Ongoing discrimination, increasing violence

By: Amin Zaher

I listened very attentively to MK Ayman Odeh in an interview that aired this afternoon on Channel 2. Unfortunately, his explanations and interpretation did not convince me because he did not touch on the cause and root cause that brought the violence upon us.

It is important to me that the MKs deal with legislation and they - in my humble opinion - should be knowledgeable about legislation and especially the budget law. I do not remember in my lifetime, and I am not young, two years younger than the state, that the Arab MKs waged a serious and stubborn struggle with the aim of including the Arab budget in the state budget base. In the last five years, the Arab MKs had two golden opportunities, historic opportunities, to try to fight for the addition of the Arab budget to the base of the budget law.

The first, MK Mansour Abbas' support for the Bennett government. The budget issue was not raised as a condition for supporting the Bennett government. He spoke about approving increased five-year plans for the Arabs and even boasted that he had also obtained a five-year plan for the Druze, and after this statement he had an argument with MK Hamed Amar about "copyrights."

The second opportunity was when MK Gida al-Zoabi resigned from the Bennett government, ostensibly for a position promised to her by the other side. I have no complaints against her, but she brought down a government "cheaply."

I respect the MKs wherever they are because they are elected representatives of the public. But on the other hand, I do criticize their work and examine the results of their activities for the benefit of society in general.

I saw fit to write about the horrific issue of the bloody violence that threatens Arab society within the State of Israel, in order to get to the root of the problem and to raise awareness and shed light on related issues that have disappeared from the eyes of decision-makers in the Israeli government.

In my understanding and from my many years of experience in the Knesset and its corridors, both as a former assistant minister and as a lobbyist since 1996, the violence in Arab society in Israel is a direct result of ongoing budgetary discrimination and long-standing government policy since the establishment of the state.

It is unfortunate that some Israeli commentators and journalists, mostly Jews, claim and interpret that the bloody and increasing violence in Arab society is ostensibly the result of Arab education, culture, disobedience to the laws and lawlessness (disobeying the laws, driving wildly, shooting at weddings, etc.). It is a terrible thing to blame the victim, who is discriminated against on racial grounds, the weak and persecuted, and to place the blame on him. They also occasionally - and rightly - blame the helplessness of the Ben Gvir police in what is happening in the Arab sector and on a lack of governance.

It surprises me that the journalists, learned commentators, and guests in their studios do not try to point out the root of the serious problem that threatens not only the Arabs but also the Jews and all citizens of Israel.

Therefore, I will endeavor to point out the root of the problem of bloody violence in the Arab sector and will also suggest ways to address it until it is eliminated.

The rising and bloody violence that has claimed many victims and destroyed families and homes in Arab society in Israel is not accidental, cultural, or merely criminal, but a direct result of a long-standing government policy of discrimination on ethnic grounds, which is expressed in budgetary exclusion, institutional neglect, structural gaps, and denial of basic resources.

As evidence, Arab local councils are not budgeted within the framework of the State Budget Law, similar to Jews, but through temporary five-year plans that are at the mercy of the government and its ministers. For example, the maneuver of Minister May Golan, who allegedly announced the transfer of hundreds of millions of shekels from the Arab five-year plan to Ben-Gvir's ministry. Temporary five-year plans are a move that prevents strategic planning, sustainable development, and socio-economic stability. This situation creates fertile ground for organized crime, violence, and the undermining of the social fabric. For the sake of full disclosure, five-year plans are a management and control tool by the government to manage the Arab sector using the carrot and stick method, threats and blackmail. Be good children and you will receive, don't be good children and you will not receive.

Being dependent on temporary five-year plans, Arab local authorities are exposed to political pressures and budgetary instability. This means there is no long-term planning, no institutional stability.

Arab society suffers from one of the highest poverty rates in the country, from the almost complete absence of industrial zones, which increases unemployment rates among local youth, and also harms the councils' revenue from property taxes.

In addition - the suffocating and acute housing shortage, and almost destroyed and defective infrastructure, a weakened education system, the lack of state land for expanding the rural outline in relation to natural growth, planning outlines that have been stuck for many years, demolition orders, huge fines and the failure to connect homes to the electricity grid. This reality creates frustration, despair, alienation and murderous and bloody violence.

There is no empty space in the universe, where the state withdrew, crime and violence organizations entered. The lack of an effective presence in Arab localities created a governmental vacuum that was filled by criminal organizations, the black economy, arms trafficking, collection of patronage fees, and criminal takeover of state tenders, including the Ministry of Defense, the robbery of hundreds of thousands of weapons - long guns, explosive devices, anti-aircraft missiles, and more - from IDF camps in the south and north, most of the robbery taking place in broad daylight. Thus, the criminal organizations became an alternative economic, social, and governmental factor. In simple terms, they replaced the government. The lack of approved master plans violates the citizen's right to mortgages and will prevent him from obtaining bank loans in many cases, and therefore he will turn to the black market run by the criminal organizations.

The violence is the failure of the state and not the failure of Arab society. Arab society is the victim of the government's indifference, neglect and lack of governance. Arab society is the victim of a long-standing policy of discrimination on religious and racist grounds. The refusal of Israeli governments to base the Arab budget on the basis of the budget law, similar to the Jewish budget, is solely on racist grounds. I have no other explanation.

The State of Israel is the only democratic and enlightened state in the Middle East, as claimed by the Israeli Prime Minister and his ministers, but it is the only state in the Middle East and in the entire world that divides the state budget along ethnic and sectarian lines. It has divided its citizens into four sectors: the Jewish sector, which is budgeted within the framework of the Budget Law, the Arab sector, the Druze/Circassian sector, and the Bedouin sector, which are budgeted in the five-year plans, have become beggars who are subject, as mentioned, to government control using the carrot and stick method.

Placing responsibility on Arab society is a reversal of political moral principles. The root of the problem is not cultural but structural - systemic.

To address the murderous violence in Arab society, I propose:

Include the Arab authorities in the Basic Budget Law, equitable, permanent and unconditional budgeting.

Transition from security investment to social-economic investment, education, employment, youth, housing, culture.

A multi-year national development plan is required - with measurable goals and public oversight.

Restoring trust between the state and Arab citizens through equality, transparency, and fairness.

Stop seeing the Arab Israeli public as a security issue in the way the first Israeli government treated them after the establishment of the state; 76 years have passed since then, it's time for a change.

It must be recognized that violence cannot be eradicated in a society governed by poverty, exclusion, and deprivation. Without fiscal justice, there will be no security and no stability.

The writer is Amin Zaher, former assistant minister of housing and lobbyist in the Knesset.

With great respect,

Amin Zaher

Mobile: 0527926717