Key Likud MP Yariv Levin, the chairman of the coalition government, has come up with a puzzling new bill which aims to officially remove the term “Arab” from the ID cards of Palestinian Christians, on the grounds that the Christians ‘aren’t really Arabs.’
The bill is an apparent attempt to split Israel’s Arab minority into different official categories, and Levin argued that providing special privileges, or in this case simply persecuting them less than other Arabs, would be a way to “connect us and the Christians.”
“Out of ignorance, the government has been lumping all of the minorities – Druse, Christians and others – under the category of ‘Arab’ since the establishment of the state,” Levin argued.
Israel’s Arab minority is about 1.6 million citizens, of which about 10% are Christians. Levin says that 10% “see this country as their home with open arms,” while the other 90% simply “take advantage of our democracy to destroy us.”
divide and rule- pathetic attempt….offering priority second class status, is still second class status…. i think a crucial point being overlooked by such israelis in their arrogance, is that the main defining feature of the indigenous inhabitants is their palestinian identity and their attachment to the land/region….rather than a simple a cartoon cut out 'arab' one. from my observations, there are many regional differences among those generally decribed as 'arab' by outsiders, since I suppose that the ancestors of those who are now generally identified as arab hailed from various ancient cultures and tribes which have been overlaid by various invasions and migrations…which seems the way of empires and dominant cultures. We are all products of great ebbs and flows i human migrations… So, I hope the palestinian christians see this fro what it is= a cynical attempt and insincere ploy, and do not take the bait.