OPINION
The bipartisan Israel’s mixed Jewish-Arab cities are on fire. Here’s how to put out the flames. consensus on Israel broke, and the GOP can’t be blamed By Nasreen Haddad Haj-Yahya percent of Arabs in Lod and only 43 percent of those The horrific violence that erupted in May between in Akko are employed. To make matters worse, less Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens came as a surprise than 20 percent of Arabs in mixed cities have academto many. After all, haven’t we heard recently that the ic degrees, greatly limiting their ability to improve elected representatives of Arab citizens of Israel in the their lot and gain meaningful employment. Knesset are the new kingmakers? And that in return To complicate matters even more, in many of these for their support, the next government was to have cities there are two kinds of “imported” populations: made a serious effort to close the glaring socioecoThe first are families of “collaborators,” Palestinians nomic gaps and address the significant challenges originally from the West Bank, who have collaborated facing the Arab minority? with Israeli intelligence, have been resettled within IsUnfortunately for those of us who live in mixed rael proper and are shunned by the Arab minority livcommunities where Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel ing in Israel. The second are Garinim Toranim, Jewish, live side by side, and who closely follow the latest ideologically-based groups who seek to strengthen the data, the horrific violence perpetrated by a small local Jewish community, with little focus on truly inteminority in Lod, Akko, and even Jaffa was almost grating into cities such as Lod, where we saw some of inevitable. A perfect storm has long been brewing. the worst violence. Unemployed youths with little prospects on the Against the backdrop of these dismal statistics came horizon add to rising crime in Arab communities. The the events of May 2021: the dispute around the pendgovernment and municipalities lavish money on projing expulsions of Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Sheikh ects and policies that benefit Jewish residents, often Jarrah neighborhoods, the police action at the Aqsa at the expense of long-time Arab residents. All this Mosque and Temple Mount, and then the fierce Israeli created a tinderbox ready to be lit on fire at the end of retaliation in Gaza for the missiles fired by Hamas the Ramadan period. in Gaza. All resonated with the unemployed Arab Lax policing plays a significant role in all this, as youths in the mixed cities, where in a recent survey, 50 well. An unwillingness to commit percent of the residents reported Roni Ofer/Flash90 resources and personnel has created that they believe that their murates of violent crime in these cities nicipalities do not offer the same that are among the highest in Israel. level of services to Jewish and In 2020, 21 Arabs were murdered in Arab residents. mixed cities — 20 percent of all Arabs So, where do we go from here? murdered in Israel in 2020 — double The answer lies in the underlying their share of the population. conditions that contributed to the All this came to a head in 10 days. violence in the first place. While a There can be no excuse for violence, resolution of the Israeli-Palestinbut to better understand the situation ian conflict and the religious and in much of Israel today, it is helpful nationalistic tensions it incites to take a closer look at these mixed is probably years away, Israel’s cities. There is a prevalent myth government can make practical that these communities are beacons decisions that can narrow the of hope. Travel spreads in leading gaps within our society and proMedics evacuate an injured man during international publications feature clashes between Arab and Jews in Akko, vide equal opportunities for all. boutique hotels in Acre and Jaffa and northern Israel, May 12 Government Resolution 922, that project an overly positive image a five-year, $4.6 billion passed of a Middle Eastern success story. in 2015 and extended last year for an additional year, In reality, Arab residents of mixed cities live almost was a giant step forward towards the social and ecocompletely separate lives from the Jewish majornomic advancement of Israel’s Arabs. It will hopefully ity. Neighborhoods, and even city blocks, are clearly narrow the gaps between Arab and Jewish society delineated between Jewish and Arab residents, and it in education, housing, employment and many other goes without saying that almost all schools are comareas. Nevertheless, challenges unique to mixed cities pletely separate. I myself grew up in Ramla, a mixed were excluded from the resolution. What is needed city with Arab and Jewish residents. I had no interacnow is a new plan that will focus on these cities, and tion with Jewish residents and did not speak Hebrew allocate funding aimed at narrowing the gaps within until I turned 18 and got my first job. these municipalities in addition to supporting Arab There are