A Letter to Hana Amoury

A Letter to Hana Amoury

Dear Hana,

We met on Thursday, December 15, 2011, at the Israeli Journalist Association. I was sitting in the second row, actually, opposite you.

I was attentively listening to your words. You were extremely confident expressing your ideas as an activist of a group of Arabs from Jaffo trying to persuade the audience of mainly Russian speakers that you, the Arab population of Israel, feel yourselves as third – rate citizens. You feel in this country even worse than we, the so-called ‘Russians’. It looks like the reason why you call yourselves ‘Palestinians’ and, anyway, think of your people as aliens in Israel.

So let me share my idea with you: certainly, each part of the Israeli society has its problems and weaknesses.  But, in case you really feel as third-rate citizens you have an alternative: you may pack your suitcases and move to Egypt or Jordan…

As to economic issues let me, finally, recall Vladimir Lenin’s words: ‘Politics is concentrated economics’. We cannot do without economics. But we cannot do without politics either.