments, a radical reconceptualization of Palestinian collective rights and formulates bold demands in this area.
The Central Issue and the Usual 'Liberal' Advice
With the exception of right-wing nationalists (and there is no shortage of this species around here) most of the political groups in the country accept, in principle, that the Palestinian Arabs in Israel ought to enjoy full rights as citizens. Of course, in reality, this principle is violated daily in every walk of life.
This is not the place to discuss the infinite list of evasions and arguments designed to justify why the principle of individual equality is a dead letter. Our discussion, which is based on the innovative contributions of the 'Future Vision', will center on the collective rights of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel.
The Fear of Collective Rights
The 'Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel' 'succeeded' in evoking a storm of liberal disapproval. The (very illiberal) liberal message was quite clear, to the point of being menacing: I, as a liberal Jewish Israeli, am willing to support you, in principle in your battle for full individual rights. But the demand for collective rights arouses suspicion as to your real intentions. It is therefore catastrophic. If you were to abandon this fiction about collective rights, which would damage the nature of Israel as a Jewish state, we could make some serious advances on the path to equality.
The left in Israel, including sections of the Zionist left have held for many years that it is unjust and even impossible to separate between the two aspects of the struggle for equality – the fight for rights as a citizen and for collective rights for the Arab national minority. The Arabs in Israel have rights as individuals and rights as a national minority. There is nothing surprising or subversive about the fact that Israel's Arab citizens are holding serious, in depth discussions designed to define their collective rights and the strategy for realizing them. It is the duty of the democratic forces in Israel to explain and emphasize that the recognition of collective rights is not tantamount to encouragement for isolationism or separation from the state. Collective rights are perfectly harmonious with democratic principle.
Comparison Between the Israeli Communist Party (CPI) Positions and the 'Future Vision'
In order to analyze the newer elements in the 'Future Vision' it is worth our while to compare the main features of the recent document with the more traditional policy on this question articulated in the CPI program. Even in the eyes of many opponents, the CPI, is recognized as the major force in the historical struggles of the Arab minority in Israel against discrimination, in exposing government policy and organizing political opposition to it. The CPI had raised the demands for recognition of collective rights since the 1970's. Naturally, there are many common features in the two documents. But the differences are of significant importance.
Many of the new elements in the 'Future Vision' are not dealt with in the CPI material and many of the concepts in the 'Future Vision' are characteristic of terminology associated with the conception of 'civil society.' The 'Future Vision' problematizes the question of identity, and calls for the 'crystallization of the identity of the Palestinian minority in Israel.' The 'Future Vision' defines Israel as an ethnocratic state and refuses to see the discrimination against the Palestinian Arabs in Israel as merely an expression of the weaknesses or limits of Israeli democracy. Those who composed the 'Future Vision' emphasize the establishment of a broad network of independent, autonomous institutions as a central strategy in the struggle for collective rights.
The CPI decisions do not see the need for the 'crystallization' of the Arab minority's identity, but instead poses the need to build up a dominant political identity in the Arab sector. For the CPI, the question of identity exists in the realm of political struggle between the different currents within the Arab community and not as a requirement for expressing national unity.
For the CPI, the main instrument in the struggle for equality is mass public struggle with an emphasis on the qualitative role of united Jewish-Arab struggle. The CPI does not express any enthusiasm for the proliferation of independent institutions. This seems to be the continuation of its reservations regarding suggestions such as a parliament of Arabs in Israel or cultural autonomy. Moreover, the CPI for its part is concerned at the rise of fundamentalism in the Arab community and warns against isolationist trends. The 'Future Vision', by its very nature as a representative document of all the Palestinian currents, avoids the discussion of internal contradictions.
The 'Future Vision' is built around a transitional program moving away from the existing system of organization of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, which is built on inter-party coordination, when possible, towards a level of unity that would minimize the differences within the Palestinian Arab community and seek to overcome these differences through a network of public institutions. It is necessary to say a word regarding the NGO's which have a prominent role in the Palestinian public. The CPI has warned against a tendency to have the NGO's supplant the role of the political parties and criticized their tendency to supply services which should come from the government. The CPI considered it necessary to remind the public that the NGO's are not exactly independent organizations and that they are by and large dependent on funding from 'philanthropic' sources. Indeed, for better or worse, the spirit of the Arab NGO's is evident in the content and the style of the 'Future Vision'. This in many senses is natural since these NGO's have become the center of activity and political thinking among the Palestinians in Israel.
Beginning the Debate
The framers of the 'Future Vision' have stressed that its publication should be seen as a basis for opening the debate on its contents. We will have to follow the development of the debate and the implementation of various decisions by the Follow Up Committee. We will have to see the response from various sections of the Palestinian community and especially the left.
Though the 'Future Vision' stresses that it has not dealt with all the relevant questions, it is disturbing that only a few words discuss the impact of the occupation and its relation to the development of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel. Of course, the Arabs in Israel have every reason and justification to look inwards in search for ways to influence their future, but any analysis that fails to deal with the impact of the overall struggle of the entire Palestinian people at this stage would be painfully incomplete.
--Reuven Kaminer lives in Jerusalem. Read his blog at www.reuvenkaminer.com/english.
