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Israel Record
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Salem Jubran reflected on Jewish-Arab coexistence in Israel: I was born in a village in the extreme north of our country which is called in Arabic Mukhal Ad, in Hebrew Peki'im. In this village three Arab communities Druse, Moslem and Christian lived together alongside a Jewish community. Each community respected the faith, the places of worship and the holy book of the other communities. But religion was the only distinction. In the daily life, no one could tell who was Jewish, who was Moslem, who was Christian and who was Druse. Through good and bad times all the people of Peki'im from the four communities were one family. . . If Jews and Arabs could live a peaceful life for centuries, in cooperation and with respect, such as in Peki'im, there is no reason in the world why today we cannot build a model of coexistence, cooperation, and respect between Jewish and Arab Israelis. . . Until recently, Arabs in Israel could not be a part of the Israeli consensus because we could not agree with the official Israeli approach toward the Palestinians or toward the Arab world. At the same time, most Arabs could not be a part of the official Arab consensus. Even if the aim of destruction of Israel was possible, it is anti-humanistic. But, we knew also it was not realistic. Thus, the Arabs in Israel lived in a very sad situation. They could not be a real part of the Israeli public opinion, of Israeli society, and they could not be a part of the Arab world. We suffered as Israelis when the Palestinians attacked. We suffered as Palestinians when Israel attacked. . . The question that persists for Israel's Arab citizens is how to find the balance between our Palestinian and our Israeli identities? Being a citizen in Israel is not only an identity card or a passport, it is a way of life. Influences cultural, economic, ideological, social have cast the Arabs in Israel as a new phenomenon in the Middle East. We are real Arabs and we are real Israelis. It is important to note that Arabs in Israel increasingly refer to the state of Israel as "our state." . . . My hope for Israel is that the leaders of the Arab minority and the Jewish majority political, intellectual, and religious will search together for a formula which gives all Israeli citizens the deep feeling that this society is theirs. Democracy and equality are not incompatible to the Jewish character of the state. I believe it is possible to coordinate between Judaism and democracy, Judaism and equality, and between Palestinian Arabism and democracy. . . In Israel the majority of the Arabs are bi-cultural. Hebrew is not a foreign language for us. Hebrew literature is not a foreign literature for most Arab intellectuals. We live Hebrew. We study Hebrew literature sometimes even more than the Arab literature. When I go to Cairo and read Al-Ahram, I feel that this newspaper is foreign to me. When I return to Ben-Gurion airport I hurriedly buy Yediot Ahranot, Ma'ariv and Ha'aretz and study what is going on in the country. So, we are Israeli citizens and we want to continue being Israeli citizens. I love my homeland just as Jews love their homeland. I want the Israeli society to be a garden with flowers of different colors. When this happens, Israel will be a richer society, a more beautiful society, and a more just society, and the Arabs in Israel will be happy to live in such a society.
(Reprinted with permission from Jewish-Arab Coexistence in Israel, National Conference Report of The Abraham Fund and the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council ©1995)
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