"The Arab construction workers who built our houses want to live here. They are impressed by the view and the tranquility. I get along fine with them so long as they know their place. Actually they are nicer then the usual Arabs. I have nothing against Arabs",.
 

There is a commotion in the offices of the Tel-Yiron local council. The telephone never stops ringing, the fax spews reams of paper and Tsippi Miller, the secretary of the community association from the settlement of Katzir walks around restlessly, murmuring, "I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about". She turns to the journalists: "Tell me, aren’t you making too big of an issue out of it?" and even: "Are you crazy to be interested in this matter?" Miller is a large woman with a small, whining voice. She addresses her statements to the reporters who jam the fax and telephone and who have overrun Katzir settlement for the past few days. This morning they called again from the radio and yet again from Ma’ariv, a TV talk show invited them for tomorrow and Tsippi Miller, who really thinks that "the entire affair with that uppity Arab" has already been inflated beyond proportions still cannot suppress a slight shiver of excitement when the voice comes through the phone. "Motti," she tells the council secretary with shining eyes, "it is Gabby Gazit from the TV. "

The other residents of Katzir who until last week had lived comfortably with the knowledge that the name of their settlement meant nothing to most Israelis are adapting to the new situation. On Monday a young woman with short hair and large rubber earrings noticed the representatives of the media at the entrance to the council building. She slowed her red car smiled sweetly at the visitors and commenced singing a sweet little song: "We don’t want Arabs, we don’t want Arabs", for which she had composed a tune. More than summing up the outlook of that resident the song was an expression of sympathy with the visitors bearing notebooks and cameras. Something like a welcome. Since what the reporters seek are blood, passions and headlines, so here’s a headline,

The community settlement Katzir has stood for 12 years on the top of Mt. Amir overlooking the Wadi Ara valley. Most of the residents joined in the course of the first three years, among them former kibbutz members, academics and middle-class families who did not have much money but still retained the dream of a private home with a garden. The tranquility, the small white houses, the red tiled roofs and the grass lawns recall the atmosphere of a sleepy kibbutz; or as defined by a resident watering the dahlias in his cared-for garden: "the quiet and beauty of a kibbutz, but without the assembly telling you what to do and without anyone messing in your affairs". Perfect. Small surprise, therefore, that that was exactly the place where the citizen Tawfik Jabareen wanted to build his home.

Tawfik Jabareen, aged 26, born in Umm al-Fahm, meets all of the criteria which earn a person the title of a yuppie. He is ambitious, successful, young, handsome, well to do and he seeks quality living. His suits are well-tailored, his car is blue and shiny, and only the question of his having an espresso machine remained unsolved. Jabareen completed his B.A. at the Law School of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He received his M.A. in international law on the subject of human rights, in Washington. Nine months ago he returned to this country and joined the Haifa offices of ‘Union of 40′ which handles the affairs of 40 Arab villages which the state does not recognize and bides its time deliberating the residents’ eligibility for becoming connected with the electricity and water systems and other basic services. Within few months, Jabareen and his wife Hilana, a social worker aged 23, graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, discovered that their rented apartment in Umm al-Fahm was too small and decided (to the regret of their families) to leave the city. "Living in Umm al-Fahm is not suitable for me" explained Tawfik. "It is a place without developed infrastructure, community centers and entertainment centers. It is a neglected city where 90% of the residents rise at 5:00 a.m. every morning to work in construction or in restaurants in the Tel-Aviv area. There is nothing in Umm al-Fahm. Just a lot of noise. "

In April this year Tawfik Jabareen overheard a commercial on the radio which invited Israeli citizens to purchase apartments in the expanding settlement Katzrin. The advertisements in the newspapers also attracted his attention and he was especially hooked by the slogan: "On Passover it would be great to visit Katzir and get a 10% discount". The price of a 60 sq. meter apartment in Katzir is 134,847 shekel, and for people like the Jabareens who wanted to purchase two units and turn them into one spacious apartment the Housing Ministry promised a special price, of only 254,915 shekel. Jabareen was encouraged by Micha Blum, a representative of Housing and Development Agency. "Your personal qualifications are excellent", Blum complimented him, adding that in his opinion there were good chances of Jabareen’s application to purchase a home in Katzir being affirmed. Jabareen gave his wife Hilana the good news and together they waited excitedly for the day when, along with their 11-month old daughter, they would appear before the acceptance committee.

