Columnist accuses Israel of spreading crime to destroy Arab-Israeli society
Excerpt of a column by Bassem Barhoum, regular columnist for the official PA daily
Headline: “The spread of crime among the Palestinians within the Green Line”
“No one disagrees that the Israeli government with all its ministries, and particularly the Ministry of Public Security (sic., Ministry of National Security), are responsible for the phenomenon of the spread of violence and crimes of murder in the Palestinian society within the Green Line (i.e., Palestinian term for Israel; the Green Line is the ceasefire line between Israel and the neighboring Arab countries, 1949-1967). Likewise, no one disagrees that this government has no true intention of putting an end to this severe phenomenon. On the contrary, the majority feels that there are Israeli circles that are conspiring and working in secret and under the table to fan the spread of violence and crimes of murder in the Palestinian Arab society, out of a clear goal – to preoccupy this society with its internal problems and leave it as a marginal and dismantled society, which is being ripped apart by conflicts of various kinds…
The Israeli government, which views the Palestinians within the Green Line as ‘an enemy at home,’ or in the best case ‘a fifth column,’ is not interested under any circumstances in dealing with this phenomenon. On the contrary, it is encouraging it as preparation for an additional dirty round of ethnic cleansing. Israel, basically, did not want them to exist, and they remained as a bone in the throat of the Hebrew state. Today they constitute a fifth of the residents, and they express the Palestinian identity. Since this is the situation, we must not wait for a solution from the enemy, and it may be that a great responsibility is laid on the leaders of the Palestinian society within the Green Line…
Before it is too late, and before it will no longer help to have regrets, the leaders of the Arab society must take action on two fronts: the first, to examine and appraise the true causes behind this phenomenon, and to draw conclusions on how to deal with it and with what means; the second, to work to establish lobbies together with the enlightened Jewish side, and foremost among it the Meretz political party and other Jewish leftists.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 7, 2023]
Green Line - 1949-1967 ceasefire line between Israel and the neighboring Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) following Israel's War of Independence (1948-1949). Land within the Green Line is all part of the State of Israel since 1949. Land outside the Green Line includes East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights.