Region | Palestinian Territories
Rise of the Israeli ultra-orthodox
If the violence and riots that have shaken Acre recently show anything, it is how ultra-orthodox groups are growing in numbers and in influence, and how these changes in Israel affect the non-Jews.
- By Jumana Al Tamimi, Associate Editor
- Published: 23:47 October 16, 2008
Dubai: If the violence and riots that have shaken Acre recently show anything, it is how ultra-orthodox groups are growing in numbers and in influence, and how these changes in Israel affect the non-Jews.
The violence is making the proposed solutions, including a one-state, an impractical and non-viable scenario to solve the Palestinian question.
On October 8, an Arab resident was driving through a Jewish neighbourhood in Acre, which along with Haifa is considered among the few places in Israel where Jews and Arabs are in regular contact, and where there are efforts to promote co-existence.
But that night, things turned violent.
Police said the Arab man's car stereo was blaring music. A group of Jewish youths attacked the driver, accusing him of "deliberately making noise and disrupting the sanctity of Yom Kippur", or the Day of Atonement, when most Jews in Israel observe a ban on driving.
Reports said there were rumours that the driver had been beaten to death by Jewish militants, and this is what ignited the unrest, exposing underlying tensions between the 5.8 million Jews and 1.5 million Arabs in Israel.
The incident prompted hundreds of Arabs and Jews to take to the streets of Acre. They clashed with each other and also fought with the police. Eleven Arab houses were burnt and scores of cars and shops were damaged during the four-day violence. Hundreds of Policemen were sent to the city.
But instead of holding everyone involved responsible, the Israeli authorities, in a racist move, decided to go easy on the ultra-orthodox groups.
How can they be, especially at this time, when Israeli politicians are busy forming a government, and the participation of ultra-orthodox groups is necessary for the efforts to succeed.
The incident shed light on the status of Arabs living in Israel, including in Acre, where they constitute 30 per cent of the city's population of 50,000.
Israeli Arabs are Israeli citizens, according to the law. But they don't enjoy the rights Jews do. Arabs in Israel complain they receive second-class treatment. Jews look at Arabs disparagingly, they say.
If the issue here is a matter of respect, and the Arab driver did not show enough respect to Jewish traditions, the reaction from Jews was disproportionate.
The increasing influence of ultra-orthodox groups is what makes the possibility of a one-state solution unlikely. As for a two-state solution, extremists in Israel refuse to withdraw.
The bi-national solution is not new. It goes back to the first half of the last century. Then, the Israeli Communist Party, or "Rakah", was the first to call for the two peoples to live together peacefully in one state.
The idea gained traction again after the two-state solution began to falter in the past few years. Israel has accelerated construction on the Palestinian land that was occupied in 1967. The land that is supposed to be under negotiations is getting smaller and smaller.
For officials and intellectuals on the Palestinian side, the idea of the one-state solution has started to float for different purposes.
The first group says it would create a government they would eventually control as a demographic majority, and the second group warns Israel of its expansionist policies.
Israeli authorities and think tanks are closely studying the demographic changes of the Palestinians. Some of them were alarmed by the expectations that the Arabs will outnumber Jews in "historical Palestine" in 15 years.
This is why Israeli leaders are talking more about offering Palestinians a state of their own. But the questions remain: What kind of a state? What size? What characteristics?
Arabs in Israel complain they receive second-class treatment. Jews look at Arabs disparagingly, they say.
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