On April 28 the awaited meeting took place, with the participation of Micha Blum, Miryam Nachmani (a representative of Jewish Agency), Motti Bloch (the secretary of the Tel-Yiron local council), a representative of the Housing Ministry and the secretary of the committee. "So, what is your name?" Ms. Nachmani asked the two interviewees. "I replied", Jabareen said, "and then she blushed, opened two wide eyes and said: ‘just a minute, the nationality, what is the nationality?’ So I said: ‘Arab’. The poor woman nearly fainted in her chair", he smiles. "When she regained her composure she told me: ‘I am sorry we cannot accept you’. I asked why and she replied: ‘Because you are not a Jew’. Hilana and I tried to argue, we said that as Israeli citizens it was our right to live in Katzir, but they explained to us that according to the Jewish Agency regulations they did not accept Non-Jews in their settlements. I asked how the Jewish Agency could decide upon the matter, since the place was built on state land and Housing Ministry built the houses. I said that I was an Israeli citizen and had a right to that land. Then Miryam Nachmani said: ‘Don’t argue with me’. The secretary of the local council started shouting at me: ‘This is national land, for years no one wanted to live here until we came. We invested money and established Katzir.’ I replied that I was also prepared to invest my money and then they said ‘No way.”?

The Jabareens left the meeting disappointed. “I am an active person in the field of civil rights," said Jabareen, "I cannot remain silent in the face of such injustice. I am not provocative and I am not just obstinate. I really want to raise my daughter in Katzir, but if there are people who think that it is an act of protest – so much the better. I have to explode this issue. I intend to see it through and I will petition the Supreme Court of Justice about it if needed". From a thick file of documents which he has prepared on the way to the Court, he removes a document of land registration according to which the lands on which Katzir stands belong to State of Israel. "According to law, I am equal to other citizens", said Jabareen. "My personal qualifications are excellent. So what is wrong? Why am I being discriminated against? When we came out of the interview I was stunned, it was hard to believe that such things can happen in the State of Israel.

– Excuse me, but that does not sound sincere.

"Okay, laughed Jabareen, "perhaps I faced some cases of discrimination on the grounds of nationality before. But if we leave cynicism aside for a minute, then when I go to sleep at night I still sometimes ask myself why people should have a different status just because they belong to a different nationality. It is strange. Only citizenship should determine my status. The moment they do not accept me it is a hidden statement that am not a citizen. So let them tell me that to my face, and that’s it. 93% of land in this country belongs to the state, meaning that the Arab citizens, 18% of the population, cannot use 93% of the state’s most important natural resource. Perhaps the time has come for the Supreme Court of Justice to finally solve this problem.

– Why should you forcefully try to enter a place where you were told to your face that you were not wanted?

"I have no choice. The Arab localities been turned into ghettoes. We only have freedom within our ghettos. No, I do not want to live with racists who turned me down, but I believe that residents of Katzir, at least some of them, do not think that way. Besides, the only thing that they wanted in the committee was for me to be insulted and to go away. So I won’t do that. If I get a permit, I’ll rush to live in Katzir, and I hope that more Arabs will do the same. But even if live there as the only Arab, that is fine as far as I am concerned. Perhaps there will be some difficulties but I am prepared for that. I support social change and I will be glad to make sacrifices for that purpose. A reporter from "Davar" who investigated the issue told me that one of the reasons why they were not prepared to accept Arabs in Katzir was that they feared that it would lower the value of their homes. I am sure that if I will live in Katzir the price of the apartments will go up. "

In the course of his time in the U.S., Tawfik Jabareen worked at the NAACP Legal Defence Fund, an organization working for Black rights. There he often faced the argument that when Blacks moved into a neighborhood the property values plummeted. No such thing will happen in Katzir, Jabareen promised. "If the Arabs who come to Katzir meet the criteria of the local population committee as far as concerns education, occupation, etc., they will do only good to the settlement. Incidentally, I am not the only one who tried. A resident of Lydda, Abu-Hamed Ziyyad, a lecturer in education at Beit Berl College had participated in an orientation meeting held in Katzir. He did not look like an Arab. His Hebrew was excellent, so everyone was nice to him. Only one hour later, when his mother got out of the car and urged him to hurry: ‘Yallah, let’s go home, it’s late’, they grasped his nationality and the smiles ceased. ‘The place is not for you,’ they told him, ‘we won’t allow mosques to be built here. ‘"

Not only in the Katzir acceptance committee were eyebrows raised at Jabareen. His and his wife’s families were surprised too. "My father, a traditional man, disliked the idea very much. ‘Why should you leave your family and live among them", he said. "They have different customs, a different lifestyle’. But, says Jabareen, “don’t let him dictate to me. My seven brothers live in Umm al-Fahm. Some of them support me and some don’t understand why I want to live in a Jewish settlement."

