In a discussion held this week in the Knesset National Security Committee, several MKs, headed by Amit Halevi, demanded that the High Follow-Up Committee for the Arab Public in Israel – the most important political body for the Arab public – be outlawed, claiming support for terrorism.
Apart from the fact that this indicates a great lack of self-confidence, it seems that this is another attempt by the coalition to draw the entire Arab public in Israel into an unnecessary struggle with the Jewish public and with the state and its institutions.
Why not outlaw all the heads of Arab municipalities, the political and social bodies that are part of the composition of the monitoring committee, and perhaps also the 2 million Arab citizens? That way, bidders may feel more confident.
The very request was intended to start war with a fifth of the country's population, the vast majority of whom are law-abiding and loyal. Maybe not for Israel as a Jewish state, but certainly loyal to the laws of the state.
It is no longer strange that some Knesset members are thinking about how to harm the Arab minority. Since no adult will recognize the dangers involved, these proposals may eventually cause Arab citizens to give up the great desire that exists today to integrate into the State of Israel and its various mechanisms. And if such a decision is made, the Arab public's demand will be separation from the state and autonomy.
Perhaps some readers are now saying, "Move to the Palestinian Authority or the Arab countries." If this is the wish, it may be possible to transfer the Arab citizens with the communities in which they live, in the Galilee, the Triangle and the Negev, to the rule of the Palestinian Authority, thereby implementing the UN partition resolution.
Democracy is not majority rule, it is, first and foremost, fundamentally acceptance of those who differ in their opinion, attitude and even ideology, and therefore it would be appropriate for these legislators to study an introduction to civics before proposing a bill whose sole purpose is defiance and division.
Arab citizens do not have to prove loyalty; this has been proven for decades. They want to live in the State of Israel despite the way the state has so far succeeded in integrating them. Through the struggles they waged and are still waging, we can learn that this is a public that wants to maintain a just civil struggle.
Even if their right is violated as part of the constitutional changes proposed by the coalition, no politician, right or left, has the right to violate their basic right to organize politically and outlaw the political roof of 2 million citizens. If this happens, there is no doubt that the struggle of Arab citizens will take a great and important turn, turning the minority's struggle against the regime into an international struggle in which international organizations and bodies will intervene and try to provide aid and patronage, something that none of the country's leaders or institutions would want.
Hence, this could be a warm recommendation to some of the MKs who wanted to get headlines in the newspapers and please some voters: Get off this proposal before it's too late, and learn to embrace the Arab public. Acknowledge decades of injustice, and work to correct rather than pull the rope that is close to being torn.
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