A group of Israeli Arab leaders appeared to be having second thoughts today on a memorandum they drafted for Premier Yitzhak Rabin which, in effect, calls for recognition of a bi-national state in Israel. The text of the memorandum, leaked to the press yesterday, engendered an angry public reaction inasmuch as it challenged the Zionist concept of Israel as a Jewish State with an Arab minority. Massab Kassis, Mayor of Meiliyah village in Galilee who is a spokesman for the group, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the memo would be held up.
He insisted, however, that this did not mean the text would be altered. “The memo was prepared by three persons and we simply wanted to discuss the matter again.” he said. Other Arab notables conceded that the original language may have been too strong. “But so was Rabin’s disregard for our national distinctiveness,” they said.
The group, consisting of Arab mayors and town council members met with the Premier two weeks ago to discuss the problems of Israel’s Arab minority. They voiced displeasure afterwards with Rabin’s description of the Arabs as a distinctive culture and religion without mentioning any national significance. Their memo saw Israel as a state containing two nations. The Hebrew translation of the Arabic phrase used is a bi-national state.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
