Don’t you think that a decision like this could signal a message to you that you have no place here at the Israeli Knesset and that you have to work your issues outside the Israeli Knesset ??
Answer
I must say that we as Arabs living in Israel are living the most unique set of circumstances, as a minority living in Israel no other minority in the whole world is subjected to such complicated set of circumstances like we do. We are in pain to see and live such oppressive laws like no other people on earth, but I must say that we are doing all we can to serve our constituents. We may not achieve all our goals, but achievements are not the standard by which matters are measured, but I also must say that it is not over yet, not by far, because we are doing all we can to lift this unfair decision through other forums, including but not limited to, charity organizations, associations, clubs, the press, and of course the Knesset.
We are encouraged by the fact that these laws are so blatantly against human rights by any standard that we believe that the rest of the world will stand by us against this racist law. We believe that for us, living in Israel is like Moses has lived in Egypt. His people we under the most hideous oppression against any minority.
As I said earlier, we are making progress by being in the Knesset, as an example, last week there were decisions to evict some Arabs out of their homes and we stood firmly against it and were able to stop and cancel these decisions. We will continue to serve the more than 100 thousand of our constituents that have elected us.
Name
Ali
-
Profession
Question
My question is why such a restriction is imposed on couples of isreal & palestianan altough its allowed in our relgion ISLAM & in jews as well.
Answer
Unfortunately what you are saying is true, there are restrictions on Arabs who marry Israeli citizens. Israeli is afraid of what they call a ticking demographic bomb. Israel needs to maintain a Jewish majority so as to make sure it is always a Jewish state. So we call upon all our sons and daughters to resist such laws and to marry and to reproduce in the applying the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him, who recommended and encouraged Muslims to marry and reproduce.
At this time, we remind the whole world that when Jews lived in the Muslim state, they never had any restrictions on their numbers or presence in the Muslim state, and we will continue to expose their hypocrisy and fallacies of their claims in Israel.
Name
Sami
- Turkey
Profession
Question
Numerous racist measures are being taken against Arabs in Israel, and we believe that little is being done to counter these measures, so, what can you do as members of the Knesset against such measures ??
Answer
Yes it is true, many measures has been taken and are still being taken agaist us, and everyone, including Israeli government members openly admit that. However, we are doing all we can, and we are utilizing all resources available to us to fight such measures. We are living among people (the Jews) who believe and act in such a way to tell us that we do not belong here, however, we are using loopholes in their laws to expose their false Jewish democracy through the Knesset, for example, they imposed very high taxes on Arab owners of lands that belonged to us and that we inherited from our forefathers, and we used our power to vote to cancel such taxes that in most cases, one needs to sell his land to pay for its taxes. Another instance is when we used our voting power to gain insurance equality for Arab children and Jewish children.
We represent over 1 million Arabs who are not getting any kind of support from anyone in the Arab or Muslim world and must use all that is available to us to fight against their laws.
Name
Asif
- United States
Profession
Question
Palestinians always say that Muslims should support them because of Islamic ummah - I agree with it in principle. But where is Palestinian support of ummah when all is asked of them to support oppression of Muslims in Kashmir - every UN resolution Palestine has supported India and not Pak.
Also, Palestinians (and in general the Arabs) they abuse the Ind/Pak (basically any brown skin) and show immense respect for the white skin. And trust me, I know I grew up in Kuwait (before Iraq invasion) and I saw the hypocrisy. Where is the respect for others when you demand it of others.
Answer
A very good question indeed. In principle, all Muslims believe, as they should that they must be one ummah, united in the face of the enemies. But I must say that our enemies, the Western powers have planned and played on our division. What you have seen in the case UN resolutions and Indo/Pak dispute is one such example of an abusive group of people with allegiances to everything but Islam, these groups or governments were as much our problem as is the case in most Muslim countries. Governments that do not represent their people.
I also say that Palestine is not an Arab problem, AlAqsa Mosque does not belong to Palestinians alone, it belongs to ALL Muslims. Kashmir does not belong to Kashmiris alone, it is an issue for ALL Muslims and thus the true Islamic view is that we rise to help each other regardless of what positions some of us might have taken in the past. We rise because we expect rewards from the Almighty, not expecting it back from others.
Name
Imran
- Australia
Profession
Question
Israel seeks to keep you contained by dividing you into small groups in the Knesset, why not then run for elections under one united ticket and thus perhaps you will have more influence on Israeli decisions ???
Answer
Yes it is true. From the very start, we as an Islamic movement called upon all other Arab based parties to join us under one ticket and run for elections as a unified ticket offering the two other parties, the Arab communists and Arab nationalists, we offered them the top two positions. Unfortunately we were flatly rejected by the two other parties and the Arab voters punished these parties by giving their votes to us by winning 4 sets.
We still are calling upon these two other parties and all others to join us in our united ticket and fight for our people under one flag because the Jewish government feeds on our differences and seeks to keep us disunited. We hope that our brothers will hear our call for them to join us for the benefit of our people.
Name
Yahya
- Venezuela
Profession
Question
What practical ideas and plans you have to unite families in the next months that you plan to introduce ??
Answer
We have started practical steps in that direction in cooperation with other Arab members of the Knesset and in coordination with leftist Israeli members, and we are using every opportunity to united these families by shaming Israel into submitting to rights guaranteed by all international laws and all heavenly laws, the laws that guarantee the right of a family to live under one roof. We also seeked and continue to seek to expose the hypocrisy of their assumed democracy.
We seek to expose the falsity of their claim that such measures are being taken on security basis. For example, of the over 8000 applications filed for uniting the families, only 25 of them raised Israeli suspicions, and must stress that those were suspicions and were no proofs of any threats by any applicant.
At any case, we will continue to fight back through all means available to us, this is a temporary measure and the court decided to send the issue back to the Knesset. When the time comes for voting on the issue, we will use all influence available to us to fight for the very essential right of our families of living under one roof united.
Name
Bill
- United States
Profession
Question
What is the backdrop behind this law, and why all the fuss lately ?
Answer
This was based on a bill introduced in the Knesset which called for voting on the issue of freezing more than 8000 applications by Palestinians married to other Palestinians living in Israel. Israel has frozen such applications claiming security concerns, but the truth is that they fear of what they call the demographic time bomb. The Finance minister the previous government had been alarmed by the rising numbers of Arabs, and decided to decrease the health and social insurance to Arabs, of course we fought against that and were able to defeat it.
Israelis fear of Arab natural growth, in a survey taken lately, 62% of Israeli students said that they wish they could wake up one day without any Arabs in Israel.
So the court took the decision by a majority of 6 against 5 of sending this law back to the Knesset to vote again on the legality of such law.
Name
Mehemmet
- Turkey
Profession
Question
On what did the Israeli judges based their decision, and are there Palestinians actually married to Israelis ????
Answer
Even though they are no accurate statistics about Palestinians marrying Israelis, but I must clarify one issue, which is this: We, as Arabs living in pre-1948 Israel are considered as Israeli citizens, and those cases you hear about are Palestinians living on the West Bank and Gaza marrying Arab Palestinians from the pre-1948 borders referred to as Israeli citizens. We are part of the Palestinian people on the West Bank and Gaza, we are part of the Palestinian refugees in the Arab countries, we are part of the Arab world and Muslim world. Thus, these marriages are between Arabs and mostly Muslims. If there are any marriages between Palestinians and Jews, I am not aware of them or their numbers are so small so as not to be mentioned or be of any significance.
