Dear Editors,
In response to the Benny Morris piece about me, please note that I met Yasser Arafat in 1984 for the first time and not in 1948 when I was not yet alive. Mr. Morris is either incorrect or has inadvertently transposed his numbers. [This was corrected on the website at midday yesterday.]
As I have declared many times, I was not a member of the Palestinian delegation to the UN but rather I was invited by President Abbas to be his guest on this historical trip to New York. I do, of course, struggle against occupation and criticize its brutality. I think it's also vital to note that Israel's democracy works very well for its Jewish citizens, but not nearly as well for Palestinians as there are numerous laws that discriminate against us. And under this right-wing government it is getting worse.
Finally, I take vigorous exception to the claim by Mr. Morris that I have supported attacks on Israeli citizens. This is an outrageous and false assertion that editors should have questioned him on closely. I have consistently condemned this kind of attack. In fact, he is the one on record calling for attacks on civilians when he argued that Israel should have more thoroughly cleansed the country of Palestinians. What I do support is vigorous nonviolent action to effect positive change in the region. Unfortunately, Israel is cracking down on nonviolent Palestinian and Israeli activists and too many of the journalists here are ignoring it. The settler violence against nonviolent activists at the settlement of Anatot two weeks ago was deeply disturbing as Israeli police appear to have been complicit and the government has looked the other way as Israel has descended into what, at the very least, can be described as proto-fascism.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ahmad Tibi
Dr. Ahmad Tibi is a member of the Israeli Knesset.
Comments
(1) "I met Yasser Arafat in 1984 for the first time". -- In 1984 Mr. Tibi was an Israeli citizen and at that time Israeli citizens were prohibited from meeting with any officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), including Afafat. Any such a meeting was not only unlawful but also a cause to suspect that Mr. Tibi met with a foreign agent with the intent of undermining Israel's security. (2) "Israel's democracy works very well for its Jewish citizens" -- Yet, Mr. Tibi, a Muslim-Arab, was freely elected to Israel's Knesset (parliament) and serves in the Knesset as the Deputy of the Knesset's Chairman. Indeed, all citizens of Israel are equal before the law, which is the reaon why Arabs and Jews alike in Israel elect and are elected, participate in every aspect of life, including government, business, military, etc. I wonder if a Jew in any Muslim-Arab country would be able to exercise this level of freedom and democracy...??(3) No, Mr. Tibi, you have not consistently condemned acts of terror against the Jewish population of Israel. And, indeed, while you may not have expressed yourself in direct fashion calling for the commitment of acts of terror, your winks and subtle messages, both verbal and physical to the Muslim-Arab population of the coutnry has been clear: We are marching towards the elimination of Israel and the wiping of any trace of Jewish existence from the country. I say this based on having observed you for decades and having listened to your expressions in Arabic, Hebrew as well as Enlish. An example from this letter: is the use of the concept of non-violent Palestinian actions, in reference to the throwing of rocks on passing motor vehicles and fire bombs on police officers. These, Sir, are very much violent means that are intended to kill and maim people.
P.P.S. Fundamentally, it is important to emphasise, Mr. Tibi objects to the Jewish people's ethical right to exersize the universally accepted right afforded all peoples of national self-determination and independence in its historic homeland of 4,000 years. Indeed, it is not entirely clear whether Mr. Tibi even accept the fact that we, Jews, have been consisuting a people all together. Israel, of course, in the manifestation of the Jewish people's right, grounded in the corpus dubbed 'internatioanal law' and consists of the Balfour Declaration, 1917, that was incorporated into the San Remo Conference, 1920, and the adoption of the Conference's decision by the League of Nations, 1922. The United Nations then adopted the League of Nations decisions in 1945, as is, without having the legal right to change them. According to this corpus of documents, the nation-state of the Jewish people - or, as it was expressed at the time, the national home for the Jewish people - is to including the entire geographic regiona from the River to the Sea. But, Tibi does not even accept Israel's present right to be the nation-state of the Jewish people, on ANY parcel of land betweent the River and the Sea. This, obviously, is a racist approach, singling out the Jewish people and denying it the right to national self-determination and independence.