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20 years to the events of October

"It was clear that something was getting out of hand, with no room for criticism": Back to the events of October 2000

Former Minister Matan Vilnai, who chaired the Committee on Israeli Arab Affairs, was summoned during the Yom Kippur fast.

Absorption Minister Yuli Tamir heard from students that the police were firing live at protesters.

20 years after the riots, the two return to moments that deepened the rift between the Arab population and the state

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• October 2000

• October events

• October riots

Eli Ashkenazi

Saturday, 03 October 2020, 12:14

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In the video: October 2000 events (Photo: Reuters and Adalah)

On the night of October 1, 2000, in Sydney, Australia, a telephone call from Israel arrived to former Minister Matan Vilnai.

On the line was the then Prime Minister, Ehud Barak.

"Matan, there are riots in the Arab communities, I ask you to return to Israel," he said.

Vilnai entered the political field about a year and a half earlier, after 36 years in the IDF, and after rejecting the proposal of the then prime minister - Benjamin Netanyahu - to join the Likud and become defense minister in his next government. Vilnai chose the Labor Party, and after Barak won and formed a government In addition, he was tasked with chairing a committee on Israeli Arab affairs.

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Violent demonstration in Ramallah.

October 2000 riots (Photo: Imagebank GettyImages)

Seven years earlier, during the Rabin government, the Israeli government had begun to change its attitude toward Arab citizens.

It was not just a matter of budgetary investment and affirmative action in public service appointments, but mainly in the declaratory level;

Already during the 1992 election campaign, Rabin said during a tour of Arab communities that he was ashamed of what he saw.

Immediately after he was elected, he told the Arab public representatives with whom he met that he was ashamed of the ongoing discrimination they were suffering from and pledged to act to correct it.

His commitments also highlighted various commitments, including closing social and economic gaps, comparing budgets, absorbing academics in the civil service, and more.

This policy changed after the assassination of Rabin and the establishment of the Netanyahu government in 1996.

"Things could have gone really crazy."

Vilnai (Photo: Nimrod Saunders)

With the establishment of the Vilnai Commission in 1999, this was a kind of declaration of intent that the government returned to Rabin's commitments.

In June 2000, it was announced that the budget earmarked for the implementation of this policy would be NIS 4 billion.

"Even if only half of the plan had materialized, everything would have looked different," Vilnai told Walla!

NEWS.

"There is talk of establishing industrial areas, investing in infrastructure and education and other areas."

To illustrate the importance of the committee he chaired, Vilnai noted that Ministers Yossi Beilin and Haim Oron (Jomes) were also members of it, although it is customary for no other ministers to serve on such committees.

After four months the events of October came and devoured the cards.

Like everyone else, Vilnai was surprised by the magnitude of the rift.

After the phone call with Barak, he returned to Israel early.

A later conversation, in which the prime minister updated that there was no need for him to return before the planned date because "we took control of the riots" - did not change that.

On the way, he heard in the cockpit that he would be the minister who would liaise with the heads of the Arab public.

"When I landed, I immigrated to Jerusalem. When I arrived at the Prime Minister's Office, Muhammad Zidane, then head of the Kfar Manda local council and chairman of the monitoring committee of the Israeli Arabs, had just left.

I went in and after a report was given to me, Barak told me to start working. "Vilnai remembers Yom Kippur the day when the clashes were about to escalate, or as he put it," things could have gone really crazy. "

One day in October

At noon on Saturday, October 7, three IDF soldiers, Omar Suwaed, Adi Avitan and Bnei Avraham, were abducted on Mount Dov. The unrest of the Jewish public had already begun in the country, but Yom Kippur came in and the area seemed to calm down. I also did that day, "recalls Vilnai." but in the morning I got a phone Nazareth has a tremendous fuss and killed and asked me to go there. "

That day there were violent clashes between Jews and Arabs on the border between Upper Nazareth (today view Galilee) and Nazareth. police force intervened. difficult events killed two residents of Nazareth, Omar Mohammed Akawi Wisam Hamdan Izbac. along with Yossi Melamed, assistant to the minister of public security, increased Vilnai north, the vehicle police.

