“THE PROBLEM IS NOT ISRAEL - IT’S THE
ARABS. All the bad things they say about Israel and its supposed
ill-treatment of Arabs is a lie, a bald-faced lie. Arab members of Knesset are
setting a fire. They feed off the politics of division and don’t represent the
Arab public. The Arab Knesset members do nothing to educate them or advance
their situation… But at present there is no alternative to the current
leadership.” Aatef Karinaoui
Bedouin Politician Aatef Karinaoui Launches a
Knesset Bid, Slamming Arab MKs and Calling For An ‘Arab Spring’ to Provide a
Fresh Direction For His Community
It is
hard to envisage an Arab Knesset member declaring that “if something were to
happen to Israel, this democracy that protects everyone, the whole Middle East
would be doomed.”
But
that is Aatef Karinaoui’s declared conviction, and it explains why he is
forming the first pro-Israel Arab party, El Amal Lat’gir — “Hope for Change” in
Arabic – to run in the Knesset elections on January 22, 2013.
Karinaoui
gives the impression of a man who believes his time has come. A 42-year-old
resident of the Bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev, he is a traditional Muslim
but does not consider himself religious. Though involved in politics for nearly
two decades, and exceedingly busy preparing his Knesset campaign, he is
soft-spoken and patient. In fact, when we recently spoke, in a cafe at Ben
Gurion Airport, he repeatedly extended our chat to accommodate my questions —
despite the nudging of his staff. And his anger at Israeli Arab politicians, who
he says cultivate the division between Jewish and Arab Israelis, clearly runs
deep.
“All
the bad things they say about Israel and its supposed ill-treatment of Arabs is
a lie, a bald-faced lie,” he says intently, just moments after we’ve sat down.
“Arab members of Knesset are setting a fire. They feed off of the politics of
division and don’t represent the Arab public. The Arab Knesset members do
nothing to educate them or advance their situation… But [at present] there is
no alternative to the current leadership.”
By
forming El Amal Lat’gir, which he says is loyal to Israel and concerned
exclusively with social matters, Karinaoui aims to provide that alternative.
Karinaoui,
who is married with five children (including a daughter currently on a national
service program), is the chairman of the nonprofit organization Social Equality
and National Service in the Arab Sector, which encourages Arabs to shoulder a
share of the national service burden. He’s also in charge of operating computer
centers in Arab cities throughout Israel as part of the Finance Ministry’s
Lehava project, whose goal is to “narrow the digital gap” by providing access
to the Internet in lower-income areas of the country.
“We
don’t need the Arab members of Knesset to obsess over marginal matters and
foreign affairs as they’ve been doing,” he declares. Arab MK Hanin Zoabi
participated in the May 2010 Mavi Marmara bid to break Israel’s naval blockade
of Gaza, for instance, while her colleague Ibrahim Saroor last year denounced
the American “murder” of Osama bin Laden.
“We
have real, pressing concerns -– 15 people living in a single house, land
issues, education problems,” says Karinaoui. “We have plenty to deal with. But
[Arab MKs] distance us from the mainstream and don’t want progress. Their leadership
is the real failure.”
Karinaoui
believes that given the chance, he can make a real difference. “Our leaders
have defrauded us for 60 years. Give us a single Knesset mandate and we will do
more for the people in four to five years than they have done in 60.”
His
Knesset bid is just getting off the ground, he says, asserting that information
from his canvassing indicates his list could win five to six seats — an
ambitious estimate, since Arab parties mustered just 11 seats between them in
the outgoing Knesset. He is working flat-out building up the party, all day
every day, he says, and is putting together a team of volunteers to go
door-to-door in Arab towns and villages, planning advertising in Arabic papers,
arranging speeches in mosques and building a website.
Karinaoui
is currently working out of the northern towns of Sakhnin, Arabe and Tamra —
none of them Bedouin towns, he stresses, underlining the goal to galvanize the
entire Israel Arab community. Coming from a clan estimated to number some 8,000
makes for a good basis, he says.
Star of David? No
Problem!
But
it’s not just the perceived failure of Arab politicians to deliver that drives
him; Karinaoui also very much identifies with the State of Israel. He wants to
see Arab Israelis fully engaged as citizens, and taking responsibility for the
change that they can bring about.
“We
want to prove that we are loyal and faithful citizens,” he says. “And we also
need more attention and support from the state.… I’m a proud Arab and a proud
Israeli too. I’m not Palestinian.… Look at Syria. Look at Egypt, look at Libya,
look at Tunisia, and look at Bahrain: the problem is not Israel, it’s the
Arabs.”
