The charge that Arabs suffer inequitable treatment in Israeli society — usually simmering on a back burner — flares up anew from time to time.
This, however, is exactly what the Israeli daily, Ha’aretz, did when it provided a platform to Salman Masalha – “a researcher of Arab culture, a poet and a translator,” according to the newspaper blurb – to spread false allegations against the State of Israel. (“Israel’s apartheid doesn’t stop at the West Bank,” March 3, 2010)
The writer begins his column with the observation that “poetry and lies have much in common.” But while Masalha uses the comment to denigrate Israel’s Declaration of Independence as a disingenuous document, the observation is much more relevant as a description of how he, as a poet, crafted a thoroughly dishonest Op-Ed.
For example, Masalha outrageously asserts in the middle of his column:
The alienation is also evident with regard to the central government. This is the only democratic country in the world where one-fifth of the citizens – who are declared to have equal rights, at least on paper – have no representation in the government or in “provisional and permanent institutions….” [emphasis added]
One would expect a respectable writer and intellectual — and even more so, a respectable newspaper editor — to think twice before publishing such an overtly false statement. The inclusion of such an assertion indicates an overall disrespect toward readers who are apparently deemed ignorant of basic and obvious facts – namely, that Arabs are represented not only in government but in nearly every profession in Israeli society.
Below is a list of Arab Members of Knesset (MKs) who have served in Israeli parliaments both past and present. It includes men, women, Muslims, Christians and Druze who have or currently sit in the Knesset on behalf of Arab parties as well as mixed parties including governing parties and clearly Zionist parties like the Likud, Labor, Kadima and Yisrael Beiteinu.
(Click on each name to view his or her page on the Knesset Web site.* serving in the current, 18th Knesset)
Masalha’s charge that the Arab minority population is not represented in any “provisional or permanent institution” is similarly belied by indicating the numerous Arab members of the judiciary. Below is a list of Arab justices currently working in Israel’s court system. The list includes men, women, Muslims, Christians and Druze who work at all levels of the Israeli court system. (*Supreme Court Judge):
- Attif Ailabouni
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth
Registrar: Dictrict Court, Nazareth
Acting Judge: District Court, Nazareth (2007-2011) - Osaila Abu Assad
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Abbas Assi
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Jerusalem - Ahmed Abu Freha
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Be’er Sheva - Nasir Abu Taha
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Be’er Sheva - Shaher Atrash
Judge: District Court, Nazareth - Ibrahim Boulus
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Ghada Bsul
Judge: District Court, Haifa - Saaib Dabour
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Nabeela Dally-Moussa
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Mazen Daoud
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Krayot - Zaid Falah
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Haifa - Rabie Gabali
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Krayot - A. Jawad Haj-Yahia
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Tel Aviv - Ramzh Hadied
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Haifa - William Hamed
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Acre - Mohannad Halaily
Registrar:Magistrates’ Court, Acre - Nohad Hasan
Judge: Labor Court, Haifa - Ziad Hawari
Judge: District Court, Nazareth - Said Issa
Chief Implementation Off icer: Magistrates’ Court, Haifa - Jamela Jabareen
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Afula - Kamela Jadon
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Haifa - Nasser Jahshan
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Hadera - Sari Jayyoussi
Judge: Family Court, Nazareth - *Salim Joubran
Judge: Supreme Court - Misbah Kabbani
Chief Implementation Officer: Magistrates’ Court, Krayot - Khaled Kabub
Judge: District Court, Tel Aviv - Ihsan Kanaan
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Hiam Karawani
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Krayot - George Karra
Judge: District Court, Tel Aviv - Nasrin Karyanni
Judge: Family Court, Nazareth - Lubna Khalaila
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Krayot - Hashim Khatib
Judge: District Court, Nazareth - Tawfik Kteily
Vice President: District Court, Nazareth - Mohamad Massarwi
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Hadera - Nadim Morani
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Krayot - Shaden Nashef-Abu Ahmad
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Afula - Reem Naddaf
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Tiberias - Jameel Nasser
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Acre - Riad Qudsi
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Kamal Saab
Judge: District Court, Haifa - Hanna Sabbagh
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Einas Salameh
Vice President: Magistrates’ Court, Haifa - Ziad Salih
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Acre - Shakieb Serhan
Vice President, Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Salwa Shami
Registrar: Labor Court, Nazareth - Enaam Shargawe
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Maha Smair-Ammar
Judge: Labor Court, Haifa - Arafat Taha
Judge: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Wadad Younis
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Tiberias - Sohil Yousif
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Nazareth - Raghd Zubi
Registrar: Magistrates’ Court, Safed
In addition, there are countless doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, officials and civil servants from the Arab sector who provide services to both Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel.
Masalha’s charge that Israel is “the only democratic country in the world” which allows “no representation” of its Arab citizens turns truth completely on its head in other ways. The reality is that Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East where Arabs, like him, can live, exercise democratic freedoms and take advantage of its comforts and benefits, including free education, health insurance, social security, and perhaps most strikingly, the freedom of expression that Masalha, unlike the vast majority of his Arab brethren in the Middle East, enjoys.
In another misleading sample of demagoguery, Masalha complains that Israeli police cars carry the word “police” in Hebrew, but not in Arabic. He writes:
How does an Arab citizen feel about a police force that appears in his community, but does not include any writing in his language? Does this not symbolize, more than anything else, that the police represent an occupation regime, a foreign regime?
What Masalha fails to note, however, is that in Israel — unlike many other multilingual democracies that have only one official language — Arabic too is an official language. Street signs throughout the country are posted in Arabic as well as Hebrew. Official documents, informational brochures, labels and pamphlets are published in Arabic. Many Arab citizens conduct their daily business in all sorts of public service offices — social security, interior ministry, transportation, health care clinics, etc. — in Arabic, with clerks who speak the language and with literature available in their language. Telephone assistance for many basic services frequently includes an Arabic-language option. But these facts do not support Masalha’s message and mission, and so he ignores them.
What is Masalha’s mission? In an earlier interview with Ha’aretz, the writer called for the replacement of the Jewish state with a single state of its citizens, abolishing the Israeli national anthem and flag. His current column tries to promote that goal by contending that Israel is an “apartheid” state. And “apartheid,” Masalha claims, is “reflected throughout the [Israeli] media.” Of course, the very publication of his column undermines Masalha’s argument by proving precisely the opposite – that he is a member of a tolerant society that permits every citizen freedom of speech, the right to criticize the government, and the right to protest in accordance with the law. Perhaps if he weren’t so busy inventing facts to buttress his enmity toward Israel, he could focus on real problems facing the Arab community.