Движение «Абнаа аль-Балад»: секулярный арабский национализм в Израиле.

Secular Arab nationalist movement

Abnaa el Balad (ابناء البلد, Sons of the Land or Sons and Daughters of the Country or People of the Homeland Movement) is a secular Arab nationalist movement made up of Palestinians, most of whom are Arab citizens of Israel. The stated goals of the movement are: the return of all Palestinian refugees, an end to Israeli's occupation of territories and the establishment of a democratic, secular Palestinian state. Abnaa el Balad membership is open to and includes Jewish citizens of Israel who identify as Palestinian Jews. Since its inception, Abnaa el Balad has boycotted involvement in the Israeli Knesset, though it does participate in the elections for municipal councils in Arab localities.

The movement grew out of student organizing among Palestinians in Israel in the late 1960s and early 1970s. One of the co founders, Mohammed Kiwan, was active in establishing a committee of Arab students at Tel Aviv University between 1967 and 1969. In 1969, he was placed under house arrest in Umm al Fahm, at which point he began organizing to establish Abnaa el Balad. In 1971, he returned to Tel Aviv University to complete his law degree and in December 1973, he was elected to the municipal council in Umm al Fahm, running on Abnaa el Balad's platform. The original aim of Abnaa el Balad was to counteract Israeli attempts to "divide and rule" by capitalizing on old family feuds between the various representatives in the Arab municipal councils in Israel. Abnaa el Balad emphasized the importance of transforming traditional structures and subordinating existing regional, personal and family differences to the national cause. Abnaa el Balad rejected the idea of working within Israel's parliamentary institution, the Knesset. By forming a network of local groups, they hoped to gain power and empower the community through the use of local municipal councils and popular activities. The movement's programme centered around self determination for Palestinians inside Israel, explicit support for the PLO, and the eventual establishment of a single democratic state in all of Palestine from the river to the sea. After winning the December 1973 municipal elections, Kiwan and those in the movement set up a cultural center in Umm al Fahm with a small library where people could gather to attend public meetings and discuss the Palestinian cause. Abnaa el Balad managed to recover its community support, particularly after the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987. David McDowall writes that, "The Uprising vindicated Abna al Balad's insistence on the Palestinian identity of Israel's Arabs [ ]" Headed by Azmi Bishara, the NDA ran in the 1996 Knesset elections and Bishara gained a seat, serving in Israel's parliament for 11 years, before leaving the country and resigning his post. On 18 January 1998, Abnaa el Balad left the National Democratic Alliance.

The goals of Abnaa al Balad today, as described on their website, are: "to preserve the collective national identity of the Arab Palestinians in Israel, link their struggle to that of the rest of their exiled brethren (especially the refugees right of return) and continue the struggle for the human rights and equality within the state which was imposed on them." Leftist organizations like Abnaa al Balad made abstention and the blank vote the center of their political campaigns in the 1999 elections. Although voter turnout increased by just over 30,000, the percentage turnout (70%) was down slightly (reflecting a population increase), and well below predictions of 87%. In Israel at the Polls 2003, it is noted that Arab voting participation dropped to 62% in the 2003 elections, a drop partially attributed to calls by Abnaa el Balad to boycott the elections. A May 2003 study by Mada al Carmel, a Palestinian Israeli research institute, exploring why Arab voters abstained in the 2003 Israeli elections determined that 43.4% of non voters abstained from voting for political reasons, and that this group represented some 14% of registered voters. The majority of these (some 11.2% of registered voters) were protesting the political situation and Israeli policies in the occupied territories. Abnaa el Balad called for Palestinian citizens of Israel to boycott the 2006 Knesset elections through its affiliated organization, The Popular Committee for Boycotting the Knesset Elections ( اللجنة الشعبية لمقاطعة انتخابات الكنيس).

Abnaa al Balad was the only Palestinian organization based in Israel to move from passive reservations to active opposition to the increased immigration of Jews to Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Raja Eghbaria explained the reasoning behind the group's opposition as follows:"Going back in history, Jewish immigration to Palestine has always been at the expense of the Palestinian people. It resulted in the expulsion of Palestinians from their homeland. Adding one million Jews to Israel [the Soviet immigration] forms an actual danger to the very fact of our existence. Transfer of the remaining Palestinians comes closer to realization than it had been before." The movement circulated pamphlets and petitions that expressed opposition to Russian immigration. A 3 August 1990 pamphlet, entitled "What are We Waiting For? Immigrants are Penetrating our Doors and Threatening Our Lands" called for joint action with "oppressed Jews" (that is, Mizrahim) to halt the immigration and for Arabs to participate in a demonstration in Jerusalem and the Negev on 5 August. Abnaa al Balad was one of a number of Arab civil society organizations in Israel to present at the "I Will Not Serve" national conference which discussed the reasons why Arab citizens of Israel should resist mandatory civic service.

In a study of Palestinian NGOs in Israel (2005), Shany Payes writes that the state response to the challenge posed by Palestinian activists like Abnaa el Balad has been to adopt a policy of 'active exclusion'; that is, "denying the Palestinian leadership in Israel access to the avenues of publicity or decision making." According to Payes, state authorities in Israel used "security considerations" to justify restrictions on organizing and publishing by groups considered a "security risk". Several of Abnaa el Balad's leaders have been arrested or otherwise detained. In the early 1980s, Faraj Khnayfus, a leader for Abnaa el Balad in Shafa'Amr of Druze background, spent three years in jail for refusing to serve in the IDF. During the 80s and especially at the time of the First Intifada (1987–1990), Many of the movement's members were detained, accused in different accusations most of them graffitty, raising Palestinian flags, 'rioting' (during demonstrations) and property destruction, and hundreds of members were imprisoned to periods between 3 months and 6 years. According to Amnesty International, Bar "[ ] was dragged by the legs for more than 50 meters by two police officers with his back sliding along the street, while other police officers beat him with batons. He was beaten again in a police car. He told the police that he thought his hand was broken; the police refused to give him any medical treatment."