Ali Abunimah has an interesting and wide ranging interview with Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi up on Electronic Intifada. Zoabi has been public enemy number one in Israel since taking part in the Freedom Flotilla last Spring. Most recently, she was targeted last week by police during the protests in Umm al-Fahm.
You can watch the interview above and here is the intro to the piece on EI:
There is now "no chance" for a two-state solution in Palestine. So said Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, in an interview with The Electronic Intifada (EI) on 29 October in Chicago (video).
"The reality goes more toward the one state solution," Zoabi said, "whether a democratic one-state solution, or a binational one-state solution."
Elected in 2009, Zoabi represents the National Democratic Alliance, and is the first woman to be elected on the list of an Arab party in Israel.
"We are struggling for a normal state," Zoabi explained, "which is a state for all of its citizens, [in] which the Palestinians and the Israeli Jews can have full equality. I recognize religious, cultural and national group rights for the Israelis, but inside a democratic and neutral state."
You can read more of Haneen’s and others’ views on the meaning of “Jewish state” for Palestinian citizens of Israel in this issue of Jadal Magazine.
And an earlier interview with Zoabi from the time that the ISraeli government revoked some of her diplomatic privileges this spring can be found here.
It is very hard to see how the attacks on the Palestinian community within Israel are in the interests of the ordinary Jews of that country. Zionism, drunk on power, doesn’t know how to use it. Perhaps that is the key design flaw in Zionism. Ultimately Netanyahu etc are no more than shtetl thugs with no concept of genuine leadership.
Thanks for this Adam. Zoabi is one brave and honorable individual.
Folks I am really making an effort to get the word out even more about MONDOWEISS. Please contact all MSM outlets and get the word out about this important site.
Race for Iran (Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett) another critically important site to get the word out about.
Zoabi is a real hero to set against the parasites in Congress, the ZoA, the ADL and across the benches in the Knesset where the exercise of power has lost all link to justice. She reminds me of the great Dr Ambedkar of India who stood up for the rights of his Dalit people and too spoke truth to power in his time.
This site needs to explore the differences in citizen and nationality (le’om), rather than just discuss this in terms of citizen and equality.
bob,
That’s a discussion that needs to be had some time. Indeed, Israel, has this …shall we say…interesting view of citizenship and nationality.
Here’s another interesting read from Jonathan Cook on this topic: Israeli Nation versus Jewish State
….Israel refused to recognize an Israeli nationality at the country’s establishment in 1948, making an unusual distinction between “citizenship” and “nationality.” Although all Israelis qualify as “citizens of Israel,” the state is defined as belonging to the “Jewish nation,” meaning not only the 5.6 million Israeli Jews but also more than seven million Jews in the diaspora.
Critics say the special status of Jewish nationality has been a way to undermine the citizenship rights of non-Jews in Israel, especially the fifth of the population who are Arab. Some 30 laws in Israel specifically privilege Jews, including in the areas of immigration rights, naturalization, access to land and employment.
Arab leaders have also long complained that indications of “Arab” nationality on ID cards make it easy for police and government officials to target Arab citizens for harsher treatment.
The interior ministry has adopted more than 130 possible nationalities for Israeli citizens, most of them defined in religious or ethnic terms, with “Jewish” and “Arab” being the main categories.
The group’s legal case is being heard by the supreme court after a district judge rejected their petition two years ago, backing the state’s position that there is no Israeli nation.
The head of the campaign for Israeli nationality, Uzzi Ornan, a retired linguistics professor, said: “It is absurd that Israel, which recognizes dozens of different nationalities, refuses to recognize the one nationality it is supposed to represent.”
The government opposes the case, claiming that the campaign’s real goal is to “undermine the state’s infrastructure” — a presumed reference to laws and official institutions that ensure Jewish citizens enjoy a privileged status in Israel.
Mr. Ornan, 86, said that denying a common Israeli nationality was the linchpin of state-sanctioned discrimination against the Arab population.
“There are even two laws — the Law of Return for Jews and the Citizenship Law for Arabs — that determine how you belong to the state,” he said. “What kind of democracy divides its citizens into two kinds?”….
No malice, no threats, no hatred, no fear.
There is so much Jewish folk could learn from the gentle people of Palestine.
Unfortunately a Greater Israel is their aim …. at any cost … even the basic tenets of Judaism.
Zoabi under attack/ Israeli knesset
link to youtube.com
Full report/ Gaza Flotilla.
Go read the descriptions of the Israeli executions of the 9 activist
link to reliefweb.int
Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, Diane Rehm, Scott Simon ,Terri Gross sure did not even whisper about this gruesome report
link to reliefweb.int
“Normal state” vs. “Jewish state” is a brilliant paradigm shift in the discourse.
