Muhammad Darawshe, who founded Ma'an, and Nail Zoabi, who may be in the Likud, attack the joint list, seeking to influence one government also demands recognition of national rights for the Arab minority • The other is content with civil equality, and recognizes the rights of Jews in Israel • Who will the sector go after?
"In my view, Israel is both the state of the Jewish people and the state of all its citizens."
Muhammad Darawshe at his home in the village of Iksal
Photography:
Gil Eliyahu-Ginny
If Muhammad Darawshe is a barometer of the behavior of the Arab sector in the upcoming elections, then the joint list, as well as Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud, have cause for concern.
Darawshe, head of the new Arab party "Ma'an" (together), is far from the views expressed by his more famous cousin, the former MK for Labor and MDA, 'Abd al-Wahab Darawshe.
That Darawshe advocated the abolition of the Jewish character of the state and once even admitted that many of his marches were done on the orders of Yasser Arafat.
The young Darawshe, who many years ago served as his older cousin's parliamentary assistant, speaks differently.
"The State of Israel," he says, "is a Jewish and democratic state. The four Arab parties, which are in the Knesset today, know that the election law is a gift from their tenure in the Knesset in acceptance of this principle.
Darawshe clarifies that "It is explicitly written on the entrance gate to the Knesset: 'Jewish and democratic'. These are the rules of the game in the State of Israel. We accept this and come to play the Israeli game 'All-In'. Which blocks the political influence of Arab society. "
But Darawshe's pragmatism ends when it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ma'an almost certainly belongs to a bloc of non-Bibi parties, although it does not define itself as such.
"This is Bibi who belongs to the 'just not Arabs' camp," Darawshe accuses. I do not believe him. "
Darawshe, director of the Center for Equality and Joint Society in Givat Haviva and a faculty member at the Shalom Hartman Institute, clarifies right now that if his party succeeds in blocking the percentage, it will not be less than repealing the Nationality Law, repealing the Kaminitz Law and repealing 28 other sections of Israeli law. ".
"Only if Netanyahu makes this amendment will we treat it differently," he clarifies.
Darawshe describes the "fake meeting," as he defines it, between Netanyahu and the mayor of Nazareth, Ali Salam, as a sham meeting.
"Poor Ali Salam," he says, "his municipality is in debt of NIS 172 million. He has no choice but to play this game against the prime minister, who is the owner of the century."
"The public is asleep on guard"
except that Darawshe is only one side of the new political game in the Arab sector;
The one that now openly strives for influence and full partnership in the decision-making process including sitting in the next government;
The one that attacks the joint list for being "mostly representative of anger, and not striving for influence from within," he said.
The other face of this discourse is Nail Zoabi, a resident of the village of Nin, an educator and society and until recently the principal of the elementary school in Tamra.
Zoabi, a Likud member, believes in Netanyahu.
Four years ago, "not in the election season," Netanyahu visited the school that Zoabi ran and was received there with the respect reserved for counts and kings.
Nail Zoabi // Photo: Abed Zoabi
Zoabi describes the process that is now taking place between the Zionist parties and the Arabs of Israel as "a kind of fall of the Berlin Wall."
no less.
"We wish for this day," he declares excitedly.
In the case of Zoebi the excitement is authentic.
For more than a decade, he has been trying to "bring the State of Israel to the Arab public," and is repeatedly threatened with it, but does not give up.
"For many years, the Jewish parties have kept their feet off the Arab sector, and on the other hand, the Arab parties have done everything to make themselves tired of the Jewish public and the government," says Zoabi.
"Their representatives supported terrorism and did not spare expressions of sympathy with those who seek to destroy the State of Israel. They forgot that they were supposed to represent the interests of Israeli Arabs and not of West Bank and Gaza Arabs. This led to Abbas bothering himself at the funeral of former President Shimon Peres. The MKs from the joint list boycotted it.
According to Zoabi, "40 percent of the residents of the Palestinian Authority, according to opinion polls, support normalization with the State of Israel, while Arab MKs, citizens of the State of Israel, who serve in its legislature, oppose normalization and peace agreements with Arab states.
This is insane conduct.
