MK Said Al-Harumi from Ra'am,
a resident of Misgav Shalom in the south, passed away unexpectedly last week.
Reactions to his death exemplified the polarity at Israel's South Pole.
Those who knew Al-Kharoumi at the level of dust from the Shoe Road saw him as one of the greatest leaders of Bedouin society, who broke through to his community.
"When he was head of the council, Said set up the chicken factory in Segev Shalom to promote the employment of women from the village and the unrecognized villages around it," said Hani Gadir, of the Wadi Atir project and a key activist for change in Bedouin society. To correct the long-standing injustices against the residents of the unrecognized villages and against all the people of the Negev. He never did for himself, but worked day and night for others. No wonder he was found dead on the way home from work at two past midnight. '
Okay, Arab, you say, you're obviously going to eulogize him that way. Note, however, the following obituaries: 'Said was a dear friend and partner. A young man who made his way with great effort and harnessed his intelligence and skills for the society from which he came. Contributed a lot to the struggles we have here in the Negev and stood by our side. "Always with great humility and behind the scenes," wrote Tal El-Al, acting mayor and deputy mayor of Beer Sheva. As "simply sickening and unbearable!"
"The great sadness of the untimely queen of the Negev is an important partner in many of our struggles for the Negev. A dear, pleasant-mannered, humble man, a great believer in human beings, a true leader who paved a path that I hope many others will follow and continue on, "said Johann Atlan, CEO of the Negev Council and a member of Dimona. And these are just examples.
At the political level, Prime Minister Bennett sent condolences, and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid eulogized Al-Kharumi as "he fell in battle. He did not die of disease. He fell in battle because he believed. He exhausted himself. He worked day and night. He fought for his people. "About his family, about his tribe, about the things he believes in."
On the other hand, MK Simcha Rotman expressed many feelings when he wrote that "anyone who goes out on a torchlight procession in support of the rioters in Acre in Acre is not a friend. He is an enemy. Whether he is alive or dead ... A person who supports terrorism against Jews is not valuable. "Neither a friend nor a partner. There are red lines that cannot be bridged, and must not be bridged. The murderers' supporters must not be flattered, even if their finger is needed for a budget or a chair. The desire for political cooperation must not serve as a ransom for shed Jewish blood."
And that's the heart of the matter
. The gap between the local level and the national level. Al-Kharumi was a leader who grew out of the dance of want and most of the need. A fiery sight to its immediate surroundings in the unfamiliar villages. The desire for a proper life for his relatives and communities diverted Al-Kharumi's career from a physicist dealing with the laws of nature of the world, to an educator dealing with the laws of human nature. From there he grew up to head a local council, and was a partner in many southern struggles. Among them is the struggle against the opening of mines near Arad. A problem that directly affected his community as well. As long as Al-Kharomi's work was communal, local and southern, it was blessed. However, in order to advance to the national level, and to the major decisions, Al-Kharumi joined the RAAM party, and this has an entry price.
The Zionist parties in Israel have always wanted Arabs on the list, in order to thoroughly cleanse their representative conscience. In their dreams, the elements of the lists fantasize about retrieving Ramsey's Abdi Ramsey straight from the arrangement of the cardboard box in the "main box office" into the national list. Here is an Israeli Arab as the Jews like to see. Totally devoted to the symbols of the rule of "Shefa Issachar", echoes and jumps in Hebrew from "the exploding freshness of the pastries", and is deeply shocked when his sister Soha is returned by someone "who is not ours" but the enemy - a writer "Osher Levy".
More than the parody in "Kupa Rashit" indicates the Arabs of Israel, it indicates the inability of Jewish society to accept Arabs with national aspirations as part of their identity.
This is not accidental.
Every year we mark the genocide committed against us, and even in the rest of the year there is not a day when we do not live the Holocaust as a key element in our Israeli identity.
As long as our relationship with the Arabs is hummus and neighborhood napa, everything is great and garages for everyone.
However, when the sword of Islam and national aspirations enter the background, we shut ourselves behind fences and place cannons.
For most of us, this is not due to racial hatred, as a reflexive response to past experience.
A clear sign of the existential anxiety that Jewish society carries as a subcutaneous numerical tattoo.
But the way to break down the anxiety on both sides, is to know the other as his being and complexity.
Instead we see the other only through polarized communication, and in the rarer cases - cultural doing that really connects.
The representation of Israeli Arabs in Israeli culture deserves in-depth research.
I have already received several seminar papers from male and female media students from Sapir College on the subject, some of them Bedouin.
The fact that Israeli Arabs are increasingly integrated into Israeli society is evident in all of them, and today they are more represented and present than ever before, but the Bedouin are still hiding far away on the edge of the desert.
Therefore, it is gratifying to see groundbreaking and groundbreaking events at the field level, such as a tribute evening to Bedouin culture held at the Dimona Theater.
Allegedly, cooperation is required between neighbors and relatives, in practice - a rare revolution led by the theater's artistic director, Uri Vidislavsky, and CEO Adi Ben Boker, all sponsored by the Dimona municipality and the mayor, Bnei Bitton, a clear Likud member and sworn Zionist.
Beyond the unique evening, the Dimona Theater collaborates with the Alimama Rahat Theater (yes, there is such a thing) in children's plays in Arabic in the Bedouin communities in the Negev.
From a distance you will say 'And what about that?
So some Bedouin children will see a theater, a "big deal," but in a world of global affluence in garages, and mind-blowing engineering programs on al-Jazeera plates, the importance of local culture in the struggle for the future of globalization is growing.
From the series "First Coupe",
Those who want a stable state for us and our grandchildren
must change the policy of deferring treatment of Bedouin society in the south in particular, and Arab society in Israel as a whole. On the one hand, it must include massive enforcement of their civic duties, and yes, it includes strict over-policing that does not turn a blind eye to weapons in Arab society, the protection industry, or the young "feedback" on the roads, just as the Southern police have recently done. And it also includes creating a strict and precise judicial standard that does not differentiate between natives and children.
But it also includes creating a master plan for existing cities, regulating settlement, establishing new Arab cities, intervening in existing cities, and it also requires a firm stand on social rights, parts of which are ill-treated. It requires giving privileges to deepen their integration, and privileges, like over-policing, are always a scorching sight.
But those who are in reality understand that there is no choice. Ramzi Abed Ramzi is a fictional character, Al-Kharumi was a true Bedouin and southern leader. In an obituary written by Sarit Oqed, director of the Segev Shalom Community Center, she said that "Al-Kharumi believed that Bedouin society was part of the state, and that at every state visit he made sure to hang Israeli flags. I asked him about his attitude to the flag, and he said without blinking, 'This is my flag and this is my country.' And there, in the gap between Al-Kharumi as a local leader loyal to the flag, and Al-Kharumi who boycott the inauguration of the Knesset of Israel, are all the components of the tragedy of Bedouin, Arab and Jewish society, in Israel.