Israele : il discorso di Ayman Odeh alla Knesset (lista unica araba )
Head
of the Joint List shares his vision of a shared, equal future for Jews
and Arabs in Israel. But is it a vision left-wing Israelis and liberal
American Jews can sign...
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Sintesi personale
Ayman Odeh, il capogruppo della lista comune , ha tenuto il suo primo discorso in Knesset questa settimana.
Odeh ha attirato l'attenzione sia in Israele che in tutto il Medio Oriente arabo per la sua piattaforma sui diritti umani e civili universali e per l'uguaglianza di tutti i cittadini d'Israele.
Il suo discorso inaugurale, che è sottotitolato nel video incorporato qui sotto, è una versione mediorientale di "I Have a Dream". questa è la prima sezione, tratta dal testo, tradotto da Sol Salbe
Signor Presidente siamo nel il 2025, il piano di 10 anni per combattere il razzismo e la disuguaglianza ha dato i suoi frutti. Centinaia di migliaia di lavoratori arabi sono stati integrati nel settore privato, nell' economia high-tech e nel servizio pubblico.Il divario sociale tra i cittadini arabi ed ebrei è stato notevolmente ridotto e l'economia è prospera a beneficio di tutti i residenti.Gli ebrei stanno imparando l'arabo, gli arabi stanno diligentemente affinare le loro abilità ebraico. Studenti ebrei e arabi studiano i grandi pensatori e filosofi di entrambi i popoli.
Egli descrive la sua avventura politica da nazionalista palestinese e attivista a un uomo che cerca di realizzare la sua identità come palestinese, senza scuse, nello stato di Israele.
Implicitamente egli descrive l'emergere assertivo della terza generazione di cittadini palestinesi di Israele. La prima generazione ha vissuto sotto il governo militare; il secondo era impaurito e ha mantenuto la testa giù e il terzo è pronto a inserirsi alla pari nella società israeliana.
Il riconoscimento dei diritti nazionali non toglie nulla ,ma al contrario, arricchisce lo spazio in cui viviamo. Continueremo a chiedere di essere riconosciuti come un gruppo nazionale che ha il diritto all' uguaglianza civile e nazionale piena e lotteremo per questo.
E' notevole la sua visione fondamentale per l' 'uguaglianza tra tutti i cittadini basata sulla tolleranza e la compassione, uno Stato non basato su privilegi etnici
Può Meretz o abbracciare questa visione? Possono i rabbini riformati americani che parlano contro il razzismo sostenere uno stato di Israele come sede legittima dei suoi cittadini ebrei e arabi? Questo, credo, sarà la fida morale della comunità ebraica liberale nei prossimi anni.
Ayman Odeh Maiden Knesset speech 4 May 2015
Ayman Odeh (Joint List):
Mr Speaker, distinguished Knesset, the year is 2025, the 10-year plan to combat racism and inequality has borne fruit. Hundreds of thousands Arab employees have been integrated into the private sector, the high-tech economy and the public service. The social gaps between Arab and Jewish citizens have been reduced remarkably and the economy has been prosperous for the benefit of all residents. Jews are learning Arabic, Arabs are diligently honing their Hebrew skills. Jewish and Arab students are being introduced to the great thinkers and philosophers of both peoples.
Arab communities now each have a regional master plan which have done away with bitter disappointment of people’s homes being demolished. In the country’s institutions of power and directorates, in government departments and the courts you can come across people from all walks of life. Palestine has celebrated its independence. Israel and Palestine have established cultural, tourism and commercial links based the mutual recognition and agreement on a just solution to the age old conflict.
All this happened only after we were able to understand that the true interests of the two peoples are common, both are seeking the blessings of life. This is not just wishful thinking, we can do it. We can either widen the chasm between us or we can choose life.
Mr Speaker, I stand here on a mission as a representative of the Joint List and its 13 representatives in the Knesset. They in turn, reflect the full diversity of the Arab community, and our Jewish partners in the struggle for peace and democracy. A month ago I was marching to Jerusalem alongside representatives of the unrecognised villages in the Negev. We set out from the unrecognised village of Wadi al-Na'am. Back in the ‘fifties the state congregated all the residents in a single location, and since then, they have been living near the toxic waste dump in Ramat Hovav, with no electricity, no sewerage and no water. It was at Wadi al-Na'am where I met six-year-old Salem, who at the fall of darkness could only stare at the lights emanating from the cowsheds in the surrounding kibbutzim and family farms.
