by B'TSELEM-The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
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An interesting issue, 2007-08-27
The demands made by Arab propagandists are rarely subtle.
Generally, what I tend to see are requests to free imprisoned terrorists, make it illegal for Israel to arrest terrorists, make it illegal for Israel to deport or extradite terrorists, make it illegal to extradite terrorists to Israel, make it illegal for Israel to defend itself against terrorism, say with a separation barrier, make it illegal for Israel to have rules against having anti-Israeli propaganda in the classrooms, and so forth. Along with this are demands for the UN to pass resolutions condemning Israel for everything it does, good or bad, for anything it does not do, good or bad, and for anything it is falsely accused of doing. It seems to me that just as bad money drives out good money, bad demands drive out good ones. Why bother to ask for anything useful, since one may get that anyway? Why not ask exclusively for counterproductive things?
As a result, I tend to be surprised when I see actual requests to improve things for Arabs. It would be a shock to ask that Arabs in camps be assimilated. And I am even surprised to see requests for food, schools, and medical facilities for Arabs, even though I know that such funds can be misused. I generally expect the demands to be for weapons, or for funds that can trivially be used directly for weapons instead of for public services. And any issue that involves land generally is called an Israeli land grab, whether the amount of land stays the same, gets ceded by Israel, or gets acquired by Israel.
Once in a while, however, there are requests for something reasonable. There was a request to support an Arab family that wanted to live in a Jewish town in the West Bank. That may have been due to a desire to embarrass Israel, but it was a reasonable request in any case.
In this case, however, we are dealing with an Israeli organization that may not deal exclusively in Arab propaganda. Maybe that is one reason why it addresses a genuine issue here.
You see, the residents of Nu'man were, by mistake, not considered to be in East Jerusalem, so they were not given the appropriate cards identifying them as such. It is amusing to see the way the report deals with this: it is not easy to ask for cards when you simultaneously argue that the cards themselves are in violation of international law! Anyway, with the separation barrier and all, it means that the question arises about whether the Arabs of Nu'man are on the wrong side of the barrier. As things stand, the inhabitants don't have the proper cards for being in their own homes legally. And that's not good. Here too, it is interesting to see a request to be on the proper side of a barrier that one calls illegal in the first place, especially when it is not at all clear which side of the barrier is preferable.
Luckily, there has finally been a hearing on this matter by the Jerusalem High Court. And in October, there's supposed to be some resolution of the matter, with the wishes of the Arabs in question being taken into account. Many of them simply want their cards. Some want the barrier route changed so that they can be on the Arab side of it. And it is good to see that the system appears to be working, albeit slowly, here.
I do not see this issue primarily as an attempt by either side to grab land. But there is an issue that I think needs to be clarified in October that this report does not dwell on, namely just who is entitled to what identification cards! The problem with not giving cards to those who ought to be entitled to them is twofold. Not only does it hurt those who do not get their cards, it also makes it possible for people who do not deserve cards to wander into the area and falsely claim to be there because they were among those who were left out. That's one more thing that will need to be sorted out. And that's also one more reason to fix this problem in the first place.
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