Arabs in Israel | The American Task Force on Palestine

Israel's legal 'abuse' of Arab minority is undemocratic
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Oudeh Basharat - (Opinion) January 23, 2012 - 1:00am

It is difficult to compare the democratic State of Israel to a dark dictatorship. Nevertheless, they have one thing in common: People don't sleep well at night under either regime. In dictatorships, they fear a revolution on the part of the majority, and in Israeli democracy they do not stop studying the graphs of the birth rate among Arabs, in case the demographic balance is upset.

Are Arab Jews extinct?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily News Egypt
by Naava Mashiah - (Opinion) January 20, 2012 - 1:00am

GENEVA: The growing rift between Israel and the Arab world makes it hard to imagine that Jews and Arabs once coexisted across the Middle East. At one point these identities could be found not only in the same neighborhood, but even in the same person.

Hacking away at Arab and Israeli stereotypes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Khaled Diab - (Opinion) January 19, 2012 - 1:00am

Earlier this week, a hacker or group of hackers who claim to be Saudi scaled up their cyber offensive against Israel by paralysing the websites of El Al airline and the Tel Aviv stock exchange. This was the latest in a series of attacks over the past fortnight, which has also seen the credit card details of thousands of Israeli citizens leaked online.

Israeli Arabs have never been equal before the law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yitzhak Laor - (Opinion) January 17, 2012 - 1:00am

Last week's decision by the High Court of Justice to uphold the amendment to the Citizenship Law that keeps Palestinians apart from their Israeli spouses has closed a chapter in the life of Israeli democracy. The Supreme Court no longer wants to protect Israel's Arab citizens.

Israel's "national suicide"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
by Mark Levine - (Opinion) January 16, 2012 - 1:00am

Irvine, California - Say what you will about Israel's High Court of Justice, it knows how to name a decision. In titling last Wednesday's legal decision, upholding the controversial Citizenship Law that prevents Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens from living in Israel "Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide", the court's majority well summed up the existential predicament Israel faces today - indeed, has always faced - as it attempts to be both Jewish and democratic.

Supreme Court Thrusts Israel Down the Slope of Apartheid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) January 13, 2012 - 1:00am

The High Court of Justice's ruling Wednesday on the legality of the Citizenship Law proves the erosion of this institution's role as Israel's guardian of civil rights. Let's look at how the justices voted at the moment of truth on the law, which bans Palestinians from living in Israel with spouses who are Israeli citizens.

Israel, Palestinians Must Let Go of Justice and Join Reality
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Salman Masalha - (Opinion) January 13, 2012 - 1:00am

The poet Taha Muhammad Ali, who recently passed away, revealed to us in one of his poems that it took him 60 years to realize that "water is the best of drinks / And bread is the tastiest of foods." Someone who takes so much time to understand reality can be tolerated. He's allowed to be backward and learn slowly; he'll write poems about that. But it's different when we're talking about the backwardness of a nation, and how much more so, its elected leadership.

Op-Ed: Why Jews should care about the rights of Israeli Arabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Sidney Schwarz - (Opinion) January 13, 2012 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- About a year and half ago, I participated in a fact-finding mission to Israel sponsored by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arabs (IATF). Established in 2006 as a consortium of some of the major organizations in American Jewish life -- including the Joint Distribution Committee, the Conference of Presidents, Jewish Federations of North America, the ADL and the American Jewish Committee -- the IATF is committed to raising awareness of the circumstances of the 20 percent of Israel’s citizens who are Arab.

East Jerusalem Parks Plan ‘Fences in Palestinians’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

It is littered with rubbish thrown there by the residents of the two Palestinian neighbourhoods that bookend the 75-hectare slope, and it is besieged by the din of cars and lorries rumbling down the nearby road that connects central Jerusalem with the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim.

Video: Inside ATFP Gala 2013

Photo Gallery: ATFP Gala 2013

Recent News