Keynote Speaker Haneen Zoabi at Wednesday’s American Muslims for Palestine banquet in Dearborn at Greenfield Manor. PHOTO: Nafeh AbuNab/American Elite Studios

DEARBORN – While addressing a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress this
week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said only Israel’s Arab
citizens enjoy real democratic rights in the Middle East, a proclamation that
many including local activists and an Israeli Knesset member have taken issue
with.

“Netanyahu said that his “state” is the only
democratic country in the region…and that he admires the Arab youth standing
for freedom against tyranny. He just forgot to mention that the Egyptian tyrant
was his ally, and the new democratic administrations in the Middle East and
North Africa were also standing for freedom and dignity for the
Palestinians,” Dr. Daad Bakir Katato, board member of Michigan’s U.S. Palestinian
Community Network said.

Speaking at Greenfield Manor in Dearborn on Wednesday for
the Muslim Americans for Palestine fundraising dinner Haneen Zoabi, Palestinian
member of the Israeli Knesset representing the Balad party, also criticized
Netanyahu for the statement.

“Netanyahu said the Palestinians in Israel enjoy full
democracy. They are the only Arabs in the Middle East who enjoy democracy. Well
this is exactly what we must challenge. 
Israel has 33 laws that discriminate against the Palestinians,”
Zoabi said.

The laws range from citizenship to immigration and
educational policies. According to Zoabi, Palestinians who are citizens of
Israel can’t marry Palestinians from the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon or any state
and continue to live in Israel. 
“Israel is interfering in our intimate relationship. In our love
relationship, in our marriage decision,” she said. 

Zoabi also noted that Palestinian refugees can’t return to
their homes, towns or villages. In schools Palestinian history is not allowed
to be studied according to Zoabi, and teachers are prohibited from using the
term Nakba.

Seven hundred and fifty thousand Palestinians faced exile
from their homeland during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. The
horrific event is referred to as the Nakba, or “Day of Catastrophe.”

“The teachers are forbidden from using the word Nakba.
Of course those who are not afraid don’t obey it,” she said.  There are Jewish youth who don’t know
the land they are living upon has been confiscated from the Palestinians,”
Zoabi says. 

“Because, in their psychology, we were not there. We
were not there before 1948. So we don’t just demand the Israelis to allow us to
study Nakba, we ask the Israelis to allow the Jewish schools to teach Al-Nakba
in the Israeli schools,” she said. 

Arab workers in some restaurants are forbidden from talking
Arabic between themselves, according to Zoabi. 

She says dialogue on the laws must begin. “We should
start to talk about this. To Israel who says it is a democracy. To Obama who
says that we share with Israel the same values…,” she said. 

“Netanyahu stated that the 1.25 million Arabs
(Palestinians) in Israel are the only Arabs enjoying their freedom in the
region. He also forgot to mention that they are treated as second-class residents
in his “state,” their lands are confiscated and there is an apartheid
system against them,” Dr. Katato said.  

“It’s distressing to see congressmen, congresswomen and
senators turn into clowns in front of Netanyahu, just standing and clapping continuously.
No single legislator challenged him about all his lies,” Dr. Katato added.

 She says when
Netanyahu addresses the Israeli Knesset, he faces more criticism and opposition
(not only from the Arab members) than what he faces when he addresses the U.S.
Congress, and in Washington D.C., he has unanimous acceptance of whatever he
says.

In a recent speech at the U.S. State Department President
Obama said the Israel-Palestine borders should be based on the 1967 lines.
Obama clarified what he really meant afterwards during a speech to AIPAC. 

“It’s demeaning to the U.S. that our president has to
come a day later to correct himself and issue a statement saying that what he
meant to say was that we should take into consideration the changes on the
ground that happened since 1967. He added that Israel has to withdraw to
borders that it can defend. President Obama’s words were obviously dictated by
Netanyahu,” Dr. Katato said.

Barbara Harvey of the Jewish Voice for Peace organization,
who attended the AMP dinner said, “Yes I agree that the borders should be
defined, it’s actually the pre-1967 green line because that is what is lawful
and that is what Israel agreed to when it became a state originally in 1948.
This is all Israel has any right to under law, and all it has any right to
expect. Because that is what it agreed to accept as its borders. And by the way
that left only 22 percent of historic Palestine to the Palestinians,”
Harvey said. 

Zoabi says not to refer to the Nakba as a historic event
because it’s still taking place today. “The Palestinian struggle began in
1948, not in 1967. This is what we must redefine. Stop talking as if the
Palestinian struggle began in 1967, it has been started in 1948,” Zoabi
said.