TEL AVIV Ñ Israeli Arabs are increasingly regarded as a security
risk in the Jewish state.
Israeli officials as well as analysts said they see Arab leaders,
particularly the clergy, as increasingly identifying with the goals of the
Palestinian insurgency. They said while the majority of nation's 1 million
Arab citizens remain law-abiding, an increasing number of young people
serves as supporters and agents for Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilian
targets.
The change in attitude among Israeli Arabs, officials said, stems from
two trends over the last decade. They said Islamic fundamentalist movements
linked to Hamas and the Egyptian-origin Muslim Brotherhood have dominated
Sunni communities throughout Israel. Sunnis form about 85 percent of
Israel's Arab population.
Muslim leaders have been granted access to large numbers of
young Arabs. Last week, an Islamic fundamentalist cleric Kamal Khatib,
called on 40,000 high school students to ensure that Muslims gain exclusive
control over Jerusalem's Temple Mount, which contains the Al Aqsa mosque, a
holy site for Jews and and Muslims.
"We are in a new era and we are only afraid of Allah," Khatib said.
"Whoever tries to destroy Al Aqsa will be destroyed."
Arab analysts played down such statements, saying that leaders use
inflammatory rhetoric to win favor with Arab youngsters.
"They do this to flatter the public," Salim Jubran, an Arab author and
analyst, said.
The second trend, officials said, comprises the influx of a large number
of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They said nearly 100,000
Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip have moved to Israel over the
last decade, many of them deemed illegal residents. They said the
Palestinians have become a powerful influence on life within Israeli Arab
communities.
"In the last few years, there has been a worsening of relations between
Arabs and the state of Israel," Assad Ghanem, a leading Israeli Arab
analyst, said. "I don't see any treatment by the state. The situation will
continue to get worse."
Officials report an increasing number of arrests of Israeli Arabs linked
to Palestinian suicide attacks. They said authorities are arresting
suspected Arab insurgents at a rate that is far greater than over the last
two years.
On Monday, Israeli authorities announced the arrest of seven Arab
citizens on charges that they helped and planned a
Hamas suicide attack. Israeli officials said the Arab detainees, members of
a prominent family, helped a Hamas suicide bombing of an Israeli passenger
bus in the north early this month in which nine people were killed. They
said that unlike previous incidents the Arab suspects in the Galilee helped
plan the
suicide bombing on Aug. 4.
"They caused damage to Israeli Arabs," Asst. Commander Yehuda Solomon, a
regional police official, said.
One of the Arab detainees was said to have concealed the suicide bomber
and provided batteries for the detonators. The detainees were also charged
with finding a target for the suicide attack and transporting the Hamas
agent to the passenger bus.
Last week, Israeli authorities captured a group of Arab residents of
Jerusalem charged with carrying out a series of attacks on Israeli civilian
targets. They included the bombing of Hebrew University earlier this month.
Reuven Paz, a leading Israeli expert on Muslim movements, said about 30
Arabs a year have been arrested for links to Palestinian attacks. He said
Hamas has succeeded in extending its influence throughout the region.
"There's no question that Hamas has managed to Islamize the majority of
the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," he said.
Officials said the government has debated a series of measures to stop
growing Arab support for the Palestinian insurgency. They said one proposal
that appears to have been rejected was to ban the Islamic movement.
Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon warned that Israel's failure to end
the Palestinian war would encourage insurgents from among Arab citizens.
"It is imperative that we win this conflict in such a way that the
Palestinian side will burn into its consciousness that there is no chance of
achieving goals by means of terror," Yaalon said. "The Palestinian threat
harbors cancer-like attributes that have to be severed and fought to the
bitter end."
