The first clause of the Israeli Nation-State Law, passed by the Knesset on July 18, clearly outlines in its three paragraphs, leaving no room for doubt or interpretation, whose land this is, who the people are, who has the right to self-determination on this land, and what the identity of the state is, which does not recognize geographical borders... Read the literal text:
(a) The Land of Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people, upon which the State of Israel was established.
(b) The State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which it realizes its natural, cultural, religious, and historical right to self-determination.
(c) The realization of the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is limited to the Jewish people.
Despite this clarity, which rational minds agree on its interpretation, a group of Palestinian intellectuals and politicians inside Palestine insist on clinging to the policy of hiding the sun with a sieve and throwing dust in the eyes of the Palestinian people inside, who spoke decisively and resiliently in their great demonstration yesterday in the middle of Tel Aviv against this distinctly racist law.
The decision of the Palestinian political leadership inside not to raise the Palestinian flag at the demonstration was based, according to my reading of their arguments and analysis of their political stance, on tactical convictions and entrenched ideological reasons for some, and a lack of clear vision and political strategy for confrontation for others... In explaining and defending their decision, they presented many justifications which I summarize in the following four:
First, raising the Palestinian flag would provoke the 'Jewish friends' who join us in opposing the racist law.
Second, raising the Palestinian flag supports the racist Israeli Jewish right-wing tendencies and strengthens their adherence to their apartheid-based policy.
Third, this group believes that raising the Palestinian flag supports the racist government coalition’s arguments about the importance of enacting the Nation-State Law to counter existential threats facing Jews in Israel.
Finally, a segment of the Palestinian elite inside still considers openly expressing the national identity of the Palestinian people inside, such as raising the flag and using some national symbols, as political recklessness and impulsiveness reflecting emotional turmoil and lack of mental balance.
Last night, the Palestinian masses responded to their political leadership’s decision by ignoring it and raised the Palestinian flag in the middle of Tel Aviv, chanting for Palestine, resilience, and defending existence.
Once again, the Palestinian masses inside proved that they preceded their political elite in reading and dealing with reality.
The Israeli Nation-State Law clearly states, as understood and intended by the law’s masters, that there is no such thing as an 'Israeli people' composed of Israeli Jews and others who are non-Jews, as some within the Palestinian minority wish. It does not speak of citizenship or equality or other derivative phrases and constructions used by Jewish and Palestinian political elites that have erased the Palestinian national identity inside for over five centuries... The Nation-State Law confirms that there are masters and slaves... those with a 'historical and divine right' to the land and its future, and those permitted by the 'masters of the land' to reside on it... The law ended the debate about equality before the law and the discussion about civil rights for non-Jews in Israel... The law closed the door on what was called 'Arab-Jewish solidarity for equality.'
The Nation-State Law clearly expresses that the Jewish majority in Israel sees no shame in a racist system that distinguishes members of the Jewish faith from others and makes apartheid and discrimination part of the state’s political identity... A large portion of the Jewish Knesset members who voted against the law did not oppose the content of the bill... meaning they did not object to the ideological triangle the law drew, consisting of the three pillars: the Jewish people, the Jewish land, and the State of Israel... Their objection was to the explicit racism in this manner and its codification in a Basic Law that transforms the state, which Zionism marketed over seventy years as a 'democratic state' and Arabs as a 'semi-democratic' one, into a racist state by its identity and policies.
The Nation-State Law shifted the conflict inside Israel among different components of the people from a struggle for equality before the law for all to a struggle for existence between Israeli Jews and the Palestinian minority on one hand, and a conflict over ethics and humanity among Israeli Jews themselves... This new reality was not clearly seen by the Palestinian political elite inside and they still deal with the developments using old strategies and outdated verses no longer suitable for the new reality... The attempt to trade national affiliation for the masters’ approval has failed.
The political elite, led by Knesset members who now lament the diminishing importance and status of the Arabic language in the Jewish state as seen by the Nation-State Law... these are, with all due respect and high appreciation for their efforts and struggle, the ones who first harmed the Arabic language and its potential by failing to establish it as an official language. How else do we explain that none of these current or past Knesset members over seventy years ever delivered a speech in official Arabic in the Israeli parliament, preferring to use the masters’ language to please them, even though the law allowed it!
The Nation-State Law is a serious challenge to the Palestinian existence inside and a challenge to the Palestinian cause more broadly. Everyone must work on drawing confrontation strategies that take into account the developments in Israel, its political system structure, ideological culture, and its concept of its racist national identity... Chasing after appeasing the master and trying to get crumbs from his generosity is no longer the required strategy, and denying national affiliation (I deliberately mean national affiliation, not ethnic affiliation, as the latter has never been objected to inside Israel since the state’s establishment) is the wrong policy and no longer convinces the Palestinian masses inside who have surpassed their political leadership and are now a step and a bit away from splitting from their leaders and elites.
