THEY MUST GO, 1981
Rabbi Meir Kahane
Togetherness In Israel
March 30, 1976. Nine A.M. The Galilee, northern Israel, home of 300,000 Israeli Arabs. The village of Sakhnin, a model of social and economic progress since 1948. It has good roads, electricity, water, schools, appliances, television sets in every home. It has “greatly advanced its integration into all fields of life of the State of Israel.”
More than 1,000 equal citizens of Israel-Arabs-are in the street facing a small number of police and soldiers. It is “Land Day,” and the crowd grows larger by the minute. “Falastin, Falastin!” (Palestine, Palestine!”), the mob roars. Other chants and shouts are heard: “The Galilee is Arab!” We will free the Galilee with blood and spirit!” Rocks are suddenly thrown in the direction of the soldiers and police. The small group of security men stare in disbelief and growing nervousness. A fiery Molotov cocktail smashes against a wall a few yards away. More and heavier stones, flaming torches, lighted cans of gasoline, and by now the soldiers are surrounded by a growing circle of hate-filled faces. “Our villages do not belong to Israel,” shouts a young Arab. “We belong to the state of Palestine!”
The Israeli papers report what happened:
“The dam, burst. ‘We are all Fatah,’ men and women shouted in chorus, even as they threw stones and other objects at the police. The police fired warning shots into the air which only increased the agitation. The rioters began to move toward the police and soldiers, threatening to trample them. Not even the pointing of the rifles at them stopped the mob. ‘They’re overrunning us,’ the police shouted into their radios” (Maariv, March 31, 1976).
“The mob wandered through the main street, raining stones, torches and firebombs on the military and police vehicles. Some of the excited youth wanted to set up roadblocks. Others moved closer to the security forces-with clear intent to burn the vehicles. In face of the dangerous situation the soldiers fired into the air, but it seemed as if no one in the crowd of burning passions paid any attention.
The mob of demonstrators noticed the Israeli force beginning to withdraw. The large crowd began close pursuit of the Israeli forces. Running hysterically, they threw stones and roared: ‘Charge them-Eleyom!’ Thousands moved toward the soldiers, and at that critical moment, the commander of the force gave orders to fire…” (Yediot Aharonot, March 31, 1976).
An Israeli journalist who attempted to get past a roadblock in the village was attacked by Arabs shouting: “Get out of here! This is Palestine!” He later reported: It was terrible there. I do not remember such chaos since 1948. Every Jew was a candidate for murder. I saw them with the lust for murder burning in their eyes. Slogans such as ‘Eleyhom’ and Itbach Al-Yahud’ [“slaughter the Jews”] are moderate in view of what I heard. From all sides came the cries for the liquidation of Israel, to destroy all the Jews, for a jihad [holy war]. It is difficult to believe that such a scene could take place in the State of Israel, 1976.
The journalist added: Such hatred of the state and the Jews is difficult to comprehend. What happened there was not mere rioting or chaos. It was a revolt. The Arab revolt of 1976…It was a revolt in the full sense of the word.” Maariv, March 31, 1976)
The revolt spread to villages and towns, throughout the Galilee and the “Triangle,” the two main centers of Arab population in Israel. In Sakhnin, Araba, Deir Hama, Beth Netora, Tira, Tayba, Kalansuwa, Kfar Kana, Nazareth, and dozens of other places, violence and rioting occurred. For the first time in Israel’s existence, as Arab citizens had called a political general strike. When quiet was finally restored, six Arabs were dead and more than thirty-five Israeli soldiers and police injured. In the worlds of Maariv correspondent Yosef Valter, returning from the Arab village of Umm al-Fahm: “It was not pleasant for a Jew to wander there….”
The pamphlet issued by the Israeli government in 1973 attempted to give the impression that the Arabs of Israel feel themselves part of the state and that the years since 1948, years that have brought them social and economic benefits, have also made them loyal to Israel, have made them see their destiny and that of the Jewish state as mutual. It is a devoutly desired illusion that every Israeli leader and official spreads. It is a persistent delusion that grows louder and more frantic, the more obvious its patent falsehood. It ranks among the hoariest of legends and myths of world Jewry. To look at reality and to think otherwise is imply too unbearably painful.
]Today in year 2010 this delusion and myth continues to grow, and rocks and Molotov cocktails have turned into guns, missiles and kassams].
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