Open gallery view. Yoseph Haddad at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. He and other Arabs have agreed to ditch their Palestinian identity.Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
Since that accursed Saturday [October 7] I’ve often thrown my hands up in the air and decided not to write anything. Often I don’t have anything to say or don’t feel like expressing myself. And even when I feel like it, I fear it will fall on deaf ears. For now, the other side is incapable of listening.
Even when I want to put my thoughts to paper, I get lost. What are all those arguments and theories worth when the reality is so horrible, bloody and cruel? I also know that my political opinions as an Israeli citizen who identifies as Palestinian weren’t welcome before October 7. This is all the more the case since, even though my opinions are typical in the Arab community.
And I didn’t need opinion polls to prove to myself that Jewish Israelis aren’t interested in or capable of a complex debate with the Arab community. I have personal experience with this.
Still, I’ve insisted on writing my moral opinion, even if the other side doesn’t want to hear it – that there is a context, without justifying the atrocities. There is an occupation and apartheid here. The context is violent and there are innocent people on the other side. And yes, for God’s sake, we’re calling for a cease-fire.
I insisted on writing because of all those messages I’ve received since October 7 from Arab doctors, lawyers, university students, high-tech workers, teachers, clerks, business owners and even Arab civil society groups. They’ve all asked me to write – because they couldn’t. They’re afraid of being hounded by their colleagues at work and simply by Israelis who have found a new pastime: preying on Arabs on social media.
Anyone who thinks I’m flattering myself in saying this is mistaken. On the contrary, every message that I’ve received has made me feel terribly sorry. An entire community has been silenced and prevented from expressing its views, as in repressive, totalitarian regimes.
Still, in recent weeks, it has been hard to miss the massive media presence of pro-Israel advocate Yoseph Haddad and other Arabs who have toed the line in accordance with the expectations of the Israeli establishment and public. They’ve agreed to be Arabs without a Palestinian identity and are uncritical of Israel. They have no problem with the Basic Law declaring the country the nation-state of the Jewish people, or with the occupation and the Arab community’s miserable situation.
And they’re not interested in challenging the Israeli public, as long as they get a hug and a slap on the back. (And a few shekels, eh, Yoseph Haddad?)
They’re the best for Israeli PR around the world, and as a result, they’re sought out by the Israeli media: Look at this Arab letting Hamas have it, and in Arabic even, in the smiling presence of Jewish television panelists. They don’t know what he said in Arabic, but who cares? What’s important is for the world to understand that even an Arab is claiming that in Israel the Arabs are living the good life and Hamas is the devil.
Arab and Jewish Israeli citizens sorting food packages for residents in the city of Ramle, last week.Credit: David Bachar
This is the Israeli deal during wartime. These are the good Arabs, while Palestinian voices representing the Arab community’s consensus are silent and banished from the television screen and any other public forum.
At a time when the opinion of the majority of the Arab community is being silenced by the Israeli mainstream, the public’s fondness for Haddad has gone sky-high even among those who before October 7 were ordinary left-wingers or centrist democratic liberals. They’ve sobered up.
According to a Palestinian saying, “Someone who leaves his own skin becomes naked.” May we never become like that.
Hanin Majadli