Under Israeli Law Anyone Can be Defined as a "Foreign Agent"
Why is Israel After Me?

By AZMI BISHARA

Amman, Jordan.

I am a Palestinian from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and was, until
last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.

But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France's Dreyfus affair--in
which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state--the
government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during
Israel's failed war against Lebanon in July.

Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a
foreign agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law,
anyone--a journalist or a personal friend--can be defined as a
"foreign agent" by the Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can
lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah--Israel's
enemy in Lebanon--has independently gathered more security information
about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide.
What's more, unlike those in Israel's parliament who have been
involved in acts of violence, I have never used violence or
participated in wars. My instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are
simply words in books, articles and speeches.

These trumped-up charges, which I firmly reject and deny, are only the
latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in
the struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a
state of all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges
to Jews that it denies to non-Jews.

When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians
were expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that
escaped that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long
lived. The Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked
immediately on transforming us into foreigners in our own country.

For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood, we, as Israeli citizens,
lived under military rule with pass laws that controlled our every
movement. We watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up over destroyed
Palestinian villages.

Today we make up 20% of Israel's population. We do not drink at
separate water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and
can serve in the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and
informal discrimination in all spheres of life.

More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The
Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from
anywhere in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right
to return to the country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic
Law of Human Dignity and Liberty--Israel's "Bill of Rights"--defines
the state as "Jewish" rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus
Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for
native Palestinians.

Israel acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious
group. Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal
citizenship cannot exist under such conditions.

Most of our children attend schools that are separate but unequal.
According to recent polls, two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse to
live next to an Arab and nearly half would not allow a Palestinian
into their home.

I have certainly ruffled feathers in Israel. In addition to speaking
out on the subjects above, I have also asserted the right of the
Lebanese people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
to resist Israel's illegal military occupation. I do not see those who
fight for freedom as my enemies.

This may discomfort Jewish Israelis, but they cannot deny us our
history and identity any more than we can negate the ties that bind
them to world Jewry. After all, it is not we, but Israeli Jews who
immigrated to this land. Immigrants might be asked to give up their
former identity in exchange for equal citizenship, but we are not
immigrants.

During my years in the Knesset, the attorney general indicted me for
voicing my political opinions (the charges were dropped), lobbied to
have my parliamentary immunity revoked and sought unsuccessfully to
disqualify my political party from participating in elections--all
because I believe Israel should be a state for all its citizens and
because I have spoken out against Israeli military occupation. Last
year, Cabinet member Avigdor Lieberman--an immigrant from
Moldova--declared that Palestinian citizens of Israel "have no place
here," that we should "take our bundles and get lost." After I met
with a leader of the Palestinian Authority from Hamas, Lieberman
called for my execution.

The Israeli authorities are trying to intimidate not just me but all
Palestinian citizens of Israel. But we will not be intimidated. We
will not bow to permanent servitude in the land of our ancestors or to
being severed from our natural connections to the Arab world. Our
community leaders joined together recently to issue a blueprint for a
state free of ethnic and religious discrimination in all spheres. If
we turn back from our path to freedom now, we will consign future
generations to the discrimination we have faced for six decades.

Americans know from their own history of institutional discrimination
the tactics that have been used against civil rights leaders. These
include telephone bugging, police surveillance, political
delegitimization and criminalization of dissent through false
accusations. Israel is continuing to use these tactics at a time when
the world no longer tolerates such practices as compatible with democracy.

Why then does the U.S. government continue to fully support a country
whose very identity and institutions are based on ethnic and religious
discrimination that victimize its own citizens?
Azmi Bishara was a member of the Knesset until his resignation in April