Isaac Barr, Amer Zahr, Rachel Klein, Howard Lupovitch, Kobi Erez and Tzvi Raviv

WEST BLOOMFIELD — Local representatives of Israeli political parties held a debate at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield on Monday, March 9, ahead of the March 17 Israeli elections. Amer Zahr, a Palestinian American comedian and an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, was an unlikely guest on the panel. 

Zahr, whose family is from Nazareth, a predominantly Palestinian town in northern Israel, represented Arab parties. Dr. Isaac Barr spoke for the Likud Party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Kobi Erez for the Zionist, religious Jewish Home Party; Professor Howard Lupovitch for the center left Labor Party; Tzvi Raviv for the Kulanu Party, which focuses on economic and social issues; and Rachel Klein for the leftist Meretz Party.

Asked about economic issues, left-leaning panelists advocated for better social programs to combat poverty, while representatives of the right urged a smaller government, echoing arguments between Republicans and Democrats about the American economy.

Zahr said Palestinian citizens of Israel demand equality in allocating funds to Arab schools and municipalities.

“We live in a state which holds us as second-class citizens,” Zahr said. “We are not given equal access to economic resources in the state.” 

He said Israel’s school system is segregated and that Arab schools are allocated about 1/3 per student as Jewish schools. 

A Human Rights Watch report states that Arab schools in Israel “are a world apart in quality from the public schools serving Israel’s majority Jewish population.”

Erez argued that Arabs in Israel are not disadvantaged.

“The Arabs don’t have to serve in the army,” he said. “They get an easier time getting into universities. If you look at the Middle East in general, Arabs in Israel have one of the best lives.”

Zahr responded by arguing that the state of Arabs in other countries is irrelevant to inequality in Israel. He said relieving Palestinians of mandatory military service is a state policy because Israel does not want 20 percent of its citizens to serve in an occupation army against their cousins and brothers and sisters in the West Bank and Gaza.

With the exception of Barr and Erez, the panelists were critical of Netanyahu’s March 3 speech to Congress. However, all guests were in agreement that Iran should not be able procure nuclear weapons. 

Lupovitch said the Israeli prime minister is magnifying the Iranian issue to distract from social and economic issues at home.

Klein said Netanyahu tried to boost himself politically by delivering the speech at noon in Congress, coinciding with the 7 p.m. news in Israel. 

Zahr said he opposes any country in the Middle East having nuclear weapons, including Israel, which has “anywhere from 74 to 400 nuclear weapons.”

“The speech of Netanyahu in Congress was historical,” Barr said. “It’s going to be taught in high schools.” 

He used Egypt as an example to stress his criticism of President Obama’s Middle East policies. The Likud representative heaped praise on Egyptian President Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, arguing that Sisi should have been embraced by the United States for his efforts to reform Islam. Barr said Obama cut military aid to Egypt after Sisi toppled President Mohamad Morsi. 

However, the United States still hands Egypt about $1.5 billion annually in foreign aid, although American law prohibits sending aid to governments that are the result of military coups. 

Barr also said that Muslims are driving Christians out of the Middle East, claiming that there are very few Christians left in Lebanon and churches are being attacked in the West Bank, where the town of Beit Jala was evacuated of its Christians. 

“These are lies,” Zahr retorted. He pointed out that Jewish settlers are the ones attacking churches in the West Bank and said Beit Jala is still almost entirely Christian.

Asked about last summer’s war on Gaza, most panelists praised the Israeli army, holding Hamas responsible for the death of more than 2,000 Palestinians and arguing that the group hides among civilians. 

Lupovitch said the Gaza war reflects the high moral character of the Israeli army, adding that if it had been waged by an army that has no regard for civilians, it would have been over in an hour. The war lasted for more than six weeks.

“But it was conducted by a government and an army that believe in restraint and defense; and in that the operation was admirable, although not perfect,” The Labor Party representative said before receiving a round of applause from the audience.

Barr compared Israeli soldiers to the main character in the movie “American Sniper.”

Zahr cited UN figures stating that close to 1,500 Palestinian civilians were killed in the  war. 

“It terrifies me when I hear people say it was a morally conducted war,” he said. “Either Israel was not trying to avoid Palestinian casualties or was very bad at it. It terrifies me more when somebody says he wouldn’t have done anything different, given those numbers. It terrifies me the most when after he says all that stuff, people in the audience applaud.”