Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a piece entitled “Israel’s Christians Awakening,” by Adi Schwartz, arguing that Palestinian Christians in Israel are undergoing a change, separating their identity from the Palestinian minority and enlisting in the Israeli army as a sign of close cooperation with the Israeli Jewish society.
This piece was published just a few days after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a special video message to
Palestinian Christians citizens of Israel. His message served a twofold
purpose: it was both another attempt to present Israel as the protector
of Christian minorities (ostensibly in contrast to neighboring
countries), and an opportunity to encourage Palestinian Christians
citizens of Israel to serve in the Israeli military. The latter is a
longstanding tactic that has been used to de-Arabize Palestinian
communities, a continuation of Israel’s divide and rule strategy and a
hallmark of Israel’s founding fathers.
Netanyahu’s message comes at a time of gathering momentum in the efforts to boycott Israeli institutions for
their complicity in aiding and abetting Israel’s violations of
Palestinian human rights. But the treatment of Palestinian Christians is
particularly crucial to Israel’s image as a “Jewish and democratic
state” and its relationship with the Western countries that continue to
support it notwithstanding its abusive policies. It is this context that
provides a clearer reading of Adi Schwartz’s comments in the WSJ.
I
was raised in a Palestinian Catholic family in Nazareth in
northern Israel. My parents’ lives revolved around family, work, and
church. Although I have lived in the US for many years now, I visit my
family every summer and am deeply connected with my roots. As part of
this community, I can tell you that Palestinian Christians in Israel are
aware of their belonging to the Palestinian people in every aspect of
their lives. They
live and function within a state that is defined for others, since it
is by definition a Jewish state, and policymakers are wholly focused on
serving those others. The voices reported in the WSJ’s article, then, are discordant with this reality, sounding like a cacophony prompted by the Israeli government.
Israel is defined as a Jewish State, which means Jews have exclusive and special rights that are not given to non-Jews. These rights include promotion of Zionist values and history, the disproportionate and beneficial allocation of resources to Jews, and other institutional privileges that have direct impact on social structures including immigration, land rights, and education. Palestinians are treated assecond-class citizens and
lack a sense of belonging. They acutely feel a need for protection at
all times within the state of Israel, whether they are Christians or
not. Cabinet ministers and political groups explicitly advocate the transfer of Palestinians citizens and even population swap in order to maintain Israel’s Jewish majority.
Discriminatory
laws and initiatives are passed to prevent Palestinians from connecting
to our history, culture, and religion. The infamous anti-Nakba lawprohibits
state funding to organizations that commemorate the dispossession and
expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians from 1947-1949. Segregation is
endorsed in approximately 700 agricultural and community towns
in Israel on the basis of “social unsuitability,” preventing Christian and Muslim Palestinians from living among the Jewish populations. Arab communities in the Naqab and the Galilee are subject to Judaization plans, non-violent Arab demonstrations against these policies are routinely dispersed with egregious and unnecessary force.
These discriminatory practices extend to everyday routines. At this time of year, it is not permitted to display a Christmas tree in the Israeli Knesset,
reportedly because such an act would be considered “offensive”. Legal
action has even been taken to allow the display of Christmas trees in
some public places, such as Haifa University. Access to higher education is made easier for Jewish students than Palestinians. Housing subsidies are
extended to Jewish settlers who want to live in illegal West Bank
and East Jerusalem settlements. These conditions often make Palestinians
desperate to leave the country in search of equality, education,
housing, and the freedom to celebrate the holidays associated with their
religion.
Today,
it may be true that there is some ‘Christian awakening’ in Nazareth,
but this is not and could not be the awakening described in Schwartz’s
article. It is an awakening regarding the Israeli government’s attempts to recruit Palestinian Christians to serve in the Israeli military as
part of their divide and rule policy. The reported alignment of
Palestinian Christians with the Israeli identity and their attempt to
disconnect from the Palestinian minority is questionable, at best.
Palestinian Christians are aware that serving in the Israeli army
contradicts theirnational interests and even their Christian values and beliefs and
would bring them no greater rights, privileges or protections. Members
of the Arab Druze community have been serving in the military since the
1950s and yet have not achieved equality; even those serving as officers
in the Israeli Air Force are subject to unusual screening, as seen
during a security exercise at the nuclear reactor in Dimona.
Thousands
of Palestinians, Christian and Muslim alike, are struggling daily
against oppression and are determined to seek unconditional full rights
for all Israeli citizens. Against this backdrop, it is foolhardy to
claim an “awakening” based on reports of only around 150 Christian
Palestinian recruits. Make no mistake: Palestinian Christians know that
joining the Israeli military or enrolling in the newly offered
alternative national service will not end discrimination, but will only
lead to further alienation and fragmentation. Those few Palestinian
Christians choosing to join the army only highlight the tough choices
faced by Palestinians in Israel in order to survive in the face of
institutionalized discrimination. Do they join an occupying military to
fight against fellow Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank in order to
later be eligible for state benefits, or do they reject such bribes,
demand unconditional full equality for themselves, and stand in
solidarity with Palestinians living under Israeli occupation who are
seeking freedom? Overwhelmingly, Palestinian citizens of Israel – both
Christian and Muslim – are choosing Palestinian freedom and equality.
Today, my father, like many other Palestinian citizens, struggles within Israel to secure equal rights from the state that, following the Nakba of 1948,
forced him into an orphanage as a child (and his mother and brother
into Lebanon as refugees). I live with my father’s personal suffering
and loss, with the hope that the common future for us all, Palestinians
and Israelis, regardless of religious belonging, will be based on values
of equality, justice, and mutual respect and not on a spurious call to
arms.
Editor’s Note: This Op-Ed was originally sent to the Wall Street Journal who declined to publish it.
Source: Mundoweiss and HCEF
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