About a month ago, I went to the village of Barta'a, which is a three-minute drive from Harish.
Half of Barta'a is on the Israeli side, and half is on the Palestinian side.
I did not go to check out this issue, but because I was looking for a particular type of rug, which I was told could only be obtained there.
Do not worry, I do not intend to tell about the search for the carpet, but about my impressions from the visit, which led me to the conclusion that what Mansour Abbas is doing is nothing less than an act worthy of all praise.
In the long run, his actions will benefit Israeli society, in all its forms, and strengthen it.
Let's go back to Barta'a - during my wanderings in the locality, I went into a few shops.
Since I do not speak Arabic fluently, I contacted sellers in Hebrew.
The vast majority of sellers and shoppers in the store, in the Arab-Israeli village, did not speak Hebrew.
Not that they did not want to.
Simply because they do not speak the language of the country of which they are citizens, and even when they spoke, Hebrew was partial and broken.
In one of the shops, a young girl helped me, whose Hebrew was perfect.
I did not hold back and asked her why the others did not speak Hebrew like her.
She did not answer the obligatory question - why do you not speak Arabic like them, but said: The village is closed within itself, its residents have almost no need for anything from society outside it, and therefore they also have no urgency to learn Hebrew.
And when necessary, they get along with the broken Hebrew in their mouths.
And since no one is forcing them, they do not insist on learning Hebrew.
I admit I was surprised.
They have no friction and contact with Israeli society, so they do not learn Hebrew.
That is, they do not have an urgent need to integrate into Israeli society.
This is where MK and chairman of the RAAM party, Dr. Mansour Abbas, enters the equation.
He understands that apparently the political act has entered a deep freeze.
The chairman of the PA, Abu Mazen, also said this in his voice when he met a few months ago with Ministers Nitzan Horowitz and Issawi Frij of Meretz.
He told them that in the next decade he does not see a situation where there will be a change in the political situation, so he asks that they open up the economic issue.
MK Abbas is aware of the situation no less than Abu Mazen. He understands that economic, technological and social progress will lead to a profound change in Arab-Israeli society, and from there to greater integration and equality. Reality will change. He takes on a huge responsibility. Instead of segregation, integration. Instead of convergence, expansion. He receives threats on his life, including Yahya Sinwar, who announced that he would be reached and eliminated.
Sinwar also understands that the integration of Israeli Arabs into Israeli society is dangerous to the Palestinian idea.
Not that Israeli Arabs will stop seeing themselves as Palestinians, but that it will become, in my opinion, a cultural definition.
The change that will take place in Arab society, upon receipt of the budgets, after years of neglect and a sense that they are Israel's backyard, will benefit the sense of belonging to Israeli society.
And no, that's not going to happen all at once.
It will be many years before we see the fruits of MK Dr. Mansour Abbas' work, but even now we must all send him a huge bouquet of flowers and hold fingers that will not break on the way.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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