by Mohammed Kaabiya
The Arab MKs calling for incitement do not have to live with the consequences of violence, like tanking tourism and economy.
On Sunday we witnessed a rare sight in the Arab sector, when the mayor of Nazareth, Ali Salem, lobbed accusations of "ruining coexistence"
at Joint Arab List chairman Ayman Odeh during a TV interview. Salem
became a hero to the Israeli public, and remarks such as "Finally, we're
hearing a sane voice from the Arab sector," and "There's someone
standing up to the bunch of inciters in the Knesset" were quick to come.
Salem expressed the anger felt by many in the Arab sector over the Arab
MKs' abandonment of their voters.
Nazareth is one of the
most popular tourism cities in Israel, even the world. Because it is so
holy to Christians, many tourists, especially Christians, make
pilgrimages there, and many Nazareth residents make their living from
tourism. But locals also visit the city, and there are plenty of Jews
who like to tour the alleyways and visit its restaurants, market, and
shops. Nazareth residents cannot accept any harm to their flourishing
tourism and trade income as a result of incitement by outsiders.
After the Second
Intifada, in which Nazareth played an integral part, the city's business
suffered severely. The number of visitors, and customers, dropped
drastically, which was a direct blow to the pockets of business owners.
It was a long time before the situation improved and thing went back to
how they used to be, and it was the same in other Arab cities where
business profits depend on visitors.
Ali Salem doesn't want
to see an economic crisis, and that's what prompted him to explode and
accuse Arab MKs of inciting young people and calling on them to take to
the streets and get dragged into violent clashes with security forces.
The Joint Arab List appropriating the Arab street infuriates a lot of
people, who see it as a provocation, especially as the MKs' livings
won't be affected. They are paid a salary out of tax revenues from the
people who go out to protest after hearing a few slogans that drip with
incitement and hatred. They face off with security forces and are
arrested -- and that's if they're lucky and the situation doesn't
deteriorate further.
There is also the
political issue that cannot be separated from the economic context. In
the last Nazareth mayoral election, influential members of the Hadash
party from outside the city tried to intervene and turn things in favor
of their candidate, Ramaz Jirassi, even though Salem is a loyal member
of the party and has contributed a lot to the municipality and its
residents. But the moment he decided to run, the party saw him as a
threat and refused to leave him alone. After he decided to run as an
independent candidate, they launched a smear campaign, but a wide
majority of the city didn't want the party involved and handed Hadash a
painful loss, which might be another reason for the tension.
Whether the reasons are
personal or economic, I believe that Salem has helped the city with a
new, young agenda. As a former member of one of the Arab parties, he
realized that the MKs are deceiving the Arab public with their
incitement, and that the violence they are calling for only serves them
and their parties.
Mohamed Kaabiya is the
coordinator for the Bedouin division of the Aharai IDF organization,
which helps encourage and prepare youths for IDF service.
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment