The people of this Arab Israeli town 20 minutes west of Jerusalem are alarmed by something their Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said this week in Washington.
In discussing the resumption of peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Netanyahu told U.S. President Barack Obama that Israel was ready to go, just as soon as the Palestinians declare their recognition of Israel as “a Jewish state.”
By insisting on the Jewish-state designation, the Israeli leader is reopening history – and opening some new wounds.
“Where does that leave us?” asked Jawad Abu Ghosh, an Arab who's been an Israeli citizen all his 50 years. “Such a designation has a very racist characteristic to it.”
“It's hard enough getting equal rights in Israel as it's defined today,” said Mr. Abu Ghosh, the deputy mayor of this largely Muslim town of 6,000. “Can you imagine how hard it will be if Israel is recognized as a Jewish state?”
Yet that is what Mr. Netanyahu is insisting on.
It is not clear whether his position is a bargaining ploy, something to be dropped in exchange for some Palestinian concession, or serious.
“The concept has always been part of our history,” said Daniel Gordis, author of Saving Israel: How the Jewish State Can Win a War That May Never End , and senior vice-president of the Shalem Centre, an influential right-wing think tank in Jerusalem.
In 1947, the United Nations partition plan for Palestine called for the creation of “independent Arab and Jewish states.” The resolution – 181 of the General Assembly – was specifically cited by Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, in Israel's declaration of independence, noted Dr. Gordis. But the declaration has no status in law.
More recently, Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister, sought such recognition at the convening of the Annapolis peace talks in 2007. She didn't get it. George W. Bush, U.S. president at the time, summarized the conference conclusions by saying: “This [peace] settlement will establish Palestine as the Palestinian homeland, just as Israel is the homeland for the Jewish people.”
“A Jewish state means much more than that,” Dr. Gordis said. “It's more than just about security; it's about allowing for the flourishing of Jewish culture, a Jewish way of life.”
“These people have a lot of nerve,” Mr. Abu Ghosh said. “They take control over our land and insist on their culture being the only one recognized.”
“Our family came to this area 500 years ago,” said Issa Abu Ghosh, the director of education in the community. As the names suggest, many, if not most, of the Muslim residents of this town are members of one large family whose patriarch established control of these hills in the 16th century.
“We teach Jewish history in the schools,” Issa Abu Ghosh said. “We accept them as the majority in the country. But it shouldn't be exclusive.”
“It wouldn't be exclusive,” Dr. Gordis insisted. “Minorities would be free to practise their own religion and culture.
“But if there was to be a successful Palestinian state right next door, I believe Arab Israelis would be more comfortable moving to a state of their own kind,” he said.
But Jawad Abu Ghosh disagreed. “We stayed here in 1948 because this land is what matters to us; it's our homeland.
“My family has accepted other rulers in the past, and we accept Israel. So don't think that we're going to leave this place.”
Of course, Mr. Netanyahu hasn't asked the Arab Israeli community for its views on the matter. The Prime Minister seems to assume that most Israelis share his view. What he wants is for the Palestinian leadership of the occupied territories to accept the position.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has refused. “It is not my job to give a description of the state,” he said. “Name yourself the Hebrew Socialist Republic – it is none of my business.”
Many Israelis conclude that a refusal means that the Palestinians don't accept Israel's right to exist. But such a consideration didn't form any part of the negotiations for treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Both treaties refer only to respecting “each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence.”
“There are two substantive reasons why the Palestinians refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” says Gershon Baskin, the co-CEO of the Israel/Palestine Centre for Research and Information, a joint Israeli-Palestinian initiative.
First, they are concerned about the effect this might have on “the status of the more than one million Palestinians in Israel,” he wrote this week. Second, it might “remove the discussion of the rights of Palestinian refugees from the negotiations table.”
Indeed, Dr. Gordis said, “that's one of the reasons why we want this recognition.”
“If the Jewish state is not central to our status, then we have no real right to refuse the return of [Palestinian] refugees,” he said.
Mr. Baskin recommended that instead of a “Jewish state,” Israel should declare in its Basic Law that the country is “the state of the Jewish people and all of its citizens.”
“I am quite certain,” he said, “… the Palestinian leadership would be able to recognize Israel as such and most Jewish Israelis could also live with this as well.”
The Abu Ghosh family agreed.
“We accept Israel as a democratic state,” said Issa Abu Ghosh. “And we agree that Jews need to have their history embodied in this state.
“But that doesn't mean they can deny the place of our history.”
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