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<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bishara3may03,0,2351340.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail">
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bishara3may03,0,2351340.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail</a>
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</font><font face="arial" size=5><b>Why Israel is after me<br>
</b></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>By Azmi
Bishara<br><br>
AZMI BISHARA was a member of the Knesset until his resignation in
April.<br><br>
May 3, 2007<br><br>
Amman, Jordan I AM A PALESTINIAN from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and
was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.<br><br>
But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France's Dreyfus affair in
which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state the
government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel's
failed war against Lebanon in July. <br><br>
Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a foreign
agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law, anyone a
journalist or a personal friend can be defined as a "foreign
agent" by the Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can lead to
life imprisonment or even the death penalty. <br><br>
The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah Israel's
enemy in Lebanon has independently gathered more security information
about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide. What's
more, unlike those in Israel's parliament who have been involved in acts
of violence, I have never used violence or participated in wars. My
instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are simply words in books,
articles and speeches.<br><br>
These trumped-up charges, which I firmly reject and deny, are only the
latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in the
struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a state of
all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges to Jews that
it denies to non-Jews.<br><br>
When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were
expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that escaped
that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long lived. The
Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked immediately on
transforming us into foreigners in our own country.<br><br>
For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood, we, as Israeli citizens,
lived under military rule with pass laws that controlled our every
movement. We watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up over destroyed
Palestinian villages. <br><br>
Today we make up 20% of Israel's population. We do not drink at separate
water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and can serve in
the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and informal
discrimination in all spheres of life.<br><br>
More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The
Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from
anywhere in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right to
return to the country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic Law of
Human Dignity and Liberty Israel's "Bill of Rights" defines
the state as "Jewish" rather than a state for all its citizens.
Thus Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is
for native Palestinians.<br><br>
Israel acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious
group. Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal
citizenship cannot exist under such conditions.<br><br>
Most of our children attend schools that are separate but unequal.
According to recent polls, two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse to
live next to an Arab and nearly half would not allow a Palestinian into
their home. <br><br>
I have certainly ruffled feathers in Israel. In addition to speaking out
on the subjects above, I have also asserted the right of the Lebanese
people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to resist
Israel's illegal military occupation. I do not see those who fight for
freedom as my enemies. <br><br>
This may discomfort Jewish Israelis, but they cannot deny us our history
and identity any more than we can negate the ties that bind them to world
Jewry. After all, it is not we, but Israeli Jews who immigrated to this
land. Immigrants might be asked to give up their former identity in
exchange for equal citizenship, but we are not immigrants.<br><br>
During my years in the Knesset, the attorney general indicted me for
voicing my political opinions (the charges were dropped), lobbied to have
my parliamentary immunity revoked and sought unsuccessfully to disqualify
my political party from participating in elections all because I
believe Israel should be a state for all its citizens and because I have
spoken out against Israeli military occupation. Last year, Cabinet member
Avigdor Lieberman an immigrant from Moldova declared that Palestinian
citizens of Israel "have no place here," that we should
"take our bundles and get lost." After I met with a leader of
the Palestinian Authority from Hamas, Lieberman called for my
execution.<br><br>
The Israeli authorities are trying to intimidate not just me but all
Palestinian citizens of Israel. But we will not be intimidated. We will
not bow to permanent servitude in the land of our ancestors or to being
severed from our natural connections to the Arab world. Our community
leaders joined together recently to issue a blueprint for a state free of
ethnic and religious discrimination in all spheres. If we turn back from
our path to freedom now, we will consign future generations to the
discrimination we have faced for six decades.<br><br>
Americans know from their own history of institutional discrimination the
tactics that have been used against civil rights leaders. These include
telephone bugging, police surveillance, political delegitimization and
criminalization of dissent through false accusations. Israel is
continuing to use these tactics at a time when the world no longer
tolerates such practices as compatible with democracy. <br><br>
Why then does the U.S. government continue to fully support a country
whose very identity and institutions are based on ethnic and religious
discrimination that victimize its own citizens?<br><br>
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