DURBAN--Mummed Abu Alhija
said he just wants water, like the cows. He told
a press conference organized by Arab NGOs working
in Israel, that although he is an Israeli citizen
and pays taxes, he doesn't get water, electricity,
and roads.
"But
400 meters down the kibbutz has the highest civilization,
all the basic services, the cows of the Jewish kibbutz
have water and electricity."
"There is only one reason why we don't have
water," he said. "We are Arabs."
Emphasizing that
the group was speaking only of the discrimination
they said they suffer within
Israel - and not for Palestinians in Gaza and the
West Bank -- Abu Alhija said, "all we want
is to be equal, like the Jews."
"We are not against Israel. We are not against
Jews. We are against racism," he said.
Lawyer Ghassan
Agahia said that official Israeli laws, such
as that of the right of return for all
Jews, Hebrew language codes, and even the national
flag, are discriminatory against the Arab minority,
which he said makes up 20 percent of the population,
but 67 percent of the impoverished youth. He said
Israeli law allows suspension of rights in times
of "emergency," but that Israel has been
in a state of emergency since 1948.
"They say the state is Jewish and Democratic," he
said. "We say that the two things cannot go
together." Khalel Khalil the chairman of the
group said they came to Durban "to demand
to be recognized as a national minority, and we
demand to be recognized as equal citizens."
Abu Alhija said
he didn't have any water - and never had any
since he was born in 1953 - because
the town he was born in is labeled by the government
as an "unofficial village" where Arabs
displaced in 1948 set up housekeeping. He said
some 100,000 people live in unofficial villages.
"We are absent, but present," he said, "absent
for rights and present for taxes."
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