World

Israel Fears Civil War

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 11, 2000 / 7:58 PM EDT / CBS

Israel's leaders are worried that an ugly echo of the conflict on its borders is rumbling through its heartland in clashes between Israeli Arabs and Jews, reports CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth.

When Jews and Arabs clashed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday—on a street named "joy" in a neighborhood called "hope,"—Israeli radio said it looked like a "civil war."

Jews shouted "Death to Arabs" as they trashed an Israeli restaurant in the city's downtown where Arabs work.

It wasn't the only incident. There's been a series of attacks on this country's unnoticed minority, the Arab citizens who make up almost 20 percent of Israel's population.

And while conflict between Arabs and Jews maybe as old as the bible, what's happened here is brand new. Israel's never seen this kind of violence among its own citizens in its 52-year history.

Amir Yolei, whose business was heavily damaged by one of the melees, was still in shock as he cleaned up.

"In my worst dream I never thought such a thing could happen," he said.

When it was founded in 1958, Israel promised Arabs who stayed that there would be citizenship and religious tolerance in the new Jewish state.

But when the latest flare-up on the West Bank and Gaza generated support among Arabs inside Israel for the first time ever, it was angry and well-publicized, and unleashed a backlash among Jews.

"You have to understand that the (Jewish) population is fed up with the Arab population, (of) which the majority agrees with the youngsters who throw stones at us," said one Israeli Jew.

The tension is felt not only on the streets of Israel but also in the halls of government.

Parliament Speaker Avraham Burg canceled a special session of the Knesset, in which Arab parties hold 10 of the 120 seats, Wednesday, saying tensions between members were too high. Parliament is currently in recess, and the special session had been called to discuss the violence.

"If, heaven forbid, even one match caught fire in the plenum, and if it was that one spark that led in the end to a funeral, we would all regret it," Burg told Israel radio.

The Arabs in Israel are an ethnic, linguistic and religious minority, comprising Muslims, Christians and Druze and including Bedouin tribespeople in the Negev desert. They are the remnants of a majority Palestinian population in pre-Israeli Palestine that left or was driven out when Israeli was formed.

Israeli Arabs—some of whom resent the term "Israeli Arabs" because they consider themselves Palestinians—are subject to discrimination, says the Arab Association of Human Rights.

The association claims that by being forced to accept "the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people" as a precursor to running office, Arabs suffer political discrimination. Also, while all people of Jewish ancestry are automaticall granted Israeli citizenship, Palestinians must obtain it by birth, residence or naturalization.

According to the New Israel Fund, twice as many Arab Israelis as Jews live below the poverty line, Arab infant mortality is twice as high, and education spending per Jewish child is twice that spent per Arab child.