"We are on the verge of a historic opportunity unparalleled since the beginning of the conflict over Palestine in the days of Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini," he said. "If the Arabs outside Israel learn to make peace and normalize with Israel, it is easy for Arab parties to make peace and reach understandings. With the Israeli government. The Arab MKs will not be able to continue to block this inevitable process. "
Zoabi accuses the Arab public of" falling asleep on guard, when he repeatedly chose the joint list. "
The joint excelled in expressing anger and frustration, but its boycott of real partnership between Jews and Arabs and integration into government and government - is a mistake for generations.
Now they are under atomic pressure, because they feel that I and many others like me are pulling the rug under their feet. "
Zoabi belongs to a clan with a rich past in the Israeli establishment and politics. He is far from those of former MK Hanin Zoabi from Balad, who participated in the Palestinian flotilla to Gaza. And several times closer to the moderate positions held by his father, 'Abd al-Karim Zoabi, head of the Bustan al-Marj regional council, or to those of the late sons of Zoabi:' Abd al-Aziz a-Zoabi, who served as mayor of Nazareth and deputy health minister, Rahman Zoabi, who served as a judge in the District Court and judicial practice in the Supreme Court.
Zoabi (50) is currently the hottest name in exchange betting armor Arab Likud list in the coming. he promises to go on with the Likud even if they skip it and someone else from the Isoriin.
"We want 21 percent"
Even if Zoabi represents the general public, he is among the few who expresses things so clearly: "I am a proud Israeli Arab.
I have no other country or country.
I have no other flag.
I also have no problem with 'Hope'.
I am a proud Arab and Muslim and as such know that the Jewish people have historical and religious rights in the Land of Israel.
However, "he emphasizes," the State of Israel has a civic and moral duty to ensure equality and full rights for its Arab citizens. "
Zoabi is interviewed from Nazareth." Only a few minutes ago, "he says," there were shootings here.
In the center of Tel Aviv this would not have been possible.
Although the government has set up nine new police stations in Arab localities, this is not enough.
Every week people are murdered by crime gangs.
If the police are unable to deal alone, the IDF and the GSS should be brought in here as well.
Muhammad Darawshe The winds of change are more minor. Darawshe is by no means ready for the IDF to operate among the Arab population The military administration? "
He wondered.
He also objected to the GSS's involvement in trying to eradicate the state's failure in the war on Arab crime, and commented critically that "the GSS may already be here," since "it is sometimes claimed that it used criminals from the Arab sector to gather information from them in the security field."
Prime Minister Netanyahu and Prime Minister Nazareth Ali Salam, last week // Photo: Haim Tzach The
failure in the face of rising crime in the Arab sector is twofold: "Both Arab society and the government. We as a society have become indifferent. Many live in their apartments, in their villas, "They do not care about what happens outside. It is a disintegration process that endangers Arab society. Crime families have taken over many positions of power and prevented social leaders from taking the initiative into their own hands. In the current reality, it is difficult to even run sulha committees."
At the same time, Darawshe accuses, "the state is gone, the police are weak, the courts are forgiving and the community policing is in great shortfall. For every shekel that the state invests in our community policing, it invests 7 shekels in Jewish society."
After the 47-year-old Darawshe is included in the "Ma'an" list for the 24th Knesset, Iman Gera Elmalk (40), claims Sharit and the director of public relations at Al-Qasmi College in Baqa al-Gharbiya, and Jeres Matar, former head of the Eilabun council.
Later in the list, Darawshe intends to include Jews as well.
Maan, he said, will deal extensively with social and economic issues.
"We will not enter a government that does not guarantee in advance the enactment of a Basic Law: Equality for all citizens and the adoption of the principle of equal citizenship as a basis for a common society between Arabs and Jews. We do not want crumbs, but an equal and legitimate share of the pie in the Civil Service Commission. And less than 1.5 percent in universities, but we are 21 percent of the population. "
Between nationality and human dignity
as opposed to Zoabi, Darawshe asks that the state also recognize the “national rights” of the Arab minority and not just its civil rights.
"The right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own, and the right of a majority to define the state as it wishes," he says, "but if it wants the minority to accept this definition, it must grant the minority equal rights and recognize it as a national minority. "In which 47 countries are members, a definition has been formulated for the rights of national minorities. They have applied this in 23 cases. This also applies to the State of Israel."
