Military

DATE=11/13/00

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=ISRAELI ARABS

NUMBER=5-47371

BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN

DATELINE=JAFFA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is taking a toll on Israel's Arab population. They are Israeli citizens, but feel neglected and discriminated against. The government has agreed to investigate the deaths of 13 Israeli Arabs during clashes with police last month. But Israelis shy away from Arab shops and restaurants they had frequented before. Correspondent Laurie Kassman takes a look at the impact on Israel's one-million Arab citizens.

TEXT: Jaffa, an ancient Arab port town, merges virtually seamlessly into the bustling, adjacent Israeli city of Tel Aviv. The fish restaurants and art shops of Jaffa have provided a favorite Saturday outing for Israelis and tourists - but not these days.

Now, the main shopping street of Jaffa is empty. Fish restaurants that line the small port have few customers. Only a handful of Israeli Jews or tourists can be seen strolling through the narrow lanes lined with art galleries and souvenir shops.

Ibrahim runs a shoe shop on Jaffa's main street. He says business has fallen off sharply since the latest violence erupted more than six-weeks ago.

/// IBRAHIM IN ARABIC AND FADE ///

Our jobs depend on Israelis, he says, so if the Israelis do not come to our shops, we cannot work, we are paralyzed.

But Ibrahim says the tension between Israel's Jews and Arabs is not new.

/// ARABIC AND FADE ///

He says the problems started after Israel seized Palestinian lands in 1967. He says after that Arabs in Israel felt more racist attitudes from Israelis, especially on the television and other media.

The current Palestinian uprising, he says, has intensified the divisions.

Israeli Arabs in towns and villages across northern Israel also went into the streets in late September to vent their anger. As the riots spread, Arabs attacked Jewish neighbors and property and Jews shot at Arabs and torched their mosques.

Three out of four Israelis responding to a public opinion survey at the time considered the Arab protests an act of betrayal that wrecked years of peaceful coexistence.

At first, Prime Minister Ehud Barak resisted calls by Arab members of the Israeli parliament to investigate the shooting deaths of 13-Arabs during the demonstrations. Mr. Barak's government now has agreed to an official inquiry.

The Director of Tel Aviv University's Adenauer Program on Arab Politics, Elie Rehknes says Israeli Arabs are caught in the middle.

/// REHKNES ACT ///

There is a question of double marginality, in the sense they cannot fulfill their Palestinian nationalism, in the sense they are in Israel. So they are marginal because they are not [have] a sense of the entity (identity), while in Israel they are not full Israeli citizens in the sense the nationality of this country is Jewish. The citizenship is Israeli, but the nationality is Jewish so the Arabs are caught between two poles.

/// END ACT ///

Haifa-based Professor Ron Pundak, who runs an organization promoting Arab-Israeli cooperation, says a lot of the problem has to do with official neglect of the one-million-member Arab minority.

/// PUNDAK ACT ///

I think the whole attitude of the state of the government and our institutions toward the Israeli Arabs, which are 18 to 19-percent of our population, should be dramatically changed.

/// END ACT ///

For Israeli Arabs, like Jaffa shopkeeper Ibrahim, coexistence now depends on the peace process.

/// IBRAHIM ARABIC AND FADE ///

Life is very difficult for us now, Ibrahim says, and it will be hard to return to normal until a real comprehensive peace is achieved. (SIGNED)

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