legitimate cultural and national reasons citizens throughout the country. for Israel’s Jewish and Arab communities to seek to The violence within Israel is devastating for those protect their own individual identities, but as is often experiencing it firsthand and disheartening for all of the case, completely separate lives can breed inequalius who hope for the day in which all citizens of Israel ty. On the average, the government invests the equiva- have equal rights and equal opportunities. The imlent of less than $8,000 in an Arab high school student mediate consequence must be fair but harsh policing in the mixed cities, while committing over $13,000 per against anyone who uses violence, coupled with a Jewish student in these same communities. Approxicall by religious and communal leaders to instill calm. mately 30 percent of Arab citizens between the ages of Then, we must all get back to work to develop poli18 and 24 are neither employed nor studying. Among cies that will build a better and more just society, and their Jewish peers, only 13 percent are not working or ensure that our leaders will implement them towards studying. This means, that around 250,000 young Ara more hopeful future for Jews and Arabs alike. abs are either at home or roaming the streets with little to occupy their time. The problem is especially acute Nasreen Haddad Haj-Yahya is the director of the Arab in some of the cities in the headlines recently: Only 33 Society in Israel program at the Israel Democracy Institute.
So, what do you think?
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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • JUNE 2021
By Jonathan Tobin For the past two decades, Jewish Democrats have lamented what they considered an assault on the bipartisan consensus on Israel. According to them, the people trying to destroy it were Republicans. They saw the GOP’s efforts to point out the contrast between the increasing lockstep support for the Jewish state on their side of the aisle with growing divisions among Democrats as inappropriate. Highlighting dissent about Israel among Democrats was labeled as an attempt to use the problem as a “wedge” issue to get more Jews to vote for Republicans. If that was the GOP’s goal, they failed. The overwhelming majority of Jews remain loyal supporters of the Democratic Party. That has remained true regardless of where Democrats stood on Israel because the liberal majority prioritizes social-justice issues over those connected to the Jewish state. But in May, as Hamas launched thousands of missiles at Israel and the Jewish state has decidedly responded, it’s become clear that we are witnessing the end of what is left of that bipartisan consensus. And far from it being engineered by Republicans, the crackup is almost entirely the result of a conflict being waged inside the Democratic Party. Since the election three years ago of the members of “The Squad” to Congress, including open antisemites such as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), centrist Democrats have insisted that they didn’t represent their party’s views. It’s true that most of the Democratic leadership continues to pay lip service to support for Israel. That includes President Joe Biden, who seems to be trying to keep his word about criticism of the Jewish state being uttered in private, rather than in public, as former President Barack Obama did. Indeed, pro-Israel Democrats could point to the administration’s decision to block U.N. Security Council resolutions that treated Hamas terrorist attacks as morally equivalent to Israeli self-defense. It’s also true that nine Democrats spoke up in defense of Israel on the floor of the House of Representatives. But the problem goes beyond the fact that those nine were answered by fiery denunciations of Israel and repetitions of Palestinian calumnies about the Jewish state by 11 leftist House Democrats or the equally bitter criticisms of the Jewish state by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) There was also the fact that 28 Senate Democrats, a majority of their caucus, endorsed a demand for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, even as the latter continued to rain down rockets and missiles on the Jewish state’s people, while Republicans issued statements placing the blame for the fighting squarely where it belongs — on Hamas. Perhaps even more telling was the reaction of Democrats who claim to be among Israel’s greatest defenders. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has spent his career boasting to Jewish audiences that he is a shomer (a play upon a Hebrew word for guardian of Israel that is similar to his name). Yet in a week when 11 Jews were killed by Palestinian terror Continued on next page
Views expressed by columnists, in readers’ letters, and in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of staff or layleaders of The Dayton Jewish Observer or the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.
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