How I Fell for An Israeli-Arab Muslim Woman for All the Right Reasons

Declaration of Independence

I’m on fire, the way one gets when things just light you up and keep burning. It started with a crush that lit the flame earlier last week but ended in a blaze Sunday morning at a Jewish-Arab school in Jerusalem and a synagogue in Tel Aviv. You might be wondering “Who”? Your next question “Why”? I’ll sigh and realize that its time for me to say the things Jews in the Diaspora aren’t supposed to say. My heart is in anguish as my beloved city burns. The country of my soul is struggling under the pain of hate and violence while it grasps at straws to preserve its identity. In all of this an Israeli-Arab woman’s call to action out of sheer frustration and anger was the siren we should be tuning in to for making a change rather than playing the same old songs of violence and victimhood.

But let’s start at the beginning. Early last week after the tragic events at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighbourhood I was inspired to hear the words of Lucy Aharish the Israeli-Arab anchor of the Hebrew news channel I24. Speaking on the weekend primetime current affairs magazine “Yoman” (Journal) she described her outrage on the vicious attack against devout Jewish victims killed during morning prayers. Touted as brave in the face of “haters” from extremists from the Arab community and the Jewish Israeli Right – she spoke out against the violence with clarity and support for the families and decried the heinous acts of the perpetrators.

However she didn’t stop there - she directed us to a valuable personal view on root causes of terror, particularly within the Israeli-Arab minority of which much of the renewed violence and this summer’s war with Gaza has grown from smouldering anger to outright violence. She spoke of the impact on generations of how and what we teach our children in any community trying to navigate between coexistence and hate. She spoke about ignorance and opportunity. She told us that she’s sick of crying and being angry. She’s tired of holding on to a history of hatred for being conquered and swallowed up by Israeli society. She acknowledged that it’s not easy and even rare to step out of your circle of victimhood. That it’s even harder in the face of inequality to step forward and offer something different. She explained that children, even with the opportunities to be educated, to be enlightened and part of an open society, can’t step over hate when they have to walk through a security checkpoint every day to get there.

On national television Lucy Aharish cried “Enough!” I am here and want it to be different. I talk like you, I’m educated like you, I even work for you and yet and I will never be your equal. Because even as I sit here as an Israeli journalist among my peers, with my work standing behind me there are those at home who will say I should feel lucky that I have a job.I was instantly in love – why? Because the Jewish Left in Israel and abroad is war weary.  It’s been shouting and crying. It was eventually backed into a corner for trying to say “an end to violence and for a change towards something new”, or “a move towards a society of equal citizenship, not grudging acknowledgement of rights under the “burden” of democratic values”. And finally, finally Lucy said it loud and clear and maybe just maybe we started to listen. Here was Lucy stating that the reality for Israeli Arabs isn’t equality among equals no matter how hard she tries. I was almost giddy in seeing her honesty and resolve.

The backdrop of Lucy Aharish’s comments and her cry for equality is the hotly debated “Jewish Nation State Law” currently being drafted. The government of the day would like to pass a law that will in effect make Lucy’s reality a legally standing one. This past week the cabinet of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government approved the first draft of the bill which will recognize national and group rights of the Jewish people inside the State of Israel while recognizing only individual rights for members of other religious, national and ethnic minorities within the country. The bill is being put forward as one that would have constitutional status that will in effect make it even more difficult to strike down existing or created laws that are discriminatory against minorities. (meaning that it can only be defeated by a super majority and will have preference in judicial decision making).  By declaring Israel the Jewish Nation State first, democracy and equality will come in second when it relates to minorities.

The legal advocacy group for Arab Minority Rights in Israel - Adalah currently cites 50 or so laws within the state that are already discriminatory against minorities. But while some are saying this new bill could cause the government to fall as the country has reached its watershed point of maintaining a status quo of non-negotiation and escalating violence, others are brushing off its implications saying that the position of the bill is a long time coming of what already exists in the country.

As someone who has had their feet firmly planted in Israel and Canada for decades, I was raised and educated on the principles of the Multiculturalism Act of 1988. As someone who can and does exercise my democratic rights in both countries I can’t watch this anymore and not cry out for at least a discussion on the ramifications of where this law would take Israel. It will have an impact on its relationship to Jewish Diaspora communities who live and thrive as minorities under the policies of democratic equality in Canada, the US and in many other places in the world today. Will they chafe under this proposal while at the same time know they have a “home” to come home to? How is that we can lament and shake our heads on what is taking place in Ferguson, Missouri but not what is happening in a place that so many feel a spiritual if not cultural, social, religious and historical connection to?

Canada was one of the first countries in the world to embrace an official multiculturalism policy in the 1970s. It was the norm where I grew up. Multiculturalism guided and strengthened me in my identity when I chose to be part of the fabric and politics of Israeli society.

The Multiculturalism Act became law in 1988 and its principles have been tried and tested over and over. I am not here to say that the Canadian brand of Multiculturalism is perfect or that we have gotten it completely right by any means. There are many faults in the system of implementing the principles of the Act. But the Act itself ensures that there is always a benchmark of equality by which the debate can be guided and the principles of its establishment upheld to make improvements. The Act recognizes groups including Aboriginal peoples and the official languages of Canada French and English, however its key message is to:
“recognize and promote the understanding that multiculturalism reflects the cultural and racial diversity of Canadian society and acknowledges the freedom of all members of Canadian society as equal and able to preserve, enhance and share their cultural heritage.”

Underlying a promotion of these freedoms is the Citizenship Act that Canadians “whether by birth or by choice, enjoy equal status, are entitled to the same rights, powers and privileges and are subject to the same obligations, duties and liabilities;”

The law does not put one group ahead of another. There are exceptions and the historical quagmire of French-English, Catholic-Protestant relations still stymie provincial debates ranging from education and language laws that have and continue to influence elections here. Nevertheless all citizens are equal under the law. Israel could learn a lot from what we have to offer in lessons on how to begin to manage equality and tolerance. Learning how to establish mechanisms that strive for equality when the laws and good intentions are set into motion, even when they don’t always get it right.

To create new bedrock law that elevates one group over another in the eyes of the State goes against the foundations of coexistence that the State of Israel was established on as a Jewish and Democratic society for all of its citizens. Its own Declaration of Independence stated that it “will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

And after all that we hoped for and what my new love Lucy Aharish cried out for on national television last week what transpired was that Jewish extremists torched the Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School Saturday night. A community of 600+ students and their families at the Jewish-Arab school were confronted with messages of extremism and hatred. A school where my friends and colleagues send their children to learn how it can be different. 


From burning Arab teenagers, to burning the schools where both Arab and Jewish children find an oasis of sanity, to murdering people at worship and driving down innocents waiting for the bus home – just when will it be enough? Laws like this will let the perpetrators feel they have been vindicated on both sides. With the fear of more to come can it be any different or will my new romance with hope burn up in the poison that seems to be taking over? Israeli Labour MK Eitan Cabel said that Lucy is the nightmare of racists and partners in hate on both sides of the conflict. I’m hoping that she’s my dream come true.

To learn more about the pending bill “Jewish Nation State Law”  click here

Postscript: 8 hours after the posting of this piece the government in Israel was dissolved and elections are pending. This issue was a key point in the collapse of the coalition.