A rchive Date
[ 18-08-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Palestine ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/downing.html
A Palestinian politician who preaches peace
By JOHN DOWNING - Toronto Sun
August 18, 2002
KARA, Israel - This Arab village and the big reception room in the home of Nawaf Massalha, deputy speaker of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, is an ideal setting for this Arab politician to mourn the discrimination against Israeli citizens who are Arabs.
Massalha is a lanky man, proud of what he has accomplished for his fief over 14 years in politics, proud of the big home he built his son with all his savings, and the other big homes Arabs are building for their large families (twice the size of Jewish ones).
But all this comes peppered with despair about the Palestinian cause and missed opportunities. The hope that filled Muslim and Jew after the Oslo accord, a hope almost giddy with joy, exploded with the first suicide bombers.
Massalha's Saturday is crammed with events. It starts with him holding forth with the strong voice of a veteran talker as an aide moves about serving soft drinks and sweet fruit as the phone rings and a fax churns. He talks of the leaders, even the PMs, who have come here to negotiate. A couple drops in to invite him to a wedding, ignoring the foreigners.
Then it's off to see one of the 80 trim health clinics he built for Arabs in a year as junior health minister. (He boasts that in the previous 45 years, only 40 were built.) Next, it's a crowded restaurant lunch to let organizers of the Jewish-Arab Centre for Peace promote their weekend encounters where young Arabs and Jews get to know each other as humans, not remote enemies.
Then tiny cups of strong coffee in a roadside cafe, where everyone watches, and, finally, three wedding celebrations where he's expected to dance and make the customary gifts.
Massalha thinks Palestinians made a big mistake in rejecting those final offers of getting 90% to 95% of the disputed territories. He believes that really was the deal and ignores those who claim it wasn't. He condemns the obvious Palestinian corruption and says he has spoken out against this around the world.
Massalha says he's an Israeli citizen but also a Palestinian, thus bridging between those given all Israeli rights, including political parties and even affirmative action, and those in the West Bank and Gaza who carry identity cards, aren't citizens, and come under Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority.
He's not anti-American since he liked the people he met when he visited the U.S. as a young trade unionist 30 years ago. But he reflects on what many here say was a dumb tactic by President George W. Bush in calling for Arafat to go. It's a wish of many in the Palestinian and Arab worlds too, but they'll be damned if Americans will dictate to them. After all, a major problem for Israel is that it's seen as a champion, a galling representative, of the very Western culture and democracy Arabs love to hate.
Massalha said: "I want Arafat gone, too, but not to be thrown out by Sharon and Bush. All the Palestinian leaders must be replaced. But when Bush and his people say that, they're not encouraging any Palestinian moderates to take power."
He worries that Palestinians, in their hatred of the Jews, will overlook that "they need Israel in everything - economy, environment, water, etc. There are 300,000 foreign workers here in a state with huge Arab unemployment. Together, we are living a catastrophe. We are not just twins but Siamese twins, and you can't divide totally or the weak one will die. And the weak is the Palestinian."
As he moves about this village of 14,000 only 3 km from the West Bank, he smilingly recalls that most of this has been built since 1948, when he was just a refugee here. He says visitors have asked over the years if this was a "show village," but he told them it wasn't, although "it's a bit better than normal," with better buildings and lower unemployment.
But the smile fades when he says that more than half of Israeli Arabs and their children live below the poverty line. "We are 20% of the six million in Israel. (Some experts say it's really 14%.) All we want is equality. We like Israel, we want to be part of the state, as full citizens. For example, there are special deals given those in the army (Arabs don't have to serve but can volunteer) which are not extended to the Arab citizens. Then there is the mistrust which has blossomed in the last two years with this intifada."
(I saw dramatic proof in Jerusalem. I was walking with a government official in what has been a hunting ground for terrorism. He pointed out how the people parted, like the Red Sea when the Israelites were fleeing Egypt, whenever an Arab walked among them.)
Massalha was off to his weddings, so he said goodbye with this concession: "It's our future, the future of our children. You can't come from Canada to help us; we have to help ourselves. We have to fix our home ourselves."
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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