Karinaoui’s
tack echos a recent, widely circulated op-ed in which Abdulateef
Al-Mulhim, a retired commodore of the Royal Saudi Navy, asked Arabs to stop
pointing the finger at Israel. But Al-Mulhim doesn’t live in Israel, a country
where democracy comes hand in hand with Jewish symbols and mythology.
‘If
there is more cooperation between Arabs and Jews in Israel, we will broadcast
that and fight the libel in the Middle East to show the Arab public that we are
part of Israel and proud of it and that we get what we deserve and this will
bring immense benefits to Israel. And even the Iranians will have nothing to
say’
“I
have no problem with the Star of David on the flag or with the national anthem
–- no problem at all,” he says. “Israel is a democracy, and I respect every
country that is a democracy. Israel did not expel me. I kept my land. I have
the right under the law to do whatever I want to do, even to become prime
minister.
“We
Arabs need to thank God that we live in this democratic country.”
Karinaoui
volunteered for military service at the age of 26, and still completes his
reserve duty whenever called, “because I am a citizen and I like it and this is
what a citizen has to do.”
In
order to give his community a voice in government, Karinaoui joined the Likud
Central Committee in 1995. Within a year, he became an adviser in Prime
Minister Netanyahu’s office, later advising Nathan Sharansky at the Ministry of
the Interior and Tzachi Hanegbi at the Environmental Protection Ministry, under
Ariel Sharon’s premiership. In the 2006 elections, he ran for Knesset in the
utterly unrealistic 67th spot on the Likud list.
Why
was he placed so low? Because the party ranks candidates on the basis of how
many votes they’ll likely draw, he acknowledges, and the fact is that few
Israeli Arabs will vote Likud. But he showed, he says, that there was room for
him even within the “nationalist” Likud tent, underlining the capacity to build
what he calls an Arab voice from within.
[Photo:
Aatef Karinaoui (left) in front on a Menorah. He says Israel's Jewish symbols
shouldn't be a problem for the country's Arab population.] (photo credit: Courtesy)
Cooperation, not corruption
Karinaoui’s
straight talk can come across as refreshing in a political system that many in
Israel consider steeped in excuses and evasions. And he sees in Israeli Arab
politics the same pathologies –- corruption and demagoguery — that triggered
the Arab Spring.
“The
voter turnout in the Arab sector in Israel is a mere 47 percent… And of that
47%, the majority are fake votes!” he asserts. “I am absolutely certain that
Arab Knesset members receive money from foreign agents — maybe Iran, Hamas,
Nasrallah, for instance. The state needs to investigate this. Where do they get
all their assets and funding? These people come into politics with nothing and
suddenly they are driving fancy cars, they own land.
“It
is exactly what is happening in the Palestinian Authority,” he states, alluding
to stories of deep-seated corruption in the ruling Fatah party. “The people are
hungry, and these politicians get rich.”
Noting
my surprise at the fierce assertions, he adds: “I know this because I see it; I
live it.”
To
change the way things are done, Karinaoui proposes cooperation. “What I want is
to solve our problems here, as part of Israeli society, hand in hand with the
Jewish public,” he says.
Karinaoui
has canvassed the Arab public’s reaction to his ideas and found, he says, that
Arab Israelis, who “currently see no hope,” yearn for the kind of changes that
he is proposing. He wants to embody that hope in the next Knesset. “In one
month we can have a revolution, but we need help,” he says, referring to the
professional public relations team and infrastructure needed to conduct an
effective campaign.
The hand that
feeds
Karinaoui’s
call for cooperation with Israel is a departure from the rhetoric of current
Arab Israeli politicians in Knesset, whose public identities are in large part
Palestinian. “I am not Palestinian, that is nonsense,” he says dismissively.
“These Israeli Arab politicians who hold Israeli IDs — let them try to run for
office in the Palestinian Authority. Let them see if the Palestinians and Abu
Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] receive their candidacy
as ‘Palestinians.’ They could be dead the next day.”
Karinaoui
is adamant about defending Israel’s record as a democratic state – and in doing
so he aspires to speak for the entire Arab community.
‘The
real terrorism is not outside. It is our leadership. It is the crime, the
poverty, the drugs and arms that plague our communities. It is Arab leaders
teaching our kids to hate’
“Israel is a wonderful place for Arabs,” he declares. “It is the only democracy in the Middle East. Look at what the Arabs are doing to each other all over the Middle East. We don’t want to focus on that anymore here. People want to advance within the State of Israel, where they were born, and, yes, under the Israeli flag.”
