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How Should Arab-Israeli View Themselves?
By admin | December 9, 2008
Millions of Arabs live in Israel. Majority of them are given Israel citizenship. Thus they become an element in a ‘melting pot Israel’. Some of them try to accept their existence in Israel as an unhindered reality that then makes them called themselves ‘Israeli’.
For me, it is quiet funny to find that an Arab call himself as an Israeli. It is undoubtedly that ethnicity is a factor that describes a nation identity. Although there is an exception in many cases such as in United States or Indonesia –where ethnicity is regarded as unimportant for there are many ethnics which view themselves as a nation.
The case will be different in a country where an ethnic form as a single majority. The nation’s identity will be bounded by traditions and values of such ethnic. For instance, the German’s identity cannot be separated from the Aria-European customs and traditions which then called as the German’s Values. These values are usually derived from common faith or consensus among its people.
Israel which is formed by Jewish certainly holds Jewish values and traditions as their identity. It has been familiarly known that Jewish values and traditions contradict to Islamic values and traditions –while Islam has been the identity of Arabs for centuries. This is the first problem in defining position of Arabs live in Israel.
The second problem comes from the political escalation during the emergence of Israel to nowadays. Israel is a Jewish state which is situated on Arab’s land. They are surrounded by Arab countries which fight against them for decades. This condition creates a new value where they view and put each other as the main enemy. Of course, it is a huge dilemma for Arabs live in Israel to watch their country fight against other countries that have same identity to theirs.
The answer for ‘how should Arab-Israeli view themselves?’ will depend on how the Arab-Israeli view on the values they hold. They are free to decide whether they are Arab or Israeli for values is related to faith, not ethnic or race. If they hold Jewish values, it means that they view themselves as Israeli. But if they strongly hold Arab values, it means that they are Arabs. Thus Arab-Israeli will only reflect ethnicity in its relation to national identity –not personal faith and believes.
Topics: Religion & Philosophy >< Agama & Filsafat, Social & History >< Sosial & Sejarah | No Comments »
