Mada's Political Monitoring Reports

Summary:
To monitor the attitude of the State of Israel and of Jewish Israeli society to Palestinian citizens of the state, Mada Al-Carmel - The Arab Center for Applied Social Research initiated the Political Monitoring Project. This new publication of Mada, edited by attorney Nimer Sultany, is part of the project. By monitoring numerous and varied areas, the report presents the official and inofficial attitude of the state and a large part of Jewish Israeli society toward the Palestinian minority through the year 2003. The first report "Citizens without Citizenship" focused on the period 2000-2002 and was published in July 2003.

The editor writes in the preface: "This is the second report that Mada al-Carmel - The Arab Center for Applied Social Research has issued as part of its Political Monitoring Project. The project was initiated to annually and systematically monitor developments in the rights and status of Palestinian citizens in Israel; to evaluate the effect of these developments on the content and significance of Arab citizenship in Israel; and to provide researchers, politicians, activists, and interested members of the public with tools and information to both analyze and alter the status of Arabs in Israel."

He adds: "If radical action is not taken to address and eliminate racism in Israeli social and political structure, the Police and other governmental institutions will continue their violently racist practices. In drastic distinction to the Or Commission's myopic assessment, racism and injustice are neither isolated nor anomalous "events" but rather processes that are deeply entrenched in Israeli ideology and praxis. These processes must be contextualized within a comprehensive socio-political analysis that is both historicized and deals rigorously with the present."

The second report is composed of three chapters and a bibliography.
Chapter One of the report discusses the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law. The law discriminates against Palestinian families and prevents Palestinians from freely marrying. The chapter describes the stages of the legislative process and of the committee decisions, and the public debate that they generated. The chapter discloses the real reasons that led to the enactment of the law, that are concerned with demography rather than with security.

Chapter Two discusses decisions of the government and of government ministries. The decisions presented violate, directly and/or indirectly, the rights of the Palestinian minority. They clearly reflect the exclusion of and discrimination against the Palestinian minority, and reveal the rationale underlying the decisions of Israeli policymakers. The chapter focuses on demolition of houses in the Negev, housing policy, GSS involvement in Arab education system, and the arrest of leaders of the Islamic movement.

Chapter Three provides numerous examples of public expressions of hatred and various other forms of racism, discrimination, and even violence against the Palestinian minority on the basis of national belonging. The examples highlighted in the chapter include the oral and written comments of political leaders, decision-makers and opinion-shapers, namely, government ministers, MKs, academics, journalists, Rabbis, and other public figures. While some of these individuals represent extremist views of those who lie at the margins of Israeli society, most of the illustrations come from within what has become mainstream thought in Israel. The chapter includes an analysis and critique of the Or commission of inquiry report.

The book is published in Arabic, English and Hebrew. For more information contact the author: nimer@mada-research.org