The Arab community has plenty to criticise. They’re afraid to express it
Why has no one spoken out against the persecution of Arab citizens? None has spoken out against the war, devastation and destruction, why? ■ We are talking about the elite of the Palestinian community in Israel, people head and shoulders above the crowd, with a morally-driven commitment to their own people on the other side of the frontier. ■ On October 7, we remembered that our lives here are still under Occupation.
By Hanin Majadli • Translated by Sol Salbe
Over the past decade, the achievements scored by members of the Arab community in Israel have been quite significant, mainly as individuals. Almost in line with the sharp rise in organised crime in Arab society, there has been a meteoric rise in the integration of Arabs into the Israeli economy and community footprint: in the health and welfare systems, in the public sector, in the banking sector, in television, in academe, civil society organisations, and in high-tech. Medicine is a good example: the number of doctors from the Galilee town of Arraba is among the highest in Israel (and in the world), and during the pandemic it was mainly Arab doctors who staffed the coronavirus frontline; Arab doctors even began to fill senior positions in the health system.
This meteoric rise meant that neither the war nor the deterioration in relations between Jews and Arabs could persuade the financial newspaper Globes to give up on holding the Potential and Yield conference of the Arab community in Israel. It included senior Arab officials: the head of the Authority Economic Development Authority in Arab society, CEOs and their deputies, banking operation directors and more. In short it was a celebration of integration. Seemingly, in terms of incorporation and integration, the situation is better than ever.
So how is it possible that since October 7, none of the well-integrated senior officials, has publicly criticised what is happening in the Gaza Strip? None has spoken out against the war, devastation and destruction, why? Why has no one spoken out against the persecution of Arab citizens? We are talking about the elite of the Palestinian community in Israel, people head and shoulders above the crowd, with a morally-driven commitment to their own people on the other side of the frontier.
Since it’s almost impossible to believe that they didn’t want to utter a word of criticism, the conclusion must be that they were afraid to express it. Maybe because they saw what happened to singer Dalal Abu Amneh following a contribution she shared with her followers, which said “there is no winner but God.” The singer and her husband, Dr Anan Abbasi, live in Afula near HaEmek Hospital. Four months before October 7, Dr Abbasi was appointed to the position of the hospital’s deputy director . Since that social media contribution at the beginning of the war, the family has been through a nightmarish journey fuelled by their neighbours.
Perhaps the fear is because of what happened to Dia Saba, a senior player for Maccabi Haifa football club, whose wife wrote on her Instagram story that “there are children in Gaza as well” Even after apologising for his wife’s story (a mistake, in my opinion) and even when his wife backtracked and tried to explain her intentions (that children are children), he was “exiled” from the team last season, disappeared, and even today, nine months later, when the management and coach want him back, some of the crowd still objects and boos him. (And it would be superfluous to mention Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian.)
This apparently explains the silence of Arab officials. Has anyone heard, for example, of a statement from the Arab rector of Haifa University about the persecution of Arab students? Or the Arab Deputy Vice Chancellor of the same university? I haven’t heard.
Already on the morning of October 7, the Palestinian Arab citizen, and even those who may regard themselves as “Israeli Arabs” — even if they are integrated, hold a senior position, academic, elitist — understood that they have no protections. That all the symbolic and economic capital they have accumulated comes with very limited liability indeed. It’s all an illusion: no status, no power, no ranking on any list of influencers.
On October 7, we remembered that our lives here are still under Occupation.