"In my view," Darawshe explains, "Israel is both the state of the Jewish people, and the state of all its citizens; not only that and not only that. I do not see this as a contradiction. Contrary to the nationality law that makes a hierarchy between Judaism and democracy, a law that is wrong in my eyes, I live in peace "With the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, there - Jewish and democratic are two equal and non-hierarchical values. In contrast to the Nationality Law, which seeks to establish Jewish supremacy over us, Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty does not put Judaism before democracy, leaving the Arab citizen breathing space."
Nail Zoabi was the director of the first Arab school in the country to recruit national service volunteers in the Arab sector.
"I am not seeking national recognition," he declares immediately.
"I am an Israeli citizen. Dot. I protested and protested against discrimination and neglect in Arab localities, but I will also praise many investments made there in recent years. At the same time I have been condemning, active, terrorism and violence of any kind. This is how I behaved when the three boys were abducted. "Bereaved people who lost their loved ones in terrorist acts. I represent not only myself but many of Israel's Arabs. It is certainly not related to the election. That is who I am."
Last Saturday, Zoabi appeared with "Ofira and Berkowitz."
He felt that he was being treated there as a "traitor and hypocrite. From the narrow point of view of them and my opponents, it would be better for me to stay in the Arab box that kicks in the country, which protests against it, dragged in demonstrations; I will continue to be on the side of those spitting at policemen."
I'm not there and I assure you most Arabs are not there.
This is a quiet majority, and I express it.
Netanyahu, whom I support, has done a lot at the level of current budgets and development budgets for Israeli Arabs.
Anyone who examines the data objectively will see that.
"" We will not be pushed to a solution "
The debate between Darawshe and Zoabi, who were interviewed for" Israel this week "separately, is mostly conscious. Both strive for complete civic equality. Both understand that the Jewish character of the state is a fait accompli. Darawshe sees the half-empty glass: 47 percent of Arabs in Israel are below the poverty line, 50 percent of the 24-18 age group do not work, Zoabi emphasizes the half-full glass: the 522-year plan approved in 2016, the influx of billions of shekels into the sector, doubling the number of students The Arabs in Israel in the last decade and an increase in the rate of employment in
the sector.The novelty of the two is the renunciation of old thinking patterns that have characterized many politicians on Arab lists for years, and their declared recognition that change is possible only from government. So far, a line of protest, along with an extroverted identification with the Palestinian cause.
Zoabi says that "the dignity of the conflict is in place, but the daily life of Israeli Arabs is more important." Darawshe explains that he and his friends support Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Israeli, to be managed between them
Negotiations.
We will not push ourselves as the leaders of the solution. "The
electoral chance of these two courses of action is still in doubt. Darawshe presents a survey conducted by Prof. Camille Fox together with Dr. Hisham Jubran, according to which 39 percent of Westerners in Israel currently jointly support 21 percent in" Ma'an, 7 percent in the Likud, and only 1.3 percent in March.
13 percent do not intend to vote and 14 percent have not yet decided who to vote for.
The results of this poll are very different from the truth results in the elections to the 23rd Knesset, so 87.6 percent of Arab voters, 5.3 percent for blue and white, 2.2 percent for the Labor Party and only 1.8 percent for the Likud voted together.
Zoabi believes that this time the Likud will be more successful in the Arab sector.
He hopes to be a part of the success.
Netanyahu, who said in the elections to the 20th Knesset (March 2015): "Arab voters are moving in large numbers to the polls," he later apologized, explaining that he meant only the joint voters.
It is conducted with Israeli Arabs in the current election campaign somewhat similar to its conduct vis-à-vis the Emirates and Bahrain in normalization agreements with them.
In practice, Netanyahu is currently also proposing that Israeli Arabs concentrate on solving their problems and improving their living conditions, and let go of the Palestinian issue.
In the previous election, when Netanyahu sharply attacked the common, voter turnout in the Arab sector soared to a peak of 64.8 percent - only 6.7 percent less than the turnout in the Jewish sector.
The joint won 15 seats.
In all five previous elections, from 2009 to the most recent in 2020, the gap in voting rates between the Jewish and Arab sectors was much larger, averaging 12 percent.
This time Netanyahu is acting differently.
It is too early to assess whether he will succeed.