Israeli Arabs strive to maintain their identity
How do you refer to a person with Palestinian grandparents and Israeli parents? It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it isn’t; it is the beginning of my identity conflict story.
I am told it all began with the 1948 Middle East war, when the land of Palestine was divided between the Arabs and the Jews. Palestinians who found themselves within the borders of the state of Israel were given the Israeli citizenship. I wish I could say here, the rest is history, but unfortunately the rest is “Present.”
For 67 years, since the establishment of the state of Israel, there has been a fundamental debate on the status of “former Palestinians” in Israel today. This debate takes many forms in countless places. It can take the form of a joke told by a Palestinian from Jenin referring to members of Israel’s Arab minority as “Shaminit Arabs” (Shaminit is a signature Israeli dairy product). The debate can also take the form of a strongly-worded discussion between an Arab Israeli and a right-wing Jewish Israeli in the Knesset (parliament) over whether Israel is a “Democratic Jewish state” or “Jewish Democratic State.”
My favorite form of debate, though, is the one taking place behind closed doors among the members of the Arab minority in Israel themselves. It is always awkward to start a political conversation with a fellow Arab in Israel, because even though we supposedly belong to the same category of culture and language, there remains a fundamental difference of opinion when answering the “where do I belong?” question.
One might not think too much of it: after all, it doesn’t matter where a person belongs, violence is wrong, and killing is wrong. But, sadly, it is not that simple. One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter; one person’s city is another’s “settlement”; and one person’s security wall is another’s separation wall.
Let me add one more layer of complexity that is just the cherry on top of the swirly whipped cream I just described. How are we, the Arab minority in Israel, perceived in the eyes of the Jewish majority in Israel?
Some see us as a “fifth column” while others see us as equal citizens of Israel. Between these two ends of the spectrum, I personally find myself even more perplexed. I could be perceived as a “fifth column” in Israel conspiring with the Palestinians, but at the same time, on the other side of the wall, I am perceived as a traitor to the “Palestinian Cause” by paying taxes to the Israeli government like any good citizen of Israel.
I could also be perceived as “the oppressed” for both the Palestinians and the Israelis at the same time. I could be the Palestinian survivor trapped in Israel against my will, and at the same time, the oppressed non-Jewish citizen who is completely deprived of equal rights compared to a Jewish citizen of Israel.
If you ask me where the truth lies, here is my answer in the words of Thomas Sowell, from his 1987 book, A Conflict of Visions: “It is no less arbitrary and dogmatic to declare a priori that ‘the truth lies somewhere in between.’ It may. It may not. On some highly specific issue, it may lie entirely on one side – and on another issue, with the other side. On still other issues, it may in fact lie in between.”
Trapped amid the various ways we are being perceived, we find ourselves struggling to define ourselves, and the result is various identities to answer the various perceptions.
The Arab minority in Israel has many titles depending upon to whom you are speaking. Israeli Arab, Israeli Palestinian, Palestinian in Israel, Palestinian citizen of Israel, Palestinian, 48’ Arabs, and the list goes on with the colorful upgrade to identities tinged with religion, and/or ethnic grouping – Muslim, Christian, Druze, Bedouin, etc.
Although this unique community is experiencing a crisis of identity every single day, there is a glue that holds us all together – and ironically, it is the melting pot of Israel.
I began to learn Hebrew from the second grade and little by little, it became a second mother tongue for me. One of the most hilarious spectacles in Israel is to pass by two Arab citizens speaking to one another in a language that consists of 70% Hebrew, 20% Arabic, and 10% “Arabicized” Hebrew words.
I am reminded of an Arabic proverb that says, “Between Hana and Mana I lost my beard.” Hana and Mana are two wives of a man — one is young, the other is old — and each one of them wanted the husband to look her age. Whenever the poor guy visited the old woman, she plucked out the black hairs from his beard, and when he visited the young wife, she plucked the white hairs from his beard. Between both of them, he became beardless.
My hope is that the Arab minority is Israel won’t have to endure the plucking of the Palestinian and Israeli identities to the extent that we lose our identity altogether.
RASHA ATHAMNI is Director of The Media Line Student Journalism Program