Arab-Jewish ties not just for left — Rivlin

President Reuven Rivlin urges improved Arab-Jewish ties in Israel, saying that the politicization of this task and its association exclusively with Israel’s left is “nothing short of tragic.”

He calls for “the forging of a ‘shared Israeli identity: not just for a boy in Tel Aviv, or a girl in Kafr Qasem; but for them both, together with the boy in Bnei Brak, and the girl in Beit El. This is a vision, and an Israeli hope, of which we are in need.”

After quoting Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, Rivlin addresses Israel’s Arab public, saying: “My independence is your catastrophe. You build your identity which negates mine, and I build my identity which negates yours. This basic and formative experience stands at the very core of the Israel-Palestinian conflict – which has long since turned into a tragedy.”

The president appeals to both sides to recognize each others’ narrative, and says the “greatest mission before us is establishing trust between the sides.”

“Both sides must understand and accept that a positive identity, historical roots, a connection to a people, to a culture, to a heritage – are not a threat. On the contrary. Despite the tension and the challenge, these constitute the basic and most vital infrastructure in our ability to accept and understand the other’s identity,” Rivlin says.

“Any attempt to achieve change by way of demands or expectations by one side of the other to relinquish their identity is destined to fail. Not just because it is immoral, but because it is also ineffective. We see today how the European system of disconnecting the youth from their identity throws them like a boomerang into the arms of radical terror groups, in a desperate search for a meaningful identity.”

The president maintains that a strong identity breeds tolerance, saying “only people with a clear idea of where they come from will find inside themselves the room to include others.”

“The Jewish public needs to acknowledge that the Arab public is part and parcel of this land – a public shaped by a collective cultural identity. To the same extent, and regardless of threats or fear, the Palestinian consciousness and history must never be defined as an opposition or resistance to Zionism or the Jewish people.”

The president details two measures to bridge the cultural gaps. First, the establishment of a new Arab city. “By 2020, I would hope and like to believe that the city will be on the ground and not just on paper,” he says. Second, the president says Israelis must study Arabic.

As for Israel’s Arabs, the president says, while they cannot be expected to sing the national anthem “with tears glistening,” they must condemn terror and have “a sense of solidarity and mutual responsibility” with the State of Israel.

The president laments that Arab-Jewish trust-building has been politicized and co-opted by Israel’s left.

“Friends, the mission of building confidence between the Jewish and Arab communities is not solely the task of the left or any particular political camp. It is the mission of all for whom this land is dear,” he says. “No single political camp can be allowed to take ownership, or dictate the language of this task. Just as no single camp can shirk its responsibility toward this task. The fact that the subject has become associated with a particular camp, both on the Jewish and Arab sides, is nothing short of tragic.”

Meanwhile, he notes, both Israel’s Arabs and Jews continue to believe the other side will disappear.

“There are two peoples here focused too much on the past, and insufficiently on the future, too much on their own sense of justice, and not enough on understanding the other side’s story. Too much on a false sense of hope that the other side will simply disappear, and too little on internalizing the reality that both sides are here to stay. Two peoples, focused too much on pain, grief and memorializing, and too little on hope, and the joy of mutual discovery. The wailing, the self-flagellation, the international appeals, will not open up the hearts of the majority on either side.”