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Palestinians look for their belongings in the rubble of houses destroyed in an Israeli strike, Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, August 2, 2014 Photo by AP
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It is a local version of ethnocide, which erases language, names, symbols and narratives of the abundant minority that lives among us. This is how the tapestry of its life is unraveled and broken apart

By Yossi Sarid for Haaretz
Oct. 3, 2014 |

Even my family makes fun of my name, which many years ago was uprooted from “These are the names” of the Book of Exodus. How nice it was to know that my name, the name “Yosef” had suddenly been rejuvenated. The Population Authority published the list for the Jewish year 5774 and raised it out of the pit: Yosef (Joseph) was the most common name.

But my joy did not last for long. The Population Authority lied to me, as is acceptable today for authorities. It is forbidden to believe any official announcement. Not the serious Yosef or the childish Yossi, but Mohammed was Number One: The Mohammedans are upon you, O Israel, filling the land and inheriting Daniel and Uri, Itay and Omer, Adam, Noam and Ariel. And why spoil the country’s mood at the beginning of the new year?

The fate of Ahmed and Mahmoud and Mahmid was no better, they were also excised from their high positions on the list, and buried with “Mohammad is dead” in a Muslim mass grave. This is the price tag from the authorities for their wicked deeds: Arabischen Raus!

In recent months a bitter debate has been conducted here between the alarmists and the calmers; between the common folk like us and a few astromancers from the ivory tower, who do not see any signs of worry in the analyses and stars. True, the occupation does have a bad influence here and there, but our democracy is strong as a cliff and functions properly: Arab citizens choose their representatives to the Knesset and write articles for Haaretz. You are crying wolf, they reproach us, and do not slander the nation – as if fascism has already passed on. And we examine ourselves, in case the chemical balance in our brains is what is causing us to see the darkness.

And now a group of Knesset members from Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu and Habayit Hayehudi are pushing a law that states that Hebrew is the only official language; one language and one speech and only the same things for one people. And in different Hebrew words: They are shutting up the second language, and canceling the government’s obligation to publish regulations, advertisements and forms in Arabic.

“This proposed law will contribute to social cohesion, the collective identity, crystallizing mutual faith and preserving democratic values,” the sponsors propose in Orwellian language. It will make it easier for us to silence you, Mohammed, and leave in the public space only one voice.

The Education Ministry follows the lead of this gang of lawmakers, contributes its part to casting aside and denying the “other.” Whoever does not plan on serving in Military Intelligence Unit 8200 can do without the study of Arabic, which they are reducing gradually. The program for meetings between Jewish and Arab youths is slowly dying, since it is more important for now to bring together the religious and nonreligious, between settlers and Israelis. And what does the education minister care if the bilingual schools are forced to deal with his forked tongue. We have not been meeting lately Mohammed, a sign that you do not exist.

There is no official government body that allows itself to fall behind, and not jump on the wagon that is sliding down this exclusionary slope; just so Mohammed and Ahmed come back and are chosen as the democracy goy. The Interior Ministry, headed by the enlightened minister of darkness, recently recognized the Aramean nationality, and the Jebusites and Amorites, Girgashites and Hittites will also soon be awarded this contentious, separatist and hegemonic recognition. This is the same ministry that not long ago purified the defilement of the “acceptance committees,” and the humble High Court of Justice gave it the stamp of kashrut. We are here and they are there – not just in the ghettos of Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli Arabs will be fenced in within their settlements too. And all they wanted was to be Israelis.

No, this is certainly not genocide – and the accusers deserve scorn. It is a local version of ethnocide, which erases language, names, symbols and narratives of the abundant minority that lives among us. This is how the tapestry of its life is unraveled and broken apart. It has no identity of its own and no past, and that is how we will save it from having a future too. Even three poems of a Mahmoud in the school curriculum is a mortal danger for tender souls.

In genocide you kill the bodies of a people, while in ethnocide you only kill its culture; so why exaggerate and slander? This is nothing but the finger of God and Allah, which has given us a sign tomorrow in the form of two holidays on the same day.

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