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Netanyahu's Words on Arab Israeli Citizens Have Been Mischaracterized
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll - No two languages are the same, and words have different connotations. In Hebrew, the word am means "nation." The words HaAm HaYehudi are commonly translated as the Jewish Nation or the Jewish People, but "people" in this regard means a nation - not many persons. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that the State of Israel belongs to HaAm HaYehudi, he means that Israel is the home of the Jewish Nation - the Jewish national