Questions and Answers / Amal Jamal on being an Arab in Israel today

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Political scientist Amal Jamal is author of the newly published "Arab Minority Nationalism in Israel: The Politics of Indigeneity" (Routledge, 324 pages, $130 ). The book examines the changing status of Israel's Palestinian citizens from 1948 to the present day, but in also comparing it to that of indigenous groups in other countries, it offers a perspective rarely given a hearing in Israel. Jamal looks at the various ways that the state's laws and politics have marginalized the Arabs, beginning with the martial law in place from 1948 to 1966, and the fact that some 30 percent of the 156,000 Palestinians who remained in the state after Independence became internal refugees, having been displaced during the 1947-49 war and unable to return to their homes or towns (which were in many cases destroyed ) once there was a cease-fire.

The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict has made the state's relationship with its 1.3 million Arab citizens especially sensitive. This is particularly true for the past decade, which has seen the "events of October 2000" and the subsequent Or Commission and its findings, and also the "future vision" documents, in which several different groupings of Arab intellectuals and politicians laid out proposals for redefining the nature of the state and the status of its Arab minority. More recently, the government and Knesset have debated and in some cases passed a variety of bills that further limit the rights of non-Jewish citizens, and one major party has even called, in its election platform, for revoking the citizenship of some. These developments, together with the exposure of more Israeli Arabs to higher education and to international human rights theory, have heightened the frustration of many younger Arab citizens with the present situation and their demands for full equality. Jamal looks at all of this in his book, and describes the political landscape and the changes it is undergoing.

Jamal, who turns 49 this month, is a professor of political science at Tel Aviv University and head of its Walter Lebach Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education. He lives in the town of Yarka, near Acre, and spoke with Haaretz from his car.

http://www.haaretz.com/culture/books/questions-and-answers-amal-jamal-on-being-an-arab-in-israel-today-1.370076