The problem of the Israeli Arabs is today one of a national minority which is developing and becoming better based while at the same time caught in a severe dilemma between loyalty to the State of Israel in which its members have grown and lived as equal citizens and loyalty to the Arab states to which they are drawn by ties of religion, culture and national tradition. This view was presented by Shmuel Toledano, Advisor on Arab Affairs to the Prime Minister, in a lecture to members of the Haganah Veterans Organization. Toledano added that the problem was not an economic one and that it went beyond the area of the relations between the individual and the State.
Some 220,000, or more than half of Israel’s Arab population, were born in Israel and have never known any other rule, Toledano pointed out. This includes some 60,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 whose language is Hebrew and who find the modern Israeli way of life more natural than the traditional eastern culture. These young people are seeking an identity and a way out of the spiritual conflict in which they find themselves. The State institutions and the public at large should help them to become socially and politically integrated, Toledano declared. When the present five-year plan for Arab and Druze village development under which $30 million is being spent reaches its completion in 1973, there would be no need for a further five-year plan as the plan’s goal–provision of a service infrastructure for every village–will have been achieved Toledano said.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
