Israeli Arabs fear for the future

[Marc7]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4180362.stm



Amid the high emotion of Israel's evacuation from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank enclaves, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's acknowledgement of why the settlements were untenable has passed with little comment.


Ethnic tensions are simmering in Jerusalem

"The changing reality in the country [...] required a change," Mr Sharon said in his televised speech last week.

"We cannot hold on to Gaza forever. More than a million Palestinians live there and double their number with each generation."

In other words, demography - not security - is driving the so-called disengagement plan.

This has long been the explanation of most analysts, but it is the first time it has been articulated so clearly by Mr Sharon.

Israel's dilemma is, how can it be a Jewish state if there is a Palestinian Arab majority residing in territory under Israeli control?

The demographic struggle manifests itself in several ways, some of them constructed in steel and concrete - the "strengthening of settlements" and the West Bank barrier - but other manifestations are more subtle.

...


Fear

Arab citizen make up about one-fifth of Israel's population, but they are far from being a contented minority.

"Being an Arab in Israel means that you have lost your identity," says the schoolteacher.

"You don't have any satisfaction at the end of the day, like a normal citizen of a normal country."

An eminent doctor at an Israeli hospital says: "I feel I have to prove myself again every day".

A young visitor from the north of the country describes how her behaviour has changed since two shooting incidents in which eight Israeli Arabs and Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers trying to disrupt the Gaza pullout.

"I have never been afraid of being an Arab before, but I am now.

"I was on a train the other day talking to this Jewish girl. She asked where I did my army service, and I had to lie, saying I hadn't done it yet because I've been away, but I'll do it soon.

"I don't want to be recognised as an Arab, because at any time someone could put a gun to my head, and it would be all over for me."

[lip1978]

Yeah, that's really sad about the Israeli Arabs. They don't deserve it and have been a strong force in Israel's growth.

However, I am curious if an Israeli Jew could live in a Palestinian city for more than a week without being threatened, hurt or killed. Even if they did nothing more than live and work there. I honestly don't know.

[Marc7]

Yeah, that's really sad about the Israeli Arabs. They don't deserve it and have been a strong force in Israel's growth.

However, I am curious if an Israeli Jew could live in a Palestinian city for more than a week without being threatened, hurt or killed. Even if they did nothing more than live and work there. I honestly don't know.


jews did live in palestine for centuries and they escaped persecution and lived in peace:


We have heard it told from the elders of the movement how up until the advent of Zionism, Jews and Palestinians lived in peace in Jerusalem and throughout the Holy Land. These pious Jews who traveled to Jerusalem and Palestine had no grandiose aspirations, and certainly no yearning to create their own State. All they strived for was to perfect themselves in the service of G-d, and they essentially abandoned their physical comforts and pleasures in order to achieve this spiritual goal.

We have heard how the Neturei Karta continued, even after the difficult times of the 20’s and the 30’s, to live in peace with their Palestinian neighbors. Stories abound how, in the midst of the most difficult fighting of 1948, the old Orthodox inhabitants refused to have anything to do with the Zionist army and were treated respectfully by the so called “hate filled, anti – Semitic Arabs.”

http://www.nkusa.org/activities/speeches/islamic030303.cfm

[Marc7]

an addition for those who can't distinguish what zionism really is, here is an article I got froma friend:

The Racist Roots of Zionism

After the Jews were expelled from Jerusalem in 70 AD, they began to spread to different parts of the world. During this period of the 'diaspora,' which lasted up to the 19th century, the vast majority of Jews saw themselves as a religious group. Over time, most Jews adopted the culture of the countries they lived in. Hebrew was left as a sacred language used in prayers and religious texts. Jews in Germany began to speak German, and those in Britain, English. When certain social restrictions on Jews in European countries were lifted in the 19th century, through emancipation, Jews began to assimilate with the societies they were living in. Most Jews saw themselves as a 'religious community,' not as a 'race' or 'nation.' They described themselves as 'Jewish Germans,' 'Jewish Britons,' or 'Jewish Americans.'

As we know, however, there was a huge rise in racism in the 19th century. Racist ideas, influenced in particular by Darwin's theory of evolution, grew enormously and found many supporters in Western societies. Zionism was the effect this racist storm had among the Jews.

The Jews who propagated the idea of Zionism were people with very weak religious beliefs. They saw "Jewishness" as the name of a race, not as a community of belief. They suggested that the Jews were a separate race from European nations, that it was impossible for them to live together and that it was essential they establish their own homeland. They did not rely on religious thinking when deciding where that homeland should be. Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, once thought of Uganda, and this became known as the 'Uganda Plan.' The Zionists later decided on Palestine. The reason for this was Palestine was regarded as 'the Jews' historic homeland' rather than for any religious significance it had for them.

The Zionists made great efforts to get other Jews to accept these non-religious ideas. The World Zionist Organization that was set up undertook vast propaganda work in almost countries with Jewish populations, and began to suggest that Jews could not live peacefully with other nations and that they were a separate 'race,' for which reason they had to go and settle in Palestine. Most Jewish communities ignored these calls.

In this way, Zionism entered world politics as a racist ideology which maintained that Jews should not live with other nations. First of all, this mistaken idea created grave problems for and pressure on Jews living in the diaspora. Then for Muslims in the Middle East, it brought the Israeli policy of occupation and annexation, together with bloodshed, death, poverty and terror.

Many Jews today criticize the ideology of Zionism. Rabbi Hirsch, one of the foremost Jewish men of religion, said, 'Zionism wants to define the Jewish people as a national entity ... which is a heresy.' [2]

http://www.islamdenouncesantisemitism.com/distinguishing.htm