The comments represent the latest example of what many view as a growing divide between Israel’s Jewish and Arab populations
The new Israeli Labor Party leader, Avi Gabbay, stated at a cultural event this weekend that he would not join any government coalition that includes Arab representation. “We will not sit with them unequivocally,” he affirmed, “I do not see anything that connects us to them, or allows us to be in the same government as them.”
When contacted by The Media Line, a spokesperson for Gabbay explained that the comments were directed towards the current Arab legislators, who are “extremists.” When pressed further, she suggested that “every person in Israel knows what he means.”
In response, Suhail Diab, the President of the Equality Unit of Israel’s Labor Union, called Gabbay’s statements racist (while also referring to them as “Zionist”). “The general sentiment in Israel is anti-Arab and Gabbay was competing for votes among the right-wing,” he told The Media Line.
“Even if the Joint [Arab] List was offered to be part of a government that supports the construction of settlements, it would refuse to participate.”
For his part, Dov Lipman, a former Israeli parliamentarian for the centrist Yesh Atid Party, stressed to The Media Line that there are non-Jewish members within the government coalition, but they all advocate for the State of Israel. No country, he asserted, would tolerate ministers who are against the very establishment of the nation, or, in Israel’s case in particular, identify more closely with the Palestinian cause.
“It’s not Jew versus non-Jew, but rather it’s about support for the state. We have a non-Jewish Minister of Communication [Ayoub Kara]. Hopefully the Arab community will accept Israel and be part of the government,” Lipman concluded.
In this respect, many Israelis have become wearisome of the actions of various Arab lawmakers, who agitate against the state. For example, earlier this month at a gala for a U.S.-based pro-Palestinian organization Joint List parliamentarian Haneen Zoabi reportedly affirmed that “the Jews are not a nationality, so we cannot talk about self-determination for the Jewish people.”
Zoabi was previously suspended from the Israeli parliament for six months in 2014 for incitement, after she justified Hamas rocket attacks and the abduction of three Israeli teens by Palestinians, which ignited the seven-week war that summer.
According to one of Israel’s Basic Laws (which effectively substitute for a formal Constitution), anyone who opposes the Jewish state’s right to exist, incites to racism or supports armed conflict against Israel is disqualified from running for office. Zoabi was previously blocked by the Central Elections Committee, however, the Supreme Court overturned her ban.
Ramiz Jaraisy, a former Mayor of the West Bank city of Nazareth, believes that Arab legislators are merely responding to Israel’s ongoing attempts to suppress the Arab minority. “There are claims that Arabs do not accept Israel’s [right to exist], but the fact that there is an Arab association that represents its public in the Israeli parliament shows that there is no validity to the assertion.”
Jaraisy stated that in order to bridge the gaps between Jews and Arabs significant changes need to be made within the political and social landscapes. He concluded by calling on Jerusalem to end the occupation of the West Bank before this could happen.
Since Israel’s founding, Arab parties have never agreed to be part of any ruling coalition, at the expense of a smaller slice of the government pie. There are those who believe that Arab-Israeli leaders have failed their constituencies by instead incessantly demonizing Israel—historically within the context of the greater Arab-Israeli conflict and today in relation to the Palestinians—which effectively prevented Arabs from integrating into society. Some analysts contend that had Israeli-Arab leaders sat in the government—especially between 1979 and 2000, when peace was formally made with both Egypt and Jordan and the Oslo Accords were signed with the PLO—they would have had much greater influence over the direction of the country, and, in turn, would better have served their public.
On Monday, Gabbay seemingly doubled-down on his prior comments, asserting that there is no Palestinian peace partner and thus Israel must maintain the strongest and most aggressive army.