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October 10, 2003/Tishri 14 5764, Vol. 56, No.3
Turning point for Jewish-Arab relations?
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Those looking for milestones in the fragile relations between the Jewish state and its Arab citizens might one day point to three events that took place in recent weeks.
First, after years of haggling, the Israel Land Administration decided to give a land plot to an Israeli Arab to build his home in the Jewish community of Katzir, northeast of Hadera.
Until now, authorities had ignored a landmark 2000 ruling by the High Court of Justice forbidding discrimination against Arab citizens in allocating state land. But the Land Administration's move sets a precedent: Arab families will be able to reside in Jewish communities on an equal basis with their Jewish neighbors.
A second development was the decision to press charges against a border policeman in the fatal shooting of a Bedouin citizen in July.
Alex Digodker, 26, allegedly shot Nasser Abulgian, 23, when the man refused to roll down his window after his car was stopped for inspection. Police reportedly suspected Abulgian was smuggling Palestinians into Israel.
Police officers initially had claimed that Abulgian tried to run them over and escape. After a thorough investigation, however, the authorities decided to press charges against Digodker.
It's too early to tell whether these two developments indicate real soul-searching by Israeli officials regarding the treatment of the country's Arab minority.
Among Israel's 1.2 million Arabs, however, the euphoria they felt in the early days of the intifada may have given way to a more sober analysis of the situation.
"One of my first priorities will be to improve the image of my city among our Jewish neighbors," Sheik Hashem Abdul Rahman, an Islamic Movement spokesman, told JTA. Rahman is the leading candidate for mayor of Umm el-Fahm, an Islamic movement stronghold, in municipal elections at the end of October.
Rahman's statements are radically different from the Islamic Movement's rhetoric in recent years. The movement's charismatic leader, Sheik Ra'ed Salah, the former mayor of Umm el-Fahm, is in jail, awaiting trial on charges of funneling money to Hamas.
In recent years, Salah has been the driving force behind reconstruction work on Jerusalem's Temple Mount that led to the building of an unauthorized mosque on the highly sensitive site - and, Israeli experts say, to the destruction of Jewish antiquities.
Salah also has been behind a public campaign warning "Al-Aksa is in danger," a reference to the main mosque on the Temple Mount. The campaign has rallied thousands of Israeli Arabs behind the Islamic Movement - and against the state - with fantastical claims of Israeli plans to destroy Muslim holy sites.
The third recent development was a day of remembrance for the October 2000 riot victims.
Protest marches went from one village to another, with one central mourning parade in the Galilee town of Sakhnin. Everything was done in such an orderly manner that the Israel Police issued a statement praising the Arab leadership for its moderation.
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