My fellow Knesset members, try for a moment to see life through Salem’s eyes. Look at it through the eyes of Majid, an Arab student at Tel Aviv University, who cannot rent an apartment. Imagine him hearing the slamming of the phone when his accent gets recognised or when they catch his name. See life through the eyes of Imad and Amal, a young Arab couple seeking a home. 700 new towns and villages have been built by the state since its foundation – all 700 have been Jewish, and not a single Arab village or township in the Triangle or the Galilee. Most of the existing Arab communities don’t have current master plans, and I wonder: Where is an Arab couple meant to live? In the air?
Put yourself in Hiba’s place; she’s a lively girl who had just completed her secondary school studies and is looking for work at the shopping mall. She discovered, in an ad which caught her eye, that the position is only available to those who have completed their military service. Do you really need military skills to wait on tables? These are members of the most educated generation in the history of the Arab community, but doors get slammed in their faces again and again.
On behalf of Wadi al-Na’am’s Salam, in the name of student Majid, in Imad and Amal name, in Hiba’s name I stand here in front of you.
[Catcall from Yinon Magal (Jewish Home)]: And in the name of Marwan Baghouti
Acting speaker Yitzhak Vaknin: Pardon me, but it’s the custom: one does not interrupt a maiden speech.
Issawi Freij (Meretz) [to Magal]: You really are a newbie.
Acting speaker Yitzhak Vaknin: Gentlemen, do not inflame the situation, I will not let anyone interrupt.
Ayman Odeh (Joint List): My fellow Knesset members, I stand in front of you as the representative of a national minority which the state stubbornly refuses to accept in the way which it defines itself. I know by heart hundreds of poems of Mahmoud Darwish, Samih al-Qassem and Tawfiq Ziad, and I had the privilege to read the books of Emile Habibi and Mohammad Ali Taha, even though Arabs are not allowed to study them in school. Is it not time that we got our content through the front door of the school system?
Ladies and gentlemen, Arabic is an official language. It is on Tel Aviv street signs as part and parcel of the urban environment, and lo and behold, it has not brought disaster upon any street’s residents. Recognition of national rights does not take anything away from the rest of the citizenry. On the contrary, it enriches the space we live in. We will continue to demand to be recognised as a national grouping which is entitled to full civil and national equality, and we will struggle for it.
Mr Speaker, I deeply identify with the suffering of the Jewish people over many generations. I do feel the pain with which the Jewish people are burdened, a pain rooted in its past. And I do understand the anxiety that many Jews feel. I do not dismiss it at all. But the suffering of the Jews does not justify injustice or discrimination against Arab citizens. Nor does it justify the continued subjugation of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories. Government ministers deepen the Occupation, violate the basic rights of the Palestinian people and transfer our collected tax revenue to settlements rather than to disadvantaged segments of society. And while all that is going on, there are those who demand Arab Knesset members cease talking about the Occupation. There are even those who promise that our grievances of our distress would gain a sympathetic hearing, if only we were to remain mum about this issue.
And I ask you, fellow Knesset Members, how can I remain silent in face of the tragic fate of my people in the West Bank, Gaza and the Yarmouk refugee camp? The Palestinian tragedy continues every day, every hour, and Israel still maintain the denial of its responsibility in creating this situation.
We will not turn a blind eye to what is happening around us and we will not stop striving for freedom, justice and reconciliation. It’s our right and our duty as Palestinians and as Israeli citizens, to take to every stage and call out: Let my people go! Our sisters and brothers are also entitled to freedom. This beautiful ground is fine for us all, Arabs and Jews. If we turn it into a battlefield it would splutter us away; If we sow the seeds of the future together, it would bless us with a bounty of its fruit.
Knesset members, in my youth I was inspired by the popular struggle of the Palestinian people during the First Intifada and led solidarity demonstrations in Haifa. I was merely 15 years old I when summoned by the Shabak [General Security Service]. At first I did not comprehend its significance, I thought I had been honoured with some kind of award, and was filled with pride. Slowly I became to appreciate the disaster which had befallen upon me. Interrogation followed interrogation. I started suspecting everyone. l consequence I severed all my ties with my friends. Had it not been for my parents, Fatma and Adel, sitting in the visitors’ gallery today, I am not sure that I would have pulled through.