"it was during Yom Kippur, I could not drive my car," he reiterated. office of Menachem Ariav, the mayor of Nazareth, held a meeting in which Ramez Jarisi, the mayor of Nazareth, also participated. "There was a lot of tension, but they both worked to calm the winds.

I knew that if the leadership acted, it would end in peace. "

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"Something got out of hand."

Demonstrations in East Jerusalem, October 2000 (Photo: Imagebank GettyImages)

Yuli Tamir, then the Minister of Absorption, was the one who only four months earlier, announced on behalf of the Prime Minister the plan for the four billion shekels to be invested in Arab society.

Now, she, too, is surprised at the outbreak of violence.

"The atmosphere was very difficult," she said.

"It was clear that something was going out of control, a feeling that things of great significance were happening, on a scale we did not know, it was definitely a big surprise."

She also recalled how at the beginning of the events, students she taught at Tel Aviv University called to tell her that the police were using live fire against the protesters.

"I said that at a cabinet meeting and it was not answered. They questioned things. Then it turned out that the information was correct."

Tamir believes that "the police are trying to justify things and there was no effort to examine things in real time."

"The atmosphere was very difficult."

Tamir (Photo: Nimrod Saunders)

Back to Yom Kippur;

After leaving Upper Nazareth, Vilnai arranged to meet with the monitoring committee and told Zidane that he was coming to the village of Manda.

"It was clear to me that I would come there. I was not afraid. You are running forward in such a situation. But I was told that I would not be able to enter the village of Manda and that the meeting would take place at the neighboring Kibbutz Hanaton."

On the way there, there is another meeting.

"I called Alik Ron (then the Northern District Police Chief) and told him, 'Let's meet at the carrier junction.' Alik was my officer in the General Staff patrol.

It was important for me to talk to him.

He said he was busy, but I explained to him that it was important, "Vilnai recalled.

" We sat on stones, like once in a unit, and talked.

"I brought my experience as a commander-in-chief in Gaza during the intifada and told him to stop firing," he said. "Alik told me I was the first to talk to him.

I felt what he was going through.

As Commander-in-Chief I remembered what it was like to be alone and it was not easy.

I felt a partnership with him, because I was already in the same place. "

"The shooting only fuels the fire."

Demonstration to mark the tenth anniversary of the events of October, 2010 (Photo: Nimrod Saunders)

Vilnai said that he opposed the shooting, that apart from the price it charges in human life, it only leads to deterioration and escalation.

"Using force is an automatic response. Power also gives at first a feeling that you have succeeded, only then do you realize that it is a wrong feeling. Shooting only ignites the fire and anyone who has studied history understands what I am talking about," he claimed.

From there he proceeded to a meeting with the Monitoring Committee.

"They were about to declare three days of general strike. It was clear that these were days when there would be an escalation and there would be more riots and deaths," he recalled.

"I told them that I understand the anger, but now they have a responsibility not to bring about a complete prima facie of relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel. They made a brave decision and announced the cancellation of the strike."

"Without a real discussion"

A day later, Vilnai's office moved to the government compound between Nazareth and Upper Nazareth.

"There was a feeling then that I was in the crater of a volcano. There was great anger, immense hostility and complete distrust of the government. These were difficult days. In the end it calmed down," he said.

One of his memories of those turbulent days is that the prime minister, Barak, "controlled the business."

He also notes Barak's decision to invest four billion shekels in Arab communities even before the events.

Tamir, on the other hand, believes that "Barak did not allow a real discussion in the government on what was happening. I remember that I did not receive an answer to things I raised. The government then had reservations, questions and doubts, but no answers were received. I felt there was no room for criticism."

Demonstration in East Jerusalem, October 2000 (Photo: Imagebank GettyImages)

According to Vilnai, even before the events of October 2000 - and since then even more so - he warned and continues to warn about the large gaps between Jews and Arabs in Israel and about the displacement of years.

"The plan we promoted before the riots was supposed to start tackling it, but then the government fell and I was left with a big sense of miss that we did not manage to implement the plan," he said.

He said, "Israeli Arabs should feel equal citizens. There is a desire among many in Arab society to integrate and there are also examples of this, but we must constantly strive for equality."

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