"Throw your guns in their faces," the head of the Joint Arab List urged Arab members of Israel's security forces as he stood outside the Damascus Gate. One could hope that this call was made in the heat of the moment, a slip of the tongue made among the maelstrom of emotions.
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However, if break down and analyze Ayman Odeh's statement, its components reveal the desire to split the "family of the security forces" and to create division between Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens.
The outlines of this manifest of hate no longer hide behind false messages of peace but are waved openly on MK Odeh's ideological flag. This flag, even though it has in one fell swoop destroyed any remnants of hope among the Israeli public, continues to fly undisturbed in the faces of Israel's shocked citizens.
Odeh's explicit messages come on top of instructions to create fissures in the organizational structure of the security forces and to crack the collective memory that has been formed over the years.
These messages so far have received a weak response that points to the fact that the Arab leadership has yet to realize the full significance and implications of a hostile intervention in the Israeli discourse.
This failure to internalize is what has enabled Odeh's messages to break out and possibly penetrate the consciousness or sow doubt in the hearts of thousands of Muslim policemen and members of the security forces who believe "they" and "we" are on the same side. Instead of creating and educational content that will promise to destroy any attempt to create a new and inciteful status quo, the politicians are busy echoing the attempts at sedition.
Even amid security tensions, the youth in the Arab sector refuse vehemently to respond to Odeh's call and declare without fear that they have no intention of abandoning their positions – but the politicians continue to dispute among themselves whether this is sedition or just incitement, instead of declaring a day of recognition devoted to the Muslim members of the security forces and prove beyond doubt that we recognize the Muslim community's contribution to Israeli society.
Our elected officials have chosen to invest their energy in enlisting support to expel an MK employing divisive and inciteful rhetoric from the Knesset. In the rush to meet the letter of the law, the politicians are ignoring the fact that a Muslim policeman's choice to be an integral part of the Israeli security forces is not something that can be taken for granted, and we absolutely must treat is as such.
Like justice, granting Muslim Israeli members of the security forces a sense of belonging, respect, has to be seen to be believed.
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