Palestinian members of Knesset speak in House of Commons about Israel’s lack of democracy
Palestinian members of Knesset speak in House of Commons about Israel’s lack of democracy
Three Palestinian members of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) addressed more than 300 people in the House of Commons on 28 July, in what Betty Hunter, General Secretary of PSC, described as ‘a landmark meeting’.
‘Palestinian citizens of Israel, here, speaking to us in Parliament, to tell us there is no democracy inside Israel is a very important political event for us,’ she said.
‘It’s a new step in our campaign of telling the world of what the reality of Israeli occupation and oppression is.’
There are 1.25m Palestinians living within Israel – about 20% of the Israeli population. They are the Palestinians whose families did not flee after the Nakba of 1948, but stayed in their homeland. They hold Israeli citizenship, but are systematically discriminated against by the state.
This is what their elected representatives told the House of Commons meeting:
Dr Jamal Zahalka – chair of the Balad party in the Knesset. Dr Zahalka has been in the Knesset since 2003, and has been elected three times.
‘Our history starts in the Nakba. Before that we weren’t a minority. We were part of the Palestinian population. Israeli citizenship was forced on us in 1949.
‘Between 1948 and now, Israel has confiscated more than 75% of our land, and transferred it to the Jewish community.
‘There are more than 30 laws which discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel and, since last year, four new laws relating to land have been passed, all aimed at taking more land from our community.
‘All, in principle, are racist laws by any universal and neutral standards.’
Dr Zahalka spoke of the 45 Bedouin villages in the Negev Desert, which are unrecognised by Israel, despite the fact they existed before the presence of Israel.
‘The Israeli state says these villages don’t exist. They are denied basic services, such as electricity and running water, the children have to be driven two hours to school and two hours back every day, and Israel says it’s a democracy.’
The day before the meeting, Israeli police demolished and evacuated the Bedouin village of El-Araqib in the Negev Desert, leaving its 300 residents homeless.
Dr Zahalka concluded: ‘We demand that the state should be for all its citizens, not just a Jewish state. All our daughters and all our sons, and Jewish men and women, have the right to live in freedom and democracy and equality.
‘We are fighting for the rights of everybody, with a democratic vision for all. We think there’s a place for everybody in the ‘circle of victory’.’ Haneen Zoabi – the first woman from an Arab list to be elected to the Knesset. Ms Zoabi was on board the Mavi Marmara when it was attacked by Israel, and has since had her Parliamentary privileges revoked for ‘disloyalty to Israel’.
‘Anyone who supports Israel supports a policy of undemocracy, repression, occupation and the siege of Gaza. Europe, and Great Britain in particular, has to take responsibility for what’s happening in Israel.
‘The racism inside Israel is systematic discrimination. It’s not a policy, it’s an ideology. It doesn’t change when the government changes, it’s part of the system. It’s part of the Zionist attitude that they came to a land without people to give it to people without a land.
‘That myth continues now – that the state exists without Palestinians. We’re phantoms, we are outside the Israeli consciousness. We’re not allowed to study our history, we’re not allowed to mention the word Nakba.
‘Children enter school in Israel, and they don’t know the Palestinians ever existed, and that we were a majority and now we’re a minority.
‘I’m asking for equality with those who expelled my people. However, in Israel, to ask for equality and democracy is a strategic threat.
‘There are so many laws – citizenship laws, land laws, education laws – that discriminate against Palestinians, so you can’t be Israeli, but at the same time I must swear loyalty to the Jewish state
‘The state doesn’t recognise me, my history, my identity. It marginalises me, discriminates against me and asks me to be loyal.
‘The state should be neutral and guarantee the individual and collective rights of all its citizens.’ Ms Zoabi also pointed to the persecution of Jewish citizens of Israel and NGOs working to defend Palestinian citizens, and true democracy.
She concluded: ‘I don’t represent just my people, I also represent Israeli Jews who want democracy and who don’t want to live in a fascist state, and I want to live with them.’
Talab el-Sana – the longest serving Palestinian member of the Knesset. Mr el-Sana is of Bedouin origin.
‘We don’t carry arms and we’re not terrorists, but we hold a mirror before the Israeli state that exposes its contradictions and its racist nature. Instead of repairing that image, they break the mirror.
‘We hold Israeli passports, so when we go abroad people think we are Israeli, but, inside Israel, there are no Israelis. There are Jews and non-Jews. Our basic demand is that there should be equality between all citizens.
‘In all the symbols of the state, there’s a neglect of the Palestinian presence. The national anthem says the Jewish spirit rises to Zion, and it ignores the Arabs who are citizens of Israel.
‘A recent law was just passed forbidding the Palestinians from even commemorating their own Nakba.
‘We want to live with everyone on the basis of respect and equality. We don’t hate anyone, but we despise oppression and inequality, and therefore we demand equality for all.’
