Strategic Assessment

Since 2001, the Arab Knesset factions have proposed bills for recognition of the Arab minority as a national minority. The wording of the billls insists on the right of the Arabs to suitable representation in state institutions, the establishment of representative political institutions, cultural and educational autonomy, consolidation of the status of the Arabic language, and participation of the Arab minority in significant decision making related to its affairs. This essay assesses the background to the respective proposals, and argues that what lies behind the would-be legislation is the ongoing process among the Arabs in Israel of forming a collective national identity along with anxiety about the continual undermining of their status caused by government policy towards them. These bills reflect a defensive strategy in which the minority is driven to defend its rights by putting these rights on the national agenda. The political establishment in Israel should therefore regard the Arab bills as a warning signal about the direction of relations with the Arab minority, which is losing its foothold in the Israeli public arena.