Did Livni mean what she said? Did Livni intend transfer of Israeli Arabs?

Jawad Boulous, Haaretz, 26.11.07. I heard Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declare last week that the Palestinian state would provide a national solution for all the Palestinians, including those who live inside Israel. The minister in effect was offering her understanding of the real significance of Israel's insistence on conditioning its participation in the Annapolis conference on Palestinian recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. The connection Livni made between the Palestinian refugees and the Palestinian citizens of the State of Israel - by saying that both of them could find their solution in a future Palestinian state - did not leave much to the imagination, for this time the remarks were made by the foreign minister and in the name of the Israeli government, and herein lies the danger. Since the state's establishment, its leaders have refused to internalize the fact that an Arab Palestinian minority remained here. Their decision to stay and live on their lands constituted a painful reminder to the leaders of the Zionist movement about the way in which reality failed to conform to Israel Zangwill's well-known slogan that saw this as "a land without a people for a people without a land." One cannot help but be shocked at how the foreign minister dared to say what she did without the very foundations of the state being rocked. If she does not correct her statements or apologize in the near future, her direct superior, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be obliged to clarify the government's standpoint in a clear and unequivocal manner, and instruct her to apologize. If she refuses to do so, he must show her the way out.

Over the years, Israeli leaders competed with one another in coining racist slogans that would bear evidence of their desire to rid themselves of that national minority - expressions such as "drugged cockroaches in a bottle," "a cancer in the body of the state" and "fifth column" - lines that became engraved deeply upon the consciousness of the Arab minority. These sentiments served as a reminder that at least some Israeli policy-makers believe, as part of their conceptual understanding and basic worldview, that Israel should not become reconciled to the existence of the Arab-Palestinian minority in its midst. Against this backdrop, it is possible to understand the policy of discrimination that is wielded against the Arab minority - a policy that is in fact a symptom of a sick body that refuses to accept the minority as one of its own natural organs.

Livni's declaration is seen in the eyes of many as a significant step toward the implementation of the transfer plan that in days gone by was the declared dream of marginal political figures and bodies. Now apparently we are no longer talking about a contingency plan, but rather about a fact that all the Arab population in Israel must regard with utmost seriousness and place at the head of its concerns. If this understanding is mistaken, Foreign Minister Livni and the government of Israel are obligated to declare in no uncertain terms that the state is not planning any kind of transfer.

And for their part, the leaders and institutions of the Arab minority must hold a thorough and responsible discussion, and perhaps must also rethink, the way in which they will conduct the long and ongoing struggle for survival inside this country. At the end of the road, it is not sufficient to shout and to act like a victim, since even a victim has to find ways to protect himself if he is to survive.

The author is an attorney who represents, among others, Marwan Barghouti.