Cheering the home team

Political rivalries took a backseat to soccer when Israeli-Arab players scored key goals against Ireland and then France in recent World Cup qualifying action. Now Abas Suan (pictured) and Walid Badir have become unlikely Israeli heroes, and the centerpieces of new media interest in Israeli-Arabs in general. Shortly after Badir’s game-tying goal, AFP wrote:

Israeli by nationality, Palestinians at heart, Israel's 1.2 million Arabs, descendants of those who remained on their land after the Jewish state was created in 1948, are treated as second class citizens.

Aside from the fact that Israeli-Arabs have full citizenship and more freedom than Arabs in the rest of the Mideast, many Israeli-Arabs just don’t identify with the Palestinians—at least not as much as AFP reporters do.

Posted at 01:59 PM

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/5874/2176922

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Cheering the home team:

Comments

Would AFP also casually state that Arab citizens of France are being treated like second class citizens?
I'm curious about this. Note that AFP stated it as fact, rather than say that "many of them feel they are second class citizens".

I do agree with AFP about "Palestinian at heart". There would be very few who don't identify with the Palestinians, although doubtless there are more than a few who don't identify with Palestinian terror.

Posted by: Alvin at Apr 4, 2005 5:25:05 PM

This is the most disgraceful article I have seen in a long time. Virtually all minorities inside any nation are prejudiced to some degree, but by law ther are equal citizens with equal rights.

Sad how they take something which could be showed in a positive ligt and use it against the israeli whipping boy.

Posted by: Steve at Apr 4, 2005 6:10:28 PM

This is more about not wanting to show them as human than not wanting to show Jews at all. they want to control the construction of Jews that will incite people to murder them, not acknowledge them as fellow human beings.

Posted by: Jane YIS at Apr 5, 2005 8:54:41 PM

Jews in Arab lands are second class citizens. Oops, excuse me, I forgot.. the Jews were thrown out of Arab countries...so they are not even citizens anymore.

Posted by: Ira Cohen at May 19, 2005 3:44:46 PM

I happen to be a French/Israeli citizen and was living in Israel between 1994 and 2001 (the time of the Oslo accords). Talking about the prospect of peace and a Palestinian state with my many arab friends, i would ask them if they would leave Israel when they have a state of their own. Their response was unanimous: in no way would they leave Israel, claiming they will never have the freedom nor opportunities they have enjoyed in Israel in any arab state!
On the other hand i have seen first hand the way arabs are treated by the french, living in ghettos and treated with contempt by french citizens. So are they not projecting their own behaviour onto Israel in order to massage their guilty conscience? and at the same time find a culprit to arab anger (as was done 60 years ago all over Europe), Israel being now the new "Jew" and being blamed for all the ills of the world.

Posted by: Josie Evenchen at May 19, 2005 7:47:16 PM

Of course no comment on how Jews have been and are treated (the small minority remaining) in Arab countries.

Posted by: irina at May 20, 2005 7:10:04 AM