Blog
6/19/13 Wednesday Nazareth,
The
logic of Israeli citizenship and nationality, down the rabbit hole again
The Al
Mutran Guesthouse in Nazareth is a charming old Arabic home transformed
into an simple but elegant guesthouse with open patios, pink geraniums and
embroidered wall hangings. Journalist and author Jonathan Cook arrives
filled with energy and a wealth of knowledge about history and politics.
Originally from the UK and now an Israeli citizen, he is married to a spunky
Palestinian woman with Israeli citizenship, who interjects, “No, I am ’48
Palestinian.” He explains that he works as a journalist so his children
who are Israeli Arabs will not have to live as second class citizens.
Jonathan
notes that discrimination inside in Israel is not informal; it’s systematic and
institutionalized with practical implications that are obvious today. Nazareth
is a unique Palestinian city, the only one inside of Israel that is not
“mixed.” As we have learned, Haifa, Akko, and Lydd are Jewish cities with
Palestinian ghettos. They also have Palestinian citizens who are
primarily not native to the city, ie, many in Lydd are Bedouins brought in to
build Tel Aviv after the ’48 expulsion.
In 1948,
Nazareth was the only Palestinian city with the potential to become the
Palestinian capital inside of Israel and thus it represented a huge threat.
After the war, approximately 200 Palestinian villages remained, but Nazareth
was the only city standing. The villages survived sometimes because they
were Christian (and Israeli leaders were concerned about their international
reputations), and some had work relationships with the local kibbutzim and
moshavs.
The 1965
Planning and building law identified 124 Palestinian communities, leaving 80
unrecognized villages where all housing was declared illegal, and there were no
services, electricity, or roads. These harsh conditions were the reality
for 10% of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. Jonathan notes that Nazareth
is different, and enjoys privileges that the state has been unable to
eradicate, largely due to the important Christian churches. There are three
hospitals founded by religious orders so there are qualified medical personnel
and a supportive middle class. There are a dozen high quality private schools
also founded by religious orders, so Arabic children can be well educated and
then they become the doctors and the lawyers that maintain the middle class.
The segregated public Arab schools in Israel are so underfunded that the
average Jewish student receives 4 to12 times more funding. The state
controls the curriculum which is so narrowly Zionist that there is no chance
for a foundation in Palestinian identity, culture, history, international
literature, or ancient Islamic poets. The children in Nazareth are spared that
intellectual and emotional death.
He
discusses a host of other laws that mirror the Israeli behavior that later
occurred in the Occupied Territories after ’67. In Nazareth, Israeli
citizens lived under a military government for 18 years, they needed permits to
travel and there was a network of collaborators that provided the eyes and ears
of the Shin Bet. Once a person became a collaborator, (often out of fear), then
the family and children became involved as well. With the Fallow lands law, if
land is not attended for three years, the state seizes the land, thus
Palestinians were also incentivized to become collaborators to protect their
lands. In the public schools, both teachers and students were informers,
producing “a reign of terror” in the classroom.
Jonathan
had a friend teaching English in a nearby village, one pupil asked, “What is
the PLO?” This was a dangerous question so she answered in a neutral manner.
The next morning, she received a call from the Shin Bet who knew everything and
she lost her job. This also can happen if someone goes to a demonstration
or a march. This degradation of pride and respect erodes any sense of
pride in the education system. Your head teacher may be the biggest
collaborator in the school. Since the majority of Christian and Muslim children
attend the dozen private schools in Nazareth, they are spared this humiliation
and leave with a solid education.
For me, the
most eye opening part of Jonathan’s comments revolve around the issues of
citizenship; this gets a little crazy, so bear with me. The Law of Return
states than any Jew from Brooklyn to Mumbai can become an Israeli citizen
because he is Jewish. Jonathan became a naturalized citizen because he wanted
protection from expulsion or deportation and he did not want to wait for the
threatened loyalty oath requirement. His wife, Sally, is an Israeli citizen
because she is a Palestinian whose family stayed within the ’48 borders and in
1952 the citizenship law declared such people citizens. When they got married,
it took Jonathan eight years and a host of legal threats to obtain citizenship.
Now take a
deep breath. In Israel, there is a difference between citizenship and
nationality, everybody here is a citizen but there are *137 nationalities* per
the interior ministry. The courts refuse to recognize an * Israeli
nationality*, but there is a *Jewish nationality*. So why is this? If
there was an *Israeli nationality* then this would be a state of its citizens
who are all recognized equally and Jewish exceptionalism would disappear.