Hilana Jabareen, a smiling nice young woman in fashionable summer dress, is no less eager than her husband to leave the city where she was born. "I want the best for my daughter. I have no problem adjusting to life in Katzir and Umm al-Fahm is only 10 minutes drive from there, so I’ll still be close to my parents and send my daughter to an Arab kindergarten".

– Aren’t you afraid that the child will suffer from isolation while she is in Katzir?

"I have the feeling that we will get on fine with the neighbors and I would also like to work there instead of at the Umm al-Fahm municipality, if I get an offer. But still, I was so insulted at the interview that I wanted to scream. After I thought it over I want to live there more than ever, it has become a challenge for me. –

Motti Bloch, the secretary of the Tel-Yiron local council and a fervent supporter of Ariel Sharon, is a solid man with silver hair. He sighs at the sight of the media, then he resigns himself, offers coffee, produces a small tape recorder from a desk drawer. He is not warning, heaven forbid, he is only clarifying that the conversation is recorded, since he knows the media and knows how it prints what it wants. Later he divides the map by color. "The official reaction is that there is no pink. Only black and white. Katzir is a Jewish community settlement built in the framework of establishing lookouts in the Galilee", Bloch explained patiently, hurrying to stress: Jewish settlements in the Galilee. The plan is subordinate to identical regulations in the rest of community settlements in Israel. Our aim is to build a settlement where there is quality living, social integration, a healthy community and all the good things. After the massive Jewish immigration from Russia the association and the Jewish Agency were asked to expand the settlement for them. Their request was granted. The association’s sole condition was to retain its character. The settlement is growing and today there is already talk about 1,200 families. The state built 400 housing units on land which are owned legally by the association and Jewish Agency. We did not even examine Jabareen’s suitability and his chances of adjusting, since on the face of it the Jewish Agency regulations do not permit settling him on that land since he is not Jewish…

– Is there an article that explicitly states that an Arab citizen cannot purchase an apartment in a settlement like Katzir?

"What, haven’t you read Herzl? Have we forgotten the Jewish National Fund? Any organization that received secondary rights from the state to build on a certain area and which also paid for that right is entitled to determine its regulations, especially since this is absolutely legal, and to determine who may be a member. I asked Jabareen: ‘Let us suppose that you and your mayor had received land to settle only the members of Arabic Language Society and you would reject me since I do not promote Arabic language and therefore was unsuitable’. The government gave money to Jewish religious associations. And would a secular person fit in there? Jabareen’s claims of discrimination are ridiculous and I think that he is sufficiently educated to understand it. His aims are provocative. There are enough mixed neighborhoods in Upper Nazareth and other places. There are no regulations there."

– And if the Jewish Agency regulations had permitted it, would you have accepted the Jabareen family?

"We have also rejected Jews," said Bloch and Tsippi Miller tried to support him, adding that Katzir never accepted divorced people, widows with children and singles. But he impatiently silenced her. "No, there is no national problem here, we have friendly relations with the Arabs in the villages near Katzir, since the valley below us belongs to the Arabs. But he wants to live here just to spite us. Several Arabs from Lydda also came to the briefing and the minute that they understood that it was a Jewish community association they said ‘excuse me’ and went home. They understood that their children would be miserable here. I am not opposed to integration, in fact, I support it. Even the integration with the Jewish new immigrants is still not complete. That is something that takes years. We are trying to reach them through their children, the adults are more difficult. For example the singer Gabby Berlin whom you like to see does not interest them. So do we have to add a nationality problems to all of that?" he asked. "No one can tell people who lived in Katzir for 12 years that every citizen of Israel can live anywhere in the country. If such a regulation will be passed in Israel, it will be the end of the kibbutzim in the Land of Israel. Their regulations, which prohibit them to have Non-Jewish members, will be then dead.”

– Are you hiding behind the regulations?

"The difference between a person who goes to live in a city and purchases an apartment from a contractor and a person who goes to live in a community settlement, moreover in an area which the state favors, is that the latter has the right to decide who will be his neighbor and with whom his children will go to school.”

– But the Jabareen case never came before the Katzir acceptance committee. From where do you take the certainty that they would have rejected him?

"It is obvious to me that Jabareen would have been considered to be a controversial figure. It would have torn apart the community of hundreds of people and I don’t dare guess how it would have ended…”

At that stage Tsippi Miller once again volunteered her views: "It is not over with one family," she explained. "If he had been accepted, and he is a lawyer and a nice man, why should I not accept his neighbor who is a bricklayer? We came here to Judaize the area. Once the Arabs threw stones here but today that is over. But why do I need the Arabs inside my bones? After him all of his Arab friends will follow."

