

If you look at the bottom of this article you will see that I have very
kindly dug up one of Yigal Arens previous postings (entirely without his
permission, I hope he doesn't mind) containing translations from Ha'arezt
detailing just such a case. Perhaps you think that Ha'arezt lies? Would
you like to provide me with an assurance that this practise *never* occurs?


Right, Arabs have been voting in Israel for how long? And in all that time
NOT ONE Arab EVER gained enough of a personal following to get his fellow
party members to put in a Ministry? This is about as likely as sprouting
wings and flying to Rio. What basis do you have for explaining this odd
failure? You seem very confident that you are right, exactly how do you
know, why are you sure?


Exactly what basis do you have for saying this when the Labour party
has never put an Arab into a Cabinet post and insists its coalition
members do the same? Why and on what basis are you reassuring me in
the face of 50 years of discriminatory practise?


Hey what?? As I said even when their party puts them up they get knocked
back. It surely couldn't be because they are Arabs is it?


Well yes, but Security is the reason most often given by people who
want to make excuses. I merely thought it would crop up and so
pre-empted it.

Start of Article (All commets in [*....*] are mine not Dr. Arens)

[Comments in square brackets are mine - Yigal]


Racism in the Knesset
---------------------

Coalition requirements on one hand, and the presence of progressive MKs
from _Meretz_ in the coalition on the other, have compelled Rabin and
his friends to change, to some extent, their attitude towards the Arab
public and their representatives in the Knesset.  Although he did refuse
to view them as partners, taking part in the coalition and joining the
government, he did agree to meet with them and to give them a document
of intentions which included a commitment to "work towards a decrease in
the discrimination between Jewish and Arab citizens".  [Decrease WHAT?!?!
But posters have told us time and again that such discrimination does
not exist *at* *all*!  Is Rabin, too, a closet self-hater??? - Yigal].

However, racism has not disappeared.  When the Knesset sat to consider
who would staff its various committees, a request was made to put an MK
from Hadash [the Communist party, one of the "Arab" parties - Yigal] on
the State Comptroller's Committee.  And oh, did that ever stir up a
storm -- including in the ranks of Labor -- since many Knesset members
find it unthinkable that an Arab MK sit on one of the important house
committees.  "Security secrets" are liable to fall into their hands...

This attitude -- which until recently had not even aroused criticism,
being so natural and so deeply-embossed upon people's hearts -- holds
that there are Knesset members who, despite having been elected by tens
of thousands of votes, are not entitled to be full partners in the body
which represents the people of Israel.  We are not speaking here of
political discrimination -- which would be bad enough in itself -- but
of racial discrimination.  The proof: one of the compromises proposed
was that MK Mahamid [an Arab - Yigal] should be replaced by Tamar
Gojanski [a Jew - Yigal] from the same party.  It was not the member's
party which was considered unfit, but his race...

[* Here is a documented case in a respected Israeli newspaper. *]

It is worth noting that for the first time since the state's founding, a
public debate has arisen on this subject, as witness the following
article:


A TEST OF SELF-CONFIDENCE

By Gid'on Levi, Ha'aretz, July 26, 1992

Revelations of discrimination against Arabs have become such an integral
part of our daily routine that there is not much effort made to deal
with them.  [Do you hear that, -----?  Please contact this Levi fellow
and explain to him how little he knows about Israel.  Please! - Yigal].
Except that sometimes the demon bursts out from behind the government's
window dressing, and then the phenomenon is seven times more serious.

Last week provided two more such examples: the Israeli Knesset is
finding it very difficult to allow Arab representation on its more
important committees; and Israel Television is finding it no less
difficult to give a platform to Arabs from the territories.  Seemingly
two entirely different matters, but in fact they are one and the same.

The 13th Knesset proved last week that, even though one third of its
members are new faces, it has not renewed its own face at all, at least
on one issue.  Parliamentary traditions may be modernized and
parliamentary traditions may become obsolete, and only one tradition
endures forever: no Arab shall set foot in the more important committees
of the house.  There has never been and never will be an Arab MK on the
External Affairs and Defense Committee or on the Finance Committee.
Worlds have been overturned over the question of whether or not "to
give" Arabs, for the first time, a place on the State Comptroller's
Committee.

The arguments are old and well-known: In all three of the above
committees innumerable secrets are revealed -- and woe unto us if an
Arab should hear them.  One must not make light of such arguments, but
their significance should also not be exaggerated.  Every Arab MK is not
spending all his time waiting for the opportune moment to hand over
information from the Knesset committee room to Black Panther
headquarters in Jenin; and not all the aforementioned committees are
continually occupied in the discussion of top-secret matters, which
could safely be revealed, for example, to MKs supportive of the Jewish
Underground, but not to an Arab MK from the Likud, Labor, or even from
Hadash.

The Arabs themselves would probably forego membership in the Subcommittee
on Secret Service Matters, but what would happen, one may ask, if MK
Nawaf Masalha were to hear, God forbid, a review of the Foreign Minister
in an open meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, or even
a review of the Army Chief of Staff which, in any case, are regularly
leaked to the next edition of the news.  And what would happen if MK
Hashem Mahamid were to report on what he had seen with his own eyes at
al-Najah?

Their non-participation [in important committees] and that of their
colleagues, creates an intolerable situation, where Arab members of the
elected house have only semi-positions.  They are good enough for
addressing plenary sessions, and for voting for or against the
government and participating in the deliberations of the Immigration and
Absorption Committee.  But they must not, for example, participate in
the process of formulating the state budget in the Finance Committee or
in the allocation of resources to local authorities.  In any case, they
have little part in that.

Labor's dependence on the support of the Arab parties has brought about
some improvement: MK Hashem Mahamid, will, it seems, participate in the
State Comptroller's Committee.  Earlier, there had been a ridiculous
attempt made to dictate to Hadash who their representative should be,
and thus to prevent the Arab from entering this dubious holy-of-holies,
but it soon became clear that there was no legal or constitutional
backing for such a step.

But not to worry: even now the Jewish mind is contriving devices.  The
new Committee Chair, Roni Milo, has already announced that he will set up
subcommittees aplenty for his committee.  Thus he will decide where it
is permissible for Mahamid to participate and where not.  A solution
such as this could, by the way, also have been adopted for the rest of
the committees, thereby completely eliminating the fear of state secrets
being leaked to the enemy and removing the stain of discrimination from
the Knesset.

[. . .]

End Article

Do you accept that as documentation?

Joseph Askew