Jabotinsky’s 1934 draft constitution for the Jewish state: “in every cabinet where the prime minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership shall be offered to an Arab and vice versa.”
Great idea
So what who’s on the latest Israeli de facto list of undesirables, and why? Sort this out, which includes a MW mention: link to 972mag.com
And note the official Israeli confirmation that Israel cannot be separated from the Jewish people, wherever they are. (So if the two are lumped together by a critic of Israeli policy and/or law, why is the critic and/or his/her critique so often painted as “antisemite” or “antisemitic?”)
Jew equals Israeli doesn’t work when more than half of Jews don’t want to live in Israel. Even the Dersh and Foxman don’t want to live in Israel.
I’m trying out the usually faulty logic of addressing what wasn’t said, as opposed to what was.
Why only interview the single Israeli Arab MK who openly supports a one state solution? Is this part of a series, where the other Palestinian MK’s express their preferred # of states?
(I don’t think this logic actually works. Better stick to criticizing what was said, like the misleading comment of talknic who suggests that ‘Jewish folk’ support a ‘Greater Israel’ at ‘any cost.’ Not so. A minority of Jews in Israel, let alone Jews in general, are supporters of the Greater Israel vision. Which doesn’t make anyone a saint or obscure the reality that most Israelis did vote for a right wing government. But a majority would happily boot out supporters of a Greater Israel if they felt confident about a Greater Peace.)
Clenchner,
The idea of two-states and a “state of all its citizens” within Israel, has always entailed a contradiction. This contradiction has been espoused by every MK representing an “Arab party” (including Hadash) that I can remember. So why do they continue to cling to the 2ss – while advocating one man one vote? Because they believe that Israeli Jews are not prepared to accept anything less. I have heard the same story from a number of Palestinians – who say that most of the Palestinians they know feel the same way. Zoabi isn’t actually saying anything different from her Palestinian colleagues at the Knesset, she’s just being more coherent and consistent.
As for a “majority of Israelis”, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. While you are right that a majority would probably support giving up most of the settlements in a hypothetical peace deal (although even this is changing), there are other necessary concessions (concerning Palestinian security, resources, ROR and equality within Israel – there’s that contradiction again) that they are unwilling to make. Netanyahu once said that were the idea of an independent Palestinian state broken down into its specific components and ramifications, most Israelis who say they support the idea would change their minds in a flash. I think he was right. There is little point to fantasy talk about Israeli “confidence” and “Greater Peace”.
I remember hearing something similar, but in reverse. Most Israelis are formally opposed to ‘giving up Jerusalem.’ But when the meaning of that statement was broken down – allowing the Arab neighborhoods to be free of Israeli control while maintaining the ability for Jews and Arabs to travel freely, etc. – then most were in favor. A lot depends on how the question is framed, and in that game those who shout the loudest about fear often prevail.
There’s a lot of irrationality over there. Another memory is that at one point a majority of Israelis Jews thought that targeted assassinations harmed Israeli security AND they were in favor of them. Dr. Spock would have a field day.
clenchner November 1, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Better stick to criticizing what was said, like the misleading comment of talknic who suggests that ‘Jewish folk’ support a ‘Greater Israel’ at ‘any cost.’ Not so. “
They’re not Inuit supporting a ‘Greater Israel’ at ‘any cost.’ Or Palestinians. They are Jewish.
“A minority of Jews in Israel, let alone Jews in general, are supporters of the Greater Israel vision.”
The MAJORITY allow the minority their way. Israel is a DEMOCRACY, no?
” Which doesn’t make anyone a saint or obscure the reality that most Israelis did vote for a right wing government.”
Successive Israeli Governments have usurped the Palestinians. Left of extreme right in Israel has never reached any thing that could really be called centrist.
“But a majority would happily boot out supporters of a Greater Israel if they felt confident about a Greater Peace.”
As long as they allow the minority their way, they will be subjected to the fallacy that a Greater Peace can only be achieved by taking more land for defensible borders. No matter how much Israel takes for security, it will always have a neighbour.
“But a majority would happily boot out supporters of a Greater Israel if they felt confident about a Greater Peace.”
Sure they would. The peace has been on the table since 1988. Israelis prefer Yesha and the prosperity that oppression brings them.
Great interview. I wonder who brought her to the U. of C. Mearshheimer?
I was surprised when she attributed the increase in Israel’s security to the separation wall. I suppose she meant that that’s how Jewish
Israelis see that.