In both sides of "Palestine," as Israel has carefully been dubbed recently, not only by Palestinians but also by some Arab Israelis, swords are being polished.
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The recent terrorist attacks, like the rioting in mixed cities this past May, are an accompaniment to a dangerous shared emerging nationalism. The declared common denominator for the "internal Palestinians" and the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip rests on three legs: the Nakba (the "disaster" of the founding of the state of Israel); right of return (which they say must be implemented); and a single Palestinian identity.
What for many years were deep currents are now surfacing: some Arab Israelis are distancing themselves from Israel. Many have totally identified with the Palestinian enemy and its false narratives. Their commitment to the country in which they live is being eroded.
There are more and more signs of this realignment. The night before last, outside the home of Moriah Cohen, who was stabbed in the back on Wednesday as she was walking her children to kindergarten, a group of young Arabs marked her path as part of the battle for Sheikh Jarrah. In a video posted on the website Al-Qastal News, the youths broke out in song: "The fire has been lit and the weapon sings. Young people, ask, O for a state, and hope. The fire has been ignited from Acre to Tira…" In Lod, too, a similar song was heard: "My homeland, my homeland, the youth will not tire until you are independent or until they are dead."
For anyone who is having trouble putting two and two together, former MK Mohammed Barakeh recently explained that "Jerusalem has dear sisters: Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Lod, and Ramle." In a speech broadcast on Palestinian television, Barakeh said that "A few months ago, during the latest intifada [uprising], the focus of the resistance to the Zionist oppression was in these cities, which people had tried to eulogize, pervert, and remove from the map of Palestine. They rose up and said, 'Palestine is here.' It used to be called Palestine, and it is called Palestine once again." (Translation by MEMRI)
Ra'am is also starting to remove its mask. Its MKs, including party leader MK Mansour Abbas, are openly talking about their Palestinian identity, which takes precedence over everything else. "I am a Palestinian Arab who is an Israeli citizen. I will not turn my back on my roots," Ra'am MK Iman Khatib-Yasin said Wednesday in a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee devoted to tax benefits to NGOs that promote acceptance of the Nakba narrative.
If this trend continues for a few more years, Arab Israelis and Arabs in the "territories" will become a single entity, not only in terms of how they think of themselves but also in terms of their behavior: contrarian, provocative, and rebellious against the state in which they live.
The riots of May might be only the first chapter. Israel cannot allow itself to ignore what is happening. The growing crime in the Arab sector is also part of this complicated issue. It is happening in areas in which the government has lost control and been replaced by brutality and growing nationalism. The Israeli vacuum in these places attracts both crime and nationalism. Soon, we'll have a hard time differentiating between them.
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