Re: "My tragedy is that my State is at war with my people," complained the late Knesset member Abd-alAzizi al Zuabi, a statement that has already become a classic.
Every fifth Israeli citizen is an Arab Palestinian. Indeed, the Arab citizens of Israel are, proportionally, one of the largest national minorities anywhere in the democratic world. Yet Israel has never come to grips with this elementary fact.
Israel officially defines itself as a "democratic Jewish state" How does the existence of such a large sector of the native Arabs affect this definition? Can a democratic state with so many non-Jewish citizens be "Jewish"? Can a Jewish state with so many non-Jewish citizens really be democratic?
Israel has solved this problem by not solving it, indeed, by never squarely facing up to it at all. In a form of denial, official documents frequently identify Arab citizens as "sons of minorities".
The above scrap could readily be rephrased into:
"My tragedy is that my State is at war with my people," complained the would-be European Parliament member Abd-alAzizi al Zuabi, a statement that has already become a classic.
Every fifth European citizen is an Arab immigrant. Indeed, the Arab citizens of Europe are, proportionally, one of the largest national minorities anywhere in the democratic world. Yet the EU has never come to grips with this elementary fact.
Europe officially defines itself as a "democratic European union" How does the existence of such a large sector of the native Arabs affect this definition? Can a democratic union with so many non-white citizens be "European"? Can a European union with so many non-white citizens really be democratic?
Europe has solved this problem by not solving it, indeed, by never squarely facing up to it at all. In a form of denial, official documents frequently identify Arab citizens as "sons of minorities". |
