When the Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky posted a tweet
announcing the heartbreaking news that a young Israeli woman was among the
victims of the New Year’s eve terror attack in Istanbul, Haaretz World News
Editor Asaf Ronel insisted
that the victim should be described as “Palestinian.”
Tarnopolsky responded by pointing out that not all of
Israel’s Arab citizens identify as Palestinians; indeed, a relevant recent poll
she posted
showed that only 12% chose “Palestinian” as their preferred identity, while 24%
chose Arab, 25% Israeli, and 29% preferred to be identified by religion, i.e.
Muslim, Christian or Druze. Tarnopolsky also noted
correctly that irrespective of the victim’s preferred identity, Israeli
authorities would provide the family with the same assistance that every
Israeli family receives in these terrible circumstances.
However, in the course of the exchange it quickly turned out
that Ronel couldn’t care less about how Israel’s Arab citizens prefer to be
identified. He insisted
that designating the victim as Palestinian was “more accurate since it’s
factual.” Preposterously, he even insisted that if the victim’s family
preferred to identify as Israeli Arabs, “they are Palestinians w Israeli
citizenship that define themselves as Israeli-Arabs.”
So we know now that it’s progressive and politically correct
to ignore the wishes of Israeli Arabs who don’t want to be described as
Palestinian.
I’m not sure if this should perhaps have implications for
Article 1 of the Palestinian Constitution, which declares:
“Palestine is part of the large Arab World, and the Palestinian people are part
of the Arab Nation.” After all, this clearly implies that being Palestinian is
a subcategory of being Arab, similar to being Bavarian is a subcategory of
being German. Does Ronel approve of this or would he prefer the Palestinians to
forget about feeling “part of the large Arab World” and “part of the Arab
Nation”? And what about the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, that proclaims:
“The State of Palestine shall be an Arab State and shall be an integral part of
the Arab nation”?
In this context it’s interesting to consider the poll posted
by Tarnopolsky in some more detail. It is taken from the 2016 Israeli Democracy
Index, published two
weeks ago by the highly respected Israel Democracy Institute (IDI). The
relevant poll is on page 78 of the report, and IDI notes [emphasis added]:
“Arab respondents were given the
following options to choose from as their primary identity: Israeli,
Palestinian, Arab, and religious (Muslim/Christian/Druze). As the figure below
indicates, the strongest identity among Arab respondents is religious, followed
by Israeli and Arab. Palestinian identity was selected as primary by the
smallest share of respondents, bolstering the argument that the Arab
population is undergoing a process of Israelization and, at least seemingly,
countering the widespread claim that a major process of Palestinization has
taken place, or is taking place, in Arab Israeli society.”
IDI explains further:
“A breakdown of the Arab sample by
religion yielded interesting results. The responses of Muslim interviewees when
asked about their primary identity can be summarized as follows: religious
identity, as chosen by the largest share, followed by Arab and Israeli identity,
with Palestinian identity trailing far behind. […] We learned further that
among Christian Arabs, Arab identity takes precedence, followed after a
sizeable gap by Israeli and religious identities. Here too, Palestinian
identity is at the bottom of the list. Among the Druze, religious identity is
dominant, followed by Israeli identity, while Arab identity is weak and
Palestinian identity is negligible.”
But it’s perhaps only fitting that the Haaretz World News
Editor would insist that imposing the preference of a tiny minority on everyone
is somehow “more accurate since it’s factual.”