Benjamin Netanyahu once said, “When we talk about housing prices, about the cost of living, I don’t for a second forget about life itself.” Back then, he was speaking in metaphors; today what the Arabs are really fighting for is life itself – a life without bloodshed, tears and funerals.
Israeli Arabs are being murdered day after day, and no end is in sight. Meanwhile, the architect of the governmental coup proposed a deal: Help me with the judicial overhaul, and you will see real law enforcement, Justice Minister Yariv Levin told Knesset lawmaker Mansour Abbas after the latter asked him to do something about the violence raging on the Arab streets. Levin’s response was akin to a mafia don’s “offer you can’t refuse” – if you don’t back me, blood will continue to flow in the streets of Arab towns and cities.
Is there something more chilling than Levin’s response? The killing continues, and he cynically offers negotiations with Arab leaders. If the Arabs give their backing to a dictatorship, the government will undertake the long-awaited crackdown on crime – that was the deal he laid on the table last week for the Arab community. Two options, with the sweet one replete with bitterness.
In our worst nightmares, we never thought that the government would ever trade in Arab blood. In the 1950s, Moshe Sharett wondered “if this was a country of law or a country of thieves.” After 70 years, we can safely say that Israel has fallen so far down that the ugliness of those days now seems beautiful by comparison. The choice then was between law and robbery; today it is between law and bloodshed. We live in an age where officials speculate in blood. The government regards itself not as the leader of a country, but as the leader of a gang with an agenda – a gang that has no red lines.
Since the current Netanyahu government assumed power, my friends and I have been warning that the Arab population would be the first victim of the judicial overhaul. It now seems that we were optimistic. Today, the government is not satisfied with the Arab population staying on the sidelines of the protests. The government wants the Arabs to be a whip against their Jewish brothers fighting the fascist onslaught. Appetite comes with eating, goes the proverb. It is not enough for the Arabs to sit quietly, they need to join the ranks of the government, to be Levin’s mercenaries.
Levin’s “offer” is not just a wake-up call to the Arab community. It is also a warning to Jewish Israelis fighting the dictatorship, in the streets as well as through political parties and organizations, that if they continue to abandon the Arab public and make use of it only when they need it – then, as Jack Khoury writes, the government has a role for the Arab public that we could never have imagined in our wildest dreams.
But the main message here is addressed to the leadership of the Arab public – the political parties, representative institutions, civil society organizations and public figures: It is very dangerous to remain sitting on the fence. It is an invitation for a wicked government to sink its jaws into the flesh and the holy of holies of Arab society. Instead, we must fight, stay vigilant against the dangers we face and strengthen the bridges with the Jewish public, which today – despite a leadership that is captive to an outdated concept – is readier to wage a common fight since it is more attentive and bolder than in the past.
On an operative level, I propose that next Saturday night or the one after that be dedicated to the Arab public under the banner of “Brothers for a shared citizenship.” The protest activists who are so good at formulating slogans that speak to the hearts and minds should formulate slogans that address equality – equality in how the police treat crime and in all areas of life. It’s time for something fresh and civil to come out of the protest. We are tired of militarism, we are tired of stretchers, whether we are under them or on top of them.
The Netanyahu Government Speculates in Arab Israeli Blood
69
9
09.05.2023
Benjamin Netanyahu once said, “When we talk about housing prices, about the cost of living, I don’t for a second forget about life itself.” Back then, he was speaking in metaphors; today what the Arabs are really fighting for is life itself – a life without bloodshed, tears and funerals.
Israeli Arabs are being murdered day after day, and no end is in sight. Meanwhile, the architect of the governmental coup proposed a deal: Help me with the judicial overhaul, and you will see real law enforcement, Justice Minister Yariv Levin told Knesset lawmaker Mansour Abbas after the latter asked him to do something about the violence raging on the Arab streets. Levin’s response was akin to a mafia don’s “offer you can’t refuse” – if you don’t back me, blood will continue to flow in the streets of Arab towns and cities.
Is there something more chilling than Levin’s response? The killing continues, and he cynically offers negotiations with Arab leaders. If the Arabs give their........
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