By maintaining the different nationalities along with citizenship, Jews can
continue to have rights that are not granted to other citizens. To add to
the craziness, Israeli nationality is listed on Israeli passports, but that is
only for the benefit of the border guards. The blue Israeli ID card is
also secretly coded: there is no mention of Israel: if are Jewish your birth date
is written using the Hebrew calendar, if you follow Jesus or Mohammed, the date
is in the Gregorian calendar. If you are confused, then read this again
very slowly.
So who
exactly is really a Jew? Under the Law of return, a person is recognized as a
Jew if one grandparent is Jewish. Perversely, this is the same criterion
the Nazis used. Jewishness as defined by religion, requires the presence of a
Jewish mother. With this contradiction, many “Jews” arrived claiming to
be Jewish, but then were not recognized by the rabbis who control Israeli
Personal Law. This came to an explosive crisis in the 1990s when one million
Russians arrived on Israeli shores, but think about it. The husband is
Jewish a la the Jewish mother definition, but his Christian wife and four children
are not. Suddenly the state is faced with one new Jew (yippee) and four
non-Jews (not yippee). This has caused major social problems and it is
currently estimated that more than 350,000 “Jews” from the Soviet Union are
actually not really Jewish. Confused yet?
Jonathan
reminds us that this is really different than, let’s say, Britain which is a
Christian state (God save the Queen!) but also a state of citizens with equal
rights under the law. In Israel, there is no symbolism to the Jewish in
Jewish state. In the 1990s, post-Oslo, the mantra for this dilemma was all
about separation and the logical outcome was the building of the wall and a
tightening permitting system that made it increasingly difficult to marry
across the Green Line. Palestinians have struggled to obtain citizenship when
marrying partners in Israel, but have faced a judicial maze, endless delays,
and changing laws that have ultimately functionally outlawed marriage between
lovely Israeli Juliettes and their West Bank Romeos on the grounds of
“security” (a reason second only to God) and to stop the right of return,
“through the back door.” This has to be understood through the mindset of the
ever present threat to the “Jewishness” of the Jewish State and the perception
that Palestinians are not just fellow human beings trying to follow their
hearts and minds, but actually conniving Trojan horses, ready to set off the
demographic time bomb. So remember that “Jewish” is a nationality to make sure
that state resources stay in the hands of the Jewish population and the system
is designed in mind boggling detail to keep it that way. In Israel, according
to Jonathan, in 1992 the Law of dignity and freedom was passed, but there is no
law of equality. Anyone have problems with this out there in the modern
democratic world?
Extremely
loud jets repeatedly streak across the sky and we wonder if we have missed some
important news item. Jonathan explains they are spying on Lebanon and
Hezbollah, most likely trying to decide when to make their next moves.
It is
intriguing that Nazareth should be a major tourist city (remember the Angel
Gabriel and the immaculate conception?) with graceful churches and a charming
Old City. But this was thwarted through the mechanics of Israeli tourism, (read
Jewish tourism). The authorities created tourism zones and nearby Tiberias was
given a Zone A with big tax breaks for building fancy hotels which were then
not built in Nazareth where the real tourist attractions are actually located.
This also means that the profits from even Christian tourism go mainly to the
Jewish tourism industry so people stop at the local kibbutz, swing through the
Basilica of the Annunciation and then spend their tourist shekels in Tiberias.
This only
changed in the 1990s when the Pope decided to visit when Nazareth was spiffed
up, but not without resentments and conflicts between Christians and Muslims
manipulated by the Israeli government, the Pope, George Bush, and Ariel Sharon.
Then the Intifada broke out and the hopeful Renaissance Hotel was converted
into a prison. This was also a useful temporary prison for the foreign
workers imported during the Intifada to replace the banned Palestinians.
These folks married Israelis, and when they got deported, they needed a temporary
place to stay as well. Only recently has there been a rejuvenation
of tourism in the Old City, for visitors and the growing middle class, but it
continues to be fraught with legal barriers. The old souk is mostly filled with
cheap products from China and Taiwan and it is still recovering from being shut
down for three years for renovation. The temporary market was set up in
adjacent Nazareth Illit and is now a permanent and competitive fixture for that
town.
Walking
briskly along Jonathan’s wirey frame, we learn more about the 57 laws overtly
discriminating against Palestinians. There was a recent report on higher
education that found 14 obstacles designed to prevent Palestinians from
reaching higher education. `He talks about the current state of political parties
and comments that there is basically a Revisionist, Jabotinsky, Netanyahu type
politics that acts more colonial and plans to beat the Palestinians into
submission and then give them minimum rights. He feels that the Labor party and
its allies are actually more racist since they openly admit Palestinians will
never settle for this life of discrimination, they want equality, so they must
be separated and walled in. This brings us to the next phase of our day with
Jonathan, a fascinating tour of Nazareth Illit, translated as “upper” ie up the
hill, and “morally superior,” translated as Jewish only.
No comments:
Post a Comment