Lecture on Policies towards Palestinians in Israel “From Containment to Hostility” Peace Studies and Conflicts Resolution Course

Ibrahim Abu Lughod Institute of International Studies hosted Dr. Emtanis Shehada, the coordinator of Political Monitoring project in Mada al-Carmel Center), on Tuesday, April 5th 2011 as part of  Peace Studies and Conflicts Resolution course.  

Dr. Emtanis talked about the changes in the Israeli policies towards Palestinians in Israel since the year 2000. He compared those changes with previous eras of the Israeli relations with Arabs there. During nineties, Israel used the “Carrot” policy intensively, aiming to contain the Palestinian minority without conceding the dependency and banishment policies. During that period, belief  about the possibility of containing the Palestinian minority through paying a reasonable price, without affecting the Israeli Judicial and democratic nature , had prevailed. In late 2006-2007 and upon the outbreak of Aqsa Intifada, the publishing of documents of Palestinian vision, expression of dissatisfaction about the current regime, and the demand of changing the judicial and democratic nature of Israeli became a consensus of the Palestinian community. , Despite of this; Israel tightened  the conditions of citizenship offered for the Arab minority, and the limitations of the political work. Not only that, many Israeli decision makers announced officially  that Arabs in Israel constitute a strategic threat.

At the end of the meeting, Amtanis explained that under the upcoming events, many Israeli decision makers had changed their beliefs,  and the issue of the Palestinian minority became in need of radical solutions, through increasing doses of direct and indirect containment, coincide with raising the use of “stick” policy, and harsh activation and implementation of dependency mechanisms. Therefore it can be claimed that 2008-2009, was decisive year in dealing with the Palestinians live in Israel.