15/12/2015 Haifa.The conference was organized by Haaretz news paper and the New Israel Fund. Mr. Farah was asked to speak at the conference because of his years of experience as a leader in the Arab community and his unique perspective on the current situation in the country and region. During Mr. Farah’s short lecture on how to build a shared future in Israel he spoke about the need for a change in discourse in the country. Currently there is a discourse of separation and incitement. Mr. Farah spoke on the important role of the Arab community in changing this discourse to one of solidarity, peace building and social justice for all citizens in Israel.
The first panel where Mr. Farah spoke was entitled, “What’s Left: Is There a Future for the Progressive Movement in Israel?” The Panel was moderated by Ravit Hecht, Haaretz and the other panelists included; MK Merav Michaeli, Zionist Union, MK Tamar Zandberg, Meretz, Hillel Ben Sasson, Molad and Noam Shuster, Interpeace initiative. Mr. Farah spoke on the importance of building a new strategy for the success of Jewish progressive forces. He pointed out that in the last elections the only major success was with the Arab Joint List. He also stressed the immediate need to deal with and heal the rift which has grown between the Jewish progressive forces and the Arab community. All the panelists agreed that progressives have continuously failed to reach out to and include marginalized groups from the Jewish population such as the Russian and Mizrahi communities and that these groups are crucial to success. Mr. Farah also criticized the Jewish progressive groups on their discourse of the demographic threat from Arab citizens. “Even this conference has an ad in the booklet counting Arabs in Israel” he said. Pointing to an ad in the conference program showing the growing population of Arab citizens and their projected numbers in 2020.
The second panel was entitled “Droves of Arab Voters”: Is The Struggle of Israel’s Arab Citizens for Equality the New Focal Point of the Conflict? This panel was also moderated by Ravit Hecht, Haaretz and panelists included; Sayed Kashua, Haaretz columnist, Emilie Moatti, Communication Consult, Amal Elsana Alh’jooj, NIF Board Member and AJEEC-NISPED’s Director of North American Relations. Here Mr. Farah was asked about his refusal to fly on ELAL airlines. He responded by admonishing the airline for its discriminatory policy of racial profiling against Arabs. He said he refuses to financially support such a racist company and he calls on Israeli and Jewish progressive organizations to hold true to their values and do the same. Mr. Farah also spoke on the need for increased political participation in the Arab community especially youth. He pointed to the 10,000 Arab citizens who study out side of Israel, many of which were successfully bussed home in the last elections to vote. This action led to the strange and racist statement from the Prime Minister who saw the increase in voting from the Arab community as a threat instead of a right.
The overall reception of Mr. Farah’s words during the conference was very positive. Many of his points were tweeted and retweeted by audience members and those following the talks from afar. Mr. Jafar Farah will continue his stay in New York until December 18th.
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