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al-Nakba
Haneen Zoabi, the only
Palestinian woman in
Israel's parliament visits Sydney
The amazing Israeli politician who is Palestinian by birth, identity and history, Haneen Zoabi was the headline speaker at the Nakba Day commemoration in the NSW Parliament on 15th May 2009. Organised by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine, this event was a great success.
The Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine hosted Haneen Zoabi’s tour to Australia in May, where she visited both Sydney and Melbourne.
Her tour began in Sydney with a formal function at the NSW State Parliament hosted by Labor’s Linda Voltz MLC for the (State) Parliamentary Friends of Palestine. More than 80 people attended the event where Haneen gave a passionate outline of what it was like to be a Palestinian living inside Israel’s borders.
She began by saying how pleased she was to be standing next to the Palestinian flag in the Parliament and how this would be impossible in Israel where only Jewish symbols were allowed.
She said she would divide her talk into two parts: first how Israel discriminates against Palestinians within its borders because its laws are framed by Zionism; and second, what the changing Palestinian response has been to that reality.
Haneen proceeded to list all the ways in which non-Jews inside Israel were treated as second class citizens. They included:
- education, in schools where the taught history reflected a Zionist version of Palestinian history and the fact that no Arab universities had been allowed forcing Palestinian students to attend Jewish universities and speak Hebrew to get a degree.
- social services, in which Palestinians received less than one third of the national budget they should receive, despite being as 20pc% of the Israeli population.
- cultural symbols, where the Israeli flag, national anthem and colours reflected only Zionist rather thean multicultural realities.
- immigration laws in which Jews from around the world could come with open arms to Israel but Palestinians, whose homeland it was, could not.
- marriage laws, in which Israeli Palestinians who married Palestinians from the West bank next door had to leave the state
Haneen asked rhetorically: “So what has been the Palestinian response to this disaster since 1948?” She outlined three periods with different responses:
The first, prior to 1967 when the military invasion of the West Bank and Gaza Strip occurred, was to simply survive from the ravages of the ethnic cleansing of 1948 and ensure the continuity of Palestinian society. The second was to begin to struggle against the Zionist system with its racist laws, its occupation and its broken promises at Oslo.
The third, in the 1990s and 2000s, was to challenge the whole notion of Zionism as a political ideology.
Haneen challenged Australians and supporters of Palestinians to stand against Zionism as a racist and exclusionary idea that involved treating some of its citizens in unequal and discriminatory ways. She said the best way to do this was by boycott, divestment and sanctions.
Haneen spoke at several functions in Sydney and gained wide media coverage.
In Melbourne, she arrived to find “the Age” newspaper had done a full one-page spread profile of her by the Fairfax correspondent in Jerusalem, Jason Koutsoukis. The “Sydney Morning herald” apparently decided to ignore this major feature item for Sydney readers. The article was highly sympathetic to her. She repeated her NSW Parliament lecture to a packed audience at Melbourne University and spoke at two other university events in Melbourne.
Haneen Shoabi said she was impressed with the pro-Palestine movement in Australia and hoped to keep in touch in the future. We wish her well in the Knesset!
More about Haneen
Ms Haneen Zoabi sits in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, as a strong advocate for the Palestinians who are citizens of Israel and, in particular, for Palestinian women. Her election in February this year followed an attempt by the Knesset Central Elections Committee to disqualify her party because of its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The ban was later overturned by the Supreme Court.
Her election saw her become the first Arab female elected to represent an Arab party in the Knesset. She would like to see Israel become a democracy for all its citizens, irrespective of national or ethnic identity. Ms Zoabi describes the multi-faceted discrimination she says the Palestinian citizens of Israel face how they do not receive the same treatment or benefits as Jewish citizens.
"It is frustrating and exhausting having always to be on the defensive about why I identify as a Palestinian, why I am not a Zionist, why the Jewish state is not democratic and cannot represent me, why I am entitled to citizenship." she says.
Ms Zoabi was born in Nazareth and is one of the 1.2 million Palestinian citizens of Israel (one fifth of Israel's population). Prior to becoming a Member of the Knesset, she founded and headed the I'LAM Media Centre for Arab Palestinians in Israel, an organisation aimed at exposing Israeli media bias. Now, her priority as a Member of Knesset, is to advance the cause of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Ms Zoabi was elected in February 2009 as a member of the al-Tajamu' al-Watani al-Dimuqrati (National Democratic Assembly), which is known for its Palestinian nationalist platform and advocating for Israel to reform from a Jewish State into a state for all its citizens.
Dinner & Forum with Ms Haneen Zoabi M.K.
6 for 6.30pm, Sunday 17 May 2009 - booking essential
Summerland Restaurant, 457 Chapel Rd (north), Bankstown
Public Meeting with Ms Haneen Zoabi M.K.
6.30pm Monday 18 May,
NSW Teachers Federation Auditorium, 23-33 Mary St Surry Hills
(entrance on Reservoir St), Surry Hills. (5 mins from Central)
More information:
www.coalitionforpalestine.org
events@coalitionforpalestine.org
Coalition for Justice & Peace in Palestine
PO Box 399
Dulwich Hill NSW 2203
cjpp@coalitionforpalestine.org