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The Logistics of Transfer |
July 3, 2002 |
Encouraging Israeli Arabs to relocate will be much more complicated than doing so among Yesha Arabs and refugees. Yet this must be done, because even on their own, Israeli Arabs constitute a demographic threat to the Jewish character of the state. It will be much more difficult for them (comfortably established in a democratic society) to accept the curtailment of their political rights, but Israel simply has no other choice. At the same time this group of Arabs, raised on democracy, can become the kernel of the new state for Palestinian Arabs in Iraq or Saudi Arabia. This can provide the opportunity to actually create the first ever democratic Arab country. Meanwhile, Israel needs to pass a law that will stipulate in some form that non-Jewish citizens of the state, while retaining full and irrevocable civil rights, will have no ability to participate in Israeli political life. This will provide a disincentive for Arabs to live in Israel, while not actually curtailing their day-to-day lives there. At the same time it is advisable to follow the suggestion of Michael Kleiner, MK from Herut, who suggests creating a law that will encourage the resettlement of Palestinian Arabs out of Israel into surrounding Arab countries (or to wherever the new Palestinian state may be) with concurrent monetary compensation. Yet another policy that Israel should implement is a law mandating some type of civil service for every citizen that does not serve in the army. At the moment, the Arabs have a "free ride," as do some groups of Jews, like the ultra-orthodox. However, since the law will be mandatory for all citizens - both Jewish and Arab -Arabs will need to choose between either serving the Jewish state or leaving it. Israeli Arabs can be given one more option - to convert to Judaism if they prefer to stay put. Jewish history records a case of mass conversion of a non-Jewish population to Judaism. In 120 BCE, after subduing the Idumeans, Jonathan Hyrcanus gave them a choice: expulsion or conversion to Judaism. Over a million of them preferred to remain and converted. Josephus wrote that a hundred years later the descendents of these converted Jews were among the most ardent defenders of the Jewish state in its struggle with Rome.
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