Karinaoui stresses his conviction that rapprochement between Jewish and Arab citizens here will lead to benefits abroad as well as at home.
“If there is more cooperation between Arabs and Jews in Israel, we will broadcast that and fight the libel in the Middle East, to show the Arab public that we are part of Israel and proud of it, and that we get what we deserve,” he argues. “This will bring immense benefits to Israel. And even the Iranians will have nothing to say.”
As for the key issue of land ownership — a subject that regularly finds Israel’s Bedouin, including those from his own home town of Rahat, at bitter odds with the Israeli government, he says simply that such disputes cannot be solved through protests and violence, and certainly not by a resort to the brandishing of Palestinian flags. Change has to be achieved via peaceful means, he says. “In war mode, someone always loses.”
Change starts at
home
Aside from avowals of gratitude and loyalty to Israel, nationalistic issues don’t really concern Karinaoui. It’s the growing wealth gaps in Israel and what he sees as inadequate Israeli Arab leadership that most bother him. And he considers those problems to be urgent.
“The real terrorism is not outside; it is our leadership,” he says. “It is the crime, the poverty, the drugs and arms that plague our communities. It is Arab leaders teaching our kids to hate. That is the real terrorism. It is inconceivable that a young wife living in the Negev is separated from her husband all week because his only job is up north and hers is there, and yet that happens all the time. There are up to 12,000 teachers that are out of work,” he continues, lamenting the joblessness rate even among the educated.
But despite his outrage, Karinaoui’s reflections on Israel’s economy remain nuanced. He is not, for instance, among those who unreservedly laud Israel’s high-tech boom. “Young people today all want to make it in high-tech, to create start-ups, to make money. Everyone is looking out for themselves; not nearly enough young people are thinking of careers that benefit society, like becoming doctors, or lawyers, something to help… the weak and elderly.”
He leans in to drive home the point. “Who will take care of you and me when we are old?” he asks, pointing to the white whiskers in my beard. “They don’t have gray hair like this at our age in Saudi Arabia. It’s stress that does this. People are suffering here.”
His
desire for Arabs to face their own problems is why Karinaoui sees national
service (in lieu of military service) as a potential boon for his community.
Yet he regards this as a case in which the deeds of successive Israeli
governments hardly match their words.
“National
service for all is important,” he asserts. “You help your people: women, the
elderly, and children… I encourage it every day. But regardless of what they
say, the state doesn’t want it because setting up the infrastructure costs
money.”
The
logic strikes him as myopic. “It would bring in money, by building local
authorities, the proper collection of taxes, people feeling that they have a
stake and an interest. And it will contribute so much to the advancement of our
community that people will embrace it.”
“We
need to invest in local councils, infrastructure,” he says.
Politics of
division
Because
Karinaoui wants his community to throw in its lot with other Israelis, he sees
anti-Israel rhetoric among Israeli Arabs not just as a problem for Israel’s
security, but also as a clear and present danger to his own people.
‘The
Arab leadership has failed and needs to resign and let the Arab public evolve.
And the Arab public needs to wake up’
“[Arab
Israeli leaders] are hurting the Arab public and bringing us to the brink of an
abyss,” he warns. “There were celebrations in some northern Arab communities
when Katyusha rockets were fired into Israel by Hezbollah [during the 2006
Second Lebanon War]. There was celebrating and the waving of foreign flags as
the bombs fell. And then those bombs fell on Arabs too…. All you see is hatred.
Even among Arabs, we hate each other. Why? We live in a democracy. The Arab
leadership has failed and needs to resign and let the Arab public evolve. And
the Arab public needs to wake up.”
He
castigates Arab politicians at length for misleading their public with what he
considers incendiary remarks and political games.
“They
distance Arabs from the Jewish majority, and that helps them politically. And
it helps parties like [Foreign Minister Avigdor] Liberman’s [Yisrael Beytenu]
too. Liberman and [Arab Knesset Member Ahmad] Tibi help each other. We don’t
want Israelis to hate us. We were born here; we live here; this is our country.
The present Arab leadership is convincing the Arab public that the Jews are
leaving this land, and will continue to leave out of despair if we continue to
tire them.”
Karinaoui,
by contrast, makes plain he wants the Jews to stay because, he says, “We want
cooperation and the mixing of people and the development of businesses in our
villages…. If we had the country that the present Arab leaders say that they
want, we would have a situation like Syria here… Why are they doing so much
damage to our relationship with Jewish Israelis?”
“We
need an Arab Spring here in Israel,” he adds, “against our own Arab leaders.”
