By Dogan Akman
According to a survey* released by the respected Israeli left-wing think tank Israel Democracy Institute (IDI)** on the eve of Israel’s Independence Day May 1, (1)71% of the Israeli population said that today their personal situation is : “very good” or “good”; (2) 25% said their situation is “okay” with only (3) 3% considering it “very bad” or bad”.
When the ratings of personal situation of the Arab and Jewish Israelis are compared, 57% of the former rated it as “very good” or “good”; while 74% of the latter gave the same rating.
With respect to Israel’s situation today, the three corresponding percentages are 47.5%, 40%, and 15% respectively, and the rest either did not know or did not reply.
When the ratings with respect to Israel’s situation are compared between the Arab Israelis and the Jewish Israelis, 66% of the former rated it as “very good” or “good” while only 44 % of the latter group gave the same rating. Only 22% of the former rated it as “very bad” or “bad.
On the issue of pride in being an Israeli, 80% of the general public said to be proud to be Israelis, while, 51% of the Arab Israelis and 86% of the Jewish Israelis answered in the affirmative.
On the other hand, the percentages of Arab and Jewish Israelis who said they are not proud, the percentages are 40% and 13% respectively.
On March 13, Sarah Zaobi, an Israeli Arab, resident of Nazareth, took issue with the statement of Israeli actress and TV host Rotem Sela who in an Instagram wrote : When in hell will anyone in this government tell the public that Israel is a state for all its citizens and that all human beings are being born equal including Arabs?
She declared : I believe that the right of the Jewish people to have their own state,to have a Jewish nation state , with full equal rights to all its citizens living in Israel With all respect to Rotem Sela,I think she lives in a Tel-Aviv bubble without being aware of what is happening [outside of it] and may be she understands thre word of celebrity,but she certainly does not understand politics…I was privileged to be a citizen of a country that respects my honour, which gives me freedom of expression and of religion….Who is Rota Salem talking about sitting in the government?About Ayman Odeh who went to Barghoutti the murderer and told him thast in the future they would travel together in Jerusalem ? Or about Ahmerd Tibi that prasises shaheeds[martyrs] and murderer of Jews ?…many Arabs think like me, but not many have the courage to tell the truth. This is a difficult truth to say in our society.We have to stop whining and complain ing.I want Arabs who are proud of the Israeliness and of their government…The current government invested a lot in the Arab sector,in termsd of budgetsd and security provided to all of us by the most moral army in the world.It is true that there is no perfect world and there is much to improve, but the government does not neglect us.In any case my love for the people of Israel and for the state is unconditional …We live in a paradise and we need to wake up.
Considering the nature of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the never ending Palestinian terrorism and warmongering, it is hard to reconcile these figures and the statement of an Israeli Arab activist with a country alleged to be practicing apartheid and oppressing its Arab minority.
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*https://en.idi.org.il/ The survey was conducted by telephone on April 18 and 19, 2017 among 600 respondents constituting a representative national sample of the adult population aged 18 and over. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.1%.For more information, interviews or a copy of the complete questionnaire (in Hebrew): Maayan Hoffman, Director of International Communications, +972-50-718-9742 or jaffemaayan@idi.org.il. **By way of some ideological background to the IDI, cf. www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed…/The-strange-case-of-the-Israel-Democracy-Institute
The writer lives in Canada. Prior to his retirement in 2009, he taught university, served as a Judge of the Provincial Court of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and then joined the Federal Department of Justice where he was employed first, as a Crown prosecutor, and then as a civil litigator. Besides his academic publications, since his retirement, the writer published papers on a variety of subjects, mostly focused on political issues.
Brilliant analysis. I hope Ms. Zoabi’s views are held by at least some other Israeli Arabs.
Brilliant analysis. Apparently some Israeli Arabs, although not all, are loyal Israeli citizens.