Get Used to It: There Are Judges in Jerusalem, and Some of Them Are Arabs

Ma’ariv, Israel, February 23

No one can undermine the importance of the historic appointment of the first Muslim Arab judge, Chaled Kabub, to the most important court of justice in the country, the Supreme Court. Anyone who understands the legal world knows that this is a worthy and fitting appointment. And even more importantly, for us, members of the Arab community in Israel, this appointment is the ultimate proof that a new era has come for our integration into mainstream Israeli society. This appointment should set a living example that similar justice should be seen in integrating Arabs – who constitute one-fifth of the Israeli population – into government ministries, public companies, and institutions of higher education. Such appointments are still far and few in between, leading to a difficult reality in which Arab citizens must be doubly talented and diligent in order to move up the ladder of ranks in the various institutions. It is already clear to everyone that the Arab society in Israel is very successful in producing talented professionals in every field, including Supreme Court justices in Jerusalem, despite all the socioeconomic and political difficulties that come hand in hand with the Arab experience. An excellent example of this is the success of the Honorable Muslim Judge Chaled Kabub, my dear cousin, and the Honorable Christian Justice emeritus George Karra, both residents of Jaffa, a mixed city known for its day-to-day survival struggles when it comes to education and violence. A city whose Arab residents groan under the socioeconomic and political burden and yet despite all these hardships manages to produce judges, doctors, managers, teachers, businesspeople, and also professors in Israeli academia like your faithful servant. The time has come for the Israeli government to enact and pursue more meaningful and practical ways to give equal opportunities to all parts of Israeli society, including Arabs. Such integration, according to what all studies show, will improve the diversity and multiculturalism in the public and private system and lead to incredible excellence and achievements. Diversity and multiculturalism in higher education, for example, would lead to a more realistic and nuanced view of reality, which would lead to real solutions to the problems we face. There is no doubt that a Muslim Supreme Court Justice will bring with him his special professional experience – but he will also bring with him his life experience as an Arab who had to fight hard and overcome endless obstacles until he reached the top rung. The spirit behind his professional decisions will be a rich and egalitarian multicultural spirit. So it is with me as an Arab professor in academia who invests heavily in making higher education accessible to Arab society in Israel, and so it is with every Arab who reaches advanced stages in his career and incorporates in his activities and decisions the multicultural experience that brought him to that stature. “There are judges in Jerusalem,” as it is said, and some of them are Arabs. The time has come for us to get used to the way that sounds, especially if we care about the well-being of Israeli society. –Prof. Youssef Masharawi (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)