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Lately,
following publication of “The Future Vision of Palestinian Arabs in Israel,” the Israeli General Security Services
(GSS) defined the Arab public in Israel as a “strategic threat,” and
commenced a campaign of incitement against Member of Knesset Dr. Azmi Bishara,
under cover of the prohibition against publicizing details of the investigation
against him. Instead of listening to the ideas of Bishara and of Arab public
figures and dealing with them, the GSS is attempting to silence them through
the use of undemocratic tools.
We have
grave and serious concerns about the incitement campaign being waged by the GSS
and its messengers against the entire Arab population. We believe there is a
close relation between the desire to belatedly defend the failed war against Lebanon and to
further entrench the Israeli refusal of any and all suggestions for dialogue,
and between the latest attacks on the Arab population. We stand in solidarity
with the men and women, Arab citizens, in opposition to this campaign.
We identify
with the call of Arab public figures in Israel
for democratizing the state and are partners to the vision of a free state founded on
full equality among all citizens. We call for the beginning of a comprehensive
dialogue on the challenge presented to the Jewish public under the slogan “a
state for all of its citizens”. The incitement and terror campaign must be
replaced with actions for freedom, justice and mutual recognition: without
occupation, and on the basis of full civil and national equality between Jews
and Arabs.
We
recognize the fundamental right of Arab public figures to reject the border
placed between them and their brethren in all states of the region, and
identify with the aspiration to transform these borders into borders of peace.
The
willingness of Israeli society to permit the GSS to define the borders of
democracy is a grave symptom of the crisis affecting the state of Israel. The
campaign of fear opened by the GSS does not strengthen the security of Israel, but the
opposite: it is a hysterical act which endangers the very existence of the
residents of the country and citizens of the state, Jews and Arabs.
We call on
the public in Israel
to join the struggle against the current campaign of terror, on behalf of a
reality of mutual recognition and equality, and on behalf of the hope for a
future of joint living for the men and women of this land.
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