Hamas's massacre should push Israeli Arabs to integrate into Israel

As the debate ensues about the “day after,” I would like to draw attention to the fate and destiny of Israeli Arabs after the war.

In recent years, Israeli Arabs have been undergoing an ongoing identity crisis. On the one hand, Arab community leadership has largely encouraged adopting Palestinian identity and identifying with the Palestinian struggle as the defining marker of collective and personal identity. In the most radical framing, such as the messaging of the Balad Party, this means supporting terrorism.

On the other hand, as multiple Arab countries descended deeper and deeper into dysfunction and civil war, the dissonance with life in Israel was becoming ever more glaring: Arab citizens of Israel have access to a combination of opportunities, liberties, and a standard of living that they could have nowhere else in Arabia.

Dedicating life to the Palestinian cause meant, at best, doing nothing for the welfare of the Arab community in Israel. In the worst case, it meant actively undermining everything that would allow aspiring young Arabs to flourish, and it would validate their status as an eternal security threat.

I will posit that the massacre of October 7 has brought about an inflection point. After witnessing so vividly exactly what the worldview of Hamas means in practice, many of us have come to realize that sitting on the fence is no longer an option. Hamas’s world must never become our future, and it must be avoided at all costs. It is a mortal threat to all we hold dear for the future of our society, and yes, it is a common threat to Jews and Arabs alike.

This is the reason that while Palestinian polls show that most Palestinians support Hamas and the October 7 massacre, a recent survey by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) shows that two-thirds of Israeli Arabs feel part of the State of Israel; 56% agree with MK Mansour Abbas that the massacre of October 7 does not represent Arab society and Islamic values; and 86% support helping with civilian volunteering efforts during the war.

Living in Israel may not mean that Arabs will become Zionists, but it does mean that they must actively choose to cooperate with Jews and integrate – although not assimilate – into Israeli society. The volunteering centers that were set up in the Bedouin town of Rahat and by the Atidna Youth movement in Haifa exemplify this mindset, as did the kindness of the owner of a bicycle shop in the town of Taybeh, who donated 50 bicycles to children who survived the October 7 massacre.

However, the subsequent torching of the Taybeh bicycle shop by Arabs proved another point. The minority of Arab citizens who sympathize with Hamas and want to burn down Israel may not operate out in the open, but they are still strong enough to possibly deter others from publicly espousing good citizenship and prevent a larger pro-Israel shift in Arab public opinion.

Israel must work to help Arabs integrate, create new identity

To ensure the positive trend, another actor must stop sitting on the fence and openly choose a side, namely the Israeli government. It must assure Arab citizens in every way that it will actively encourage integration, show support for community members who advocate for it, and cease to lend support to groups that reject both integration and the state of Israel as a whole.

Arab youth should be encouraged to commit to a gap year of civil service after high school. This has yet to become commonplace among Arab Israelis, and there is much more potential for it if the government decides to invest more effort in promoting the concept.

In the broader frame, Israeli Arabs must build a positive Arab identity not defined by a negation of Israel. We need to cherish and promote Arab language and Arab culture and traditions – and not Palestinian identity.

We want to be productive members of Israeli society. We believe that we deserve a helping hand from Israeli authorities who must firmly encourage a public discourse of integration.

There is no reason that any Arab civil society organization or youth movement that preaches support for Palestinian violence in any way should receive government funding or support.

Israel must display leadership and strength on a consistent basis. If the Israeli flag does not fly atop police stations or municipalities in Arab towns, what message does that send other than cowardice? If the state can’t display its presence in Arab society without fearing violence, then what is to assure Arab citizens in favor of integration that the state will protect them if violent radicals stand up and oppose them?

On the issue of leadership, Israeli Arabs cannot say that they have succeeded, either. We have become accustomed to the fact that for decades our leadership has insisted on a fixation with Palestinian identity that brings home absolutely nothing for the welfare of our society.

THE HIGH Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel called upon Israeli Arabs to come out in support protests after October 7, and it was genuinely satisfying to see that these calls had no popular resonance. But rejecting defunct leadership is not enough. The crucial goal is to replace it with true leadership that genuinely reflects our communities’ opinions on public affairs.

MK Mansour Abbas may be the most reconciliatory public voice emanating from the Arab community, but even he has not yet come close to articulating and fully manifesting integration into Israeli society and rallying Arab Israelis behind it. It is far from certain that the leadership of his party would support that.

On the issue of leadership, as on the other great dilemmas of the future of Israel, Arabs and Jews are interdependent.

We live here in Israel side by side as full-fledged citizens, and we must learn to cooperate productively, not only in the face of common threats but also in creating a vision and a future for our communities, our country, and the Middle East.  ■

The writer is a strategic adviser and expert on Arab society.