The person who was the then head of the Shabak is a fellow Knesset member here today [Yaakov Peri –tr]. I turn to you with my head held high, as a person who has not, even for a day, forgotten that youth from Haifa, full of passion and hope, whose life had almost been destroyed by the Shabak. Despite the past, I appeal to you and expect you to be a brave partner in promoting equality and democracy for all citizens.
Now I’d like to address the Arab citizens who gave us their vote and trust: our grandparents were the generation of the Nakba.
[Speaking in Arabic.] Our parents formed the generation which had struggled and survived in the shadow of injustice and discrimination. Our generation is the one which will achieve equality.
My brothers and sisters, history has taught us that we need not fear that our national identity would be whittled away. The Ottoman Empire was determined to remove the Arab identity of its Arab subjects and turn them into Turks. It tried to eliminate every element of Arab identity and all Arab intellectuals, novelists and poets were executed. But it all came to the great Turkish achievement among the Arabs: Arabs adopted the Turkish word Tuz for the purpose of ridicule. Can you hear the thunder of history’s laughter?
During the period of Israeli military rule over its Arab citizens, there was an attempt to degrade our national pride. As the celebrated poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote: Saj'l, ana Arabi - write down, I am an Arab.
Brothers and sisters, do not give in to despair and distrust.
[Speaking in Arabic]
Our identity is strong, and we will defend it, and yet, we will enmesh ourselves into the state and ensure that we do have an impact. Pride and national identity do not negate the desire to be part of the broad community and the state.
My brothers and sisters, I started with 2025, and I know that in 2015 the situation is totally different. We are marching on a long journey, there will be quite a few bumps and obstacles on route. There will be those who will find fault with us, while others will pray for our own failure. But those difficulties will not deter and nor will they break our spirit. Together, hand in hand, we will continue our journey. Our moral lighthouse, the North Star, guiding us, that our path is right, proper path.
Mr Speaker, I, Ayman Odeh, do not pose a threat, just like the half a million people who gave us their vote don’t. Mr Prime Minister, every citizen should rejoice in the citizenry voting, every citizen should be proud that they flocked to the polls despite policies of which the prime minister is the leading proponent. These voters are demanding civil and national equality for them and for all citizens.
Back in ancient Greece the people’s assembly in Athens became moribund, but not because of an external enemy. It fell apart because of the ostracism law. It enabled the ostracism the literal removal from town through a democratic vote, of assembly members because of their views.
And when ostracism became a popular implement, the Athenian assembly lost its moral authority. Today, when the majority promotes the Boycott Law, the NGOs (funding) Law, the Nakba Law, the Nationality Law, the Admissions Committees Law and the bills proposing to restrict the power of the High Court of Justice, we are in the Israeli ostracism epoch. This not merely tyranny by the majority, this is persecution.
In the last Knesset the party leaders spoke of a new politics, but they persisted in leading with the politics of old, saturated with hatred and incitement. Our response, our moral responsibility, is to stand alongside all of society marginalised communities: the Ethiopians, Mizrahim, the ultra-Orthodox, the Russians, Labour-hire firms’ employees and the homeless. We’ll even stand alongside those who were raised to fear us and hate us. Yes those who hate us. They, like us, deserve equality. Injustice in one place is a threat to justice everywhere, as Martin Luther King had noted.
Knesset Members, sitting among my excited family members is my son Asil. In two days’ time, he’ll turn four. Asil was named after his uncle, Asil Asleh, my wife’s brother, who was shot dead at the age of 17 in the village of Arraba during the events of October 2000 when he sought refuge in an olive grove and posed no danger to anyone. Those responsible where never committed to trial, and justice has not been done. We will pursue justice and make sure that it is done and seen to be done.
When my son was born, on the very same day of the year as his uncle, we took it as an omen. We decided to call him Asil to indicate that we have chosen life. Whatever happens, our children and grandchildren will live together in this land, Arabs and Jews. We have no choice but to choose life. Let us choose life.
Translated by Sol Salbe of the Middle East News Service, Melbourne, Australia.
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