Israel whitewashes unity against Nation State Law

“The people want the fall of the law,” young demonstrators chanted, in a variation of the phrase used against regimes during the Arab uprisings of 2011.

“The time has come to wake up,” read a sign carried by two Jewish women.

The mass protest on Saturday in Tel Aviv was an unusual sight for Israel – a crowd of 30,000, with Arabs alongside left-wing Jews and a small number from the Druze community.

They had come together to oppose the government’s racist Nation State Law that entrenches Israel’s character as a Jewish state and relegates Arabs to second-class citizenship.

But the effort did not achieve the desired effect. Israel’s political elite yesterday was manipulating the rally to further delegitimise the beleaguered and increasingly isolated Arab minority.

There was a significant presence of Jews at the protest alongside the Arabs. But the mainstream reactions to the rally showed just how misunderstood and vulnerable to defamation are the Arab citizens who make up a fifth of Israel’s population.

Israeli media coverage, photos and political reactions focused on a relatively small number of demonstrators who waved Palestinian flags at the protest, contrary to urgings of organisers.

The implication was that the protesters wanted to destroy Israel, not just the racist law.

The flag waving, in the coverage of the popular Ynet news site, was the most important aspect of the protest, not the speeches against the law, the voices of the diverse crowd of all ages who spoke of longing for equality, or the fact that Arabs and Jews had come together.

Leading the attack was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who, in remarks at a cabinet meeting yesterday, cast the demonstrators as threatening fifth columnists.

Mr Netanyahu said many of the protesters “want to nullify the law of return” that grants automatic citizenship to Jews, and “to nullify the anthem and the flag and convert Israel into an Israeli-Palestinian state or one of all its citizens”.

“It is precisely because of this that we passed the Nation State Law,” he said.

“PLO flags have been unfurled in the heart of Tel Aviv and we have heard cries of, ‘With blood and spirit we will redeem you Palestine’,” he said.

Arab legislator Ahmed Tibi said the coverage was frustrating.

“Unfortunately, the media focused on what was secondary and missed the point,” Mr Tibi said. “To focus on 20 youths who carried flags because of their own conviction out of 30,000 is unprofessional and doesn’t reflect reality.”

He said the message of the rally was simple: “Cancel the Nation State Law, we want to be equal.”

At the protest, Mufid Shawarna, 50, an electrician from the Israeli town of Jaljulya, voiced the sentiments of many.

“Of course this law threatens me. Tomorrow it will be an even more racist law and afterwards we will arrive at apartheid,” Mr Shawarna told The National.

“Instead of making laws for people to live together, they seek to divide and categorise as first, second and third-class citizens. Why? They should be promoting coexistence.

“It’s rejected that they make laws that harm the Palestinian people who live here.”