1. You will not succeed in branding legitimate debate about the Arab political parties as "racism." The opposition to these parties is not based on race or religion, but on their rejection of Israel's existence as a Jewish state and their support, whether overt or tacit, for the armed struggle against us, coupled with their refusal to describe Hamas and other groups as terrorist organizations.
Were the British racists because they despised Germany during World War II? They were fighting a war for their very survival. Did Americans become suspicious of citizens of Japanese descent after Pearl Harbor solely because of race? When other considerations are at play, the label "racism" becomes a means of silencing those who speak the truth. The Arab parties fundamentally refuse to recognize the Jewish people's right to their ancient homeland and their right to self-determination.
2. Consider these revealing passages from The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, published by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the umbrella body representing the country's Arab community. The legal section was written by none other than Yousef Taysir Jabareen, now chairman of the Joint List.
The document opens by describing Israel as the product of a Zionist settlement initiative originating in Europe and the West, supported by colonial powers and Jewish immigration following World War II and the Holocaust.
According to this narrative, the Jewish people have no claim whatsoever to the land, whether historical, legal, moral or religious. We are portrayed as no different from the Boers who settled in South Africa, taking land that was not theirs, or the French in Algeria.
This opening echoes Article 20 of the Palestinian National Charter, which asserts that Jews constitute a religion rather than a people and therefore have no national claim to a homeland. The Vision Document describes Israel's system as an "ethnocratic state." Heaven forbid it should acknowledge a Jewish nation with historical rights dating back thousands of years before the emergence of Islam. Nor does it mention the Muslim conquest of the land in 638 or the large-scale Arab immigration during the century preceding Israel's establishment.
3. Among the objectives set out in the Vision Document is Israel's recognition of its responsibility for the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, referring to the displacement and flight of Palestinian Arabs during the War of Independence. The document calls on Israel to acknowledge the consequences of the Nakba and consider compensating Palestinian citizens, individually and collectively, for the damage attributed to it and to subsequent discriminatory policies.
There you have the makings of a clause in a future coalition agreement. You complained about government financial support for the ultra-Orthodox? Now you will be paying for the "damages of the Nakba." Another objective is the state's recognition of Palestinian Arabs in Israel as an "indigenous national group." In other words, transforming Israel into a binational state.
The implications are clear: Abolishing Israel's definition as the nation-state of the Jewish people and, consequently, denying Jews around the world the natural opportunity to immigrate to their one and only state. One consequence would be a transformation of the state's national symbols: its flag, anthem, emblem, Jewish characteristics and more.
4. Now consider the introduction Jabareen wrote to the legal section. He identifies two foundational facts: Palestinian Arabs are the indigenous people of the country, with historical, emotional, national, religious and cultural ties to their homeland; and they are an inseparable part of the Palestinian people.
Do you understand what this means? Arabs who invaded the land beginning in the seventh century, conquered the Jews who had lived there for more than 2,000 years, dispossessed them of their land and subjected them to centuries of Islamization now claim to be the "original owners" of the country. As the prophet Elijah declared in the biblical account of Naboth's vineyard: "Have you murdered and also taken possession?" (1 Kings 21:19). The second point explains their consistent refusal to condemn Hamas.
On this basis, Jabareen demands in the document official recognition of Palestinian Arabs as a national minority and as "the indigenous people of the homeland," along with recognition of their right to "complete equality" on a collective national basis. Not equality on the basis of citizenship, which they already enjoy, but equality on a collective national basis.
The document sets out further demands, all directed toward a single objective: Eliminating Israel's Jewish identity and transforming it, as a first step, into an Arab-Jewish state.
Look at the Arab-Muslim countries. Some once had Christian majorities or majorities belonging to other national groups. Once Arabs became the majority, they changed those countries' identities. Now it is Europe's turn. And that is what they aspire to do to Israel, the Jewish people's one and only precious possession.
5. The working definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and endorsed by numerous Western countries, includes among its examples "denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor."
So who is the real racist here?
