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The Dialectic that is Israel
Kevin Maher '04
 The
Center for Arab and Islamic Studies' Spring Lecture Series opened on Jan.
22 in Falvey Memorial Library featuring Dr. Amal Jamal's discussion of
"The Dialectics of Identity Politics:
Palestinian Citizenship in the Jewish State." Jamal, a lecturer in political
science of Tel Aviv University, is a visiting fellow at the Solomon
Asch Center for Ethnopolitical Conflict of the University of Pennsylvania.
Speaking from both a political and empirical
perspective, Jamal explored the dialectic that is Israel and described
the existence of the Palestinian minority in the Jewish state. Attempts
of the Israeli government to "de-Palestinianize" its identity, he insisted,
are met with an active assertion of "Palestinianness" by Arab politics.
He described Palestinians as living in a land where the somewhat contradictory
government forces citizenship upon a people that it would prefer live
elsewhere. "The Palestinians in Israel had and still have to face the
strong ideological, political, military and economic apparatus of the
Jewish state that denies the legitimate existence of 20 percent of its
own citizens."
Nevertheless, he added that Arabs, while
continuing to maintain their Palestinian identity, still desire and fight
to become part of the exclusive Israeli public. They seek to play a role
in creating a meaning for "public good" in which they are included and
in the reconstruction of the state's "national priorities agenda." Facing
a heightened racism from the Israeli front, Jamal explained, Arab discontent
continually grows, however, loyalty to state institutions such as the
Knesset and High Supreme Court remain. Also, the Arab population rallies
around the "Jewishness" of the state as a source of inspired Palestinian
nationalism.
Highlighting the changes that are taking
place within Palestinian politics, Jamal noted the move from minority
politics to native people politics; also, the shift from negative to positive
equality so that Arabs might participate more actively in determining
state policies. In addition, he recognized transitions from allocation
politics to a struggle for recognition politics and from individual rights
to collective rights. Other progressions included a switch from politics
of integration to politics of self-government and from system politics
to counter-system politics.
Jamal commented that developments are
slow in the coming for a variety of reasons. He pointed toward increasing
opposition toward including Arabs in governmental situations and an escalating
number of those that doubt the Arab loyalty to the Israeli state. Even
within the Palestinian parties, he claimed, a common agenda does not always
exist.
Though arguing that differences in economic
status and democratic freedom between Arabs and Israeli's can not go unnoticed,
Jamal did concede that Israeli law does allow for some maneuvering space.
While real discrimination does exist in some aspects of the state, fairness
is present in others. As Jamal pointed out, "These contradictions are
very problematic." |
