— A large group of Israeli Arabs, organized along religious lines for action against Israel, has been uncovered. Security officials have not disclosed any details about this group, other than a brief announcement last week that it has been uncovered. However, on the basis of what is known but so far barred from publication, officials are seriously concerned by the scope and structure of the gang and the large quantities of arms, mainly stolen from the army, found in its possession.
Four minor members of the gang, believed to number several dozen, have already been tried by a military court in Lod and sentenced to prison terms of 12-20 months. They were charged with membership in the group. Other members will be brought to trial shortly. All hearings are being held behind closed doors.
The gang is believed to have obtained its arms, including pistols, grenades, Uzzi sub-machineguns and explosives, mainly through what has become known as the “Jaffa Bombers Group”–Jews and Arabs in Jaffa who have bombed a number of cars in the area recently. They are described as an underworld “hit group” and many are now on trial.
TURN FROM DRUG ADDICTION TO RELIGION
A number of the young Israeli Arabs from villages in the “Little triangle” on the pre-1967 border not far from Tel Aviv have criminal records. They are former drug addicts who repented and turned to religion, possibly under the influence of the Ayatolah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran. They were guided by religious leaders, including members of the outlawed Moslem Brotherhood who use religion as a weapon in their fight against any Western influence, including Zionism.
Sheikh Farid Wajdi Tabari, the Kadi (religious judge) of Jaffa and Jerusalem who is an outspoken proponent of Jewish-Moslem cooperation, says that the Moslem religious leadership has confined itself almost entirely to legal religious matters in the courts and that a social religious leadership almost does not exist. Consequently, certain religious leaders have misused religion to serve certain political aims among young Arabs who have been neglected, he said.
He said in a radio interview: “We have heard a lot lately about the confiscation of Arab land, about the lack of possibilities for young Arabs to take part in government affairs, and about under-representation in the Knesset. According to our numbers, we should have at least 15 Arabs in the Knesset (as against only three or four). We should have at least one Arab on the Supreme Court and our education system has come in for severe criticism.”
DIFFERING REACTIONS AMONG ISRAELI ARABS
Binyamin Gur-Arye, Premier Menachem Begin’s Arab affairs advisor, responded by saying that a disproportionate share of the educational budget went to the Arab sector. But he addeded that much needs to be done to raise the Arab community from the dismally low educational level of 1948 to approach that of the Jewish sector. He said he was aware for the past two years of the “Moslem fundametalist revival” but it was difficult to take measures under a democracy.
Villagers in the Israeli Arab villages of Umn El-Fakham and Baka Al-Garbiya, where most of the arrests were made, are split in their reactions. Some of them welcome the return of their prodigal sons from crime to religion and to an ultra-strict form of puritanical religious life at that. They deny that it has been misused for political purposes.
Others say that the lack of opportunities for young Arabs to progress at the rate of their Jewish fellow-Israelis makes it almost inevitable that they will turn either to the Israel Communist Party, made up mainly of Arabs, though largely led by Jews, or to religious fundamentalism with its dangers of developing into an anti-Israeli movement–especially in view of the spread of Khomeinism in the Arab and Moslem world.
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.
