Israel’s Arabs await equality, not apologies -
President Rivlin’s soothing words during Kafr Qasem visit should be translated into deeds aimed at closing gaps and improving life of beleaguered population.
By Jack Khoury | Oct. 27, 2014 | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.622956
A few men of various ages were sitting in a coffee shop near the municipal square in Kafr Qasem, watching the police prepare for the arrival of President Reuven Rivlin. There was no excitement, only indifference. The president’s arrival Sunday did not shut down the city or change the residents’ daily routine. There were neither celebrations nor protests. Nor were there decorations. Just a few black flags of mourning to mark the anniversary of the massacre.
Abdel Rahman Taha was 16 when he lost his mother on that fateful day, October 29, 1956. And he too was sitting at the entrance to the coffee shop yesterday, trying to decide whether to go to the reception for the president.
“The visit is a positive step," he said, "but like every visit of a senior Israeli figure before this – it won’t change much. As a person who lost his mother, I feel no solace; as a citizen, I have no expectations. Whether or not there is an apology [from him] doesn’t matter anymore. What is important to me is that the story of Kafr Qasem appear in schoolbooks: that all the schoolchildren in Israel, Jews and Arabs, read, take it to heart and not forget.”
Taha’s words reflect the general understanding and the pain of the people in Kafr Qasem, located some 20 kilometers east of Tel Aviv, vis-a-vis the commemoration of the massacre: It has become a private event of the inhabitants of the city only, and not part of the collective memory of Arab society in Israel, certainly not part of the national memory of the state and the establishment, which would prefer to forget that day and not to talk about its significance in terms of the country’s relationship to its Arab citizens.