According to Motti Bloch, only members of the Jewish Agency Executive and members of the Settling Committee are allowed to study the Jewish Agency regulations. As compensation, he agreed to read an article out of writ of obligation signed by everyone accepted by Katzir, according to which all of the residents must take part in the settlement’s security roster. "And now", he said victoriously, "analyze it yourselves. Jabareen wilt never be a guard since I will never give him a weapon. Remember, some years ago bombs were placed here.”

– And do you suspect that Jabareen would permit anyone to lay a bomb in the place where his wife and children are sleeping?

"I do not want to go into the security problem. For five years it has been quiet. Arabs buy apartments in Beit Eliezer, it is cheaper there. Let them buy there. What you are hearing from me are the feelings of the Jewish residents of the settlements, who ceaselessly call my office. " Yotam, aged seven and a half, supports the council secretary. "I don’t want Arabs to come here". – Why? "I don’t know". – Have you ever met Arab children? "No". – So how do you know that you won’t want to play with them? "Because it isn’t fun". "It does not bother me personally", said Inbar Weitzman, who has lived in Katzir for two years, "but from knowing the population here I am certain that the majority are totally against any Arab family living here". Indeed, her neighbor, Mali Gozlan, five years in Katzir, does oppose it and she even has inside information about the Jabareen case. His moves, she said, are carefully planned and his only intention is to overrun the place with his village brothers and make the lives of the Jewish residents unbearable, until they are forced to leave the place. "Besides, why doesn’t he invite me to live in Umm al-Fahm?" she asks, insulted. "With the Arabs it always starts with one", agreed Mali Galimidi, "and then the others come. The Arab construction workers who built our houses want to live here. They are impressed by the view and the tranquility. I get along fine with them so long as they know their place. Actually they are nicer then the usual Arabs. I have nothing against Arabs", she explained logically, "but I am against the principle of Arabs living in a Jewish place. I do not want them coming here to live". But 15 year-old Oren disagreed. ”That is pure racism," he said. "I have no problem with Arab neighbors. You cannot prevent Arabs from purchasing homes here. It is their right as citizens." His father, Gyora Zohar, born in Kibbutz Barkay and now a resident of Katzir, says: "Motti Bloch came here just because he wanted to sit on top of the Arabs in the valley. But he does not represent me and he is not the spokesman of the residents. If the Arab candidates are prepared to follow the rules of the place then let them come and live here and be welcome. And in fact I would give them weapons. Let them stand guard like everyone else.”

In the evening, the Jabareens accepted the invitation of Gyora and Yifat Zohar and came to their home for a short courtesy visit. Gyora argued that although he welcomed the steps that Jabareen was taking, they are somewhat premature. It is not yet the time for change, he thinks. Yifat also believes that the timing is problematic: "It is impossible to ignore the changes which the Intifada caused here," she said. "Seven years ago it was easier. Today, with the Arabs here identifying with their brothers on the other side, Katzir is in a hostile environment." "But even seven years ago they would not have accepted us," Hilana remarked with a quiet smile, and Yifat was forced to agree.

Jabareen, who considers the whole issue of timing to be one more excuse aimed at clarifying why he should give up the plan to settle in Katzir, looks angry but tries to retain his good manners. When Yifat remarked that, "besides, you Arabs all tend to build illegally and do not accept that", he erupted: "You too want Arabs to live in ghettoes". She then defended herself, saying no, she only wanted to Judaize the area a bit but not completely, and she wanted never to be told "You are stuck here like a thorn in my side" as an Arab from Barta’a once told her. Gyora tried to calm things down. More and more frequently he inserted Arabic words in his speech. He said he had many Arab friends, which was nothing compared to the fact that once his wife even worked for an Arab employer, although her mother almost died of fear, and he does everything that a good Jew does when he is making an effort to prove how clean he is of any shred of racism. Jabareen wrinkled his brow in dissatisfaction, but finally he responded to the gesture of reconciliation.

The meeting, the first ever of its kind in Katzir, of twenty minutes of freestyle integration between Jews and Arabs, ended successfully. When they parted, Jabareens and Zohars exchanged telephone numbers and promised to keep in touch. Zohars told Jabareens: "Don’t give up", and the latter promised to petition the Supreme Court of Justice. "And when that happens", said Motti Bloch, "it will no longer be the problem of Katzir. If Jabareen submits a petition and wins, Herzl will have to resign. It is Herzl who has to confront that problem, not just me." Eldad Adar, Jewish Agency spokesman, claimed that the affair is being examined by the legal advisor and that he had no recollection of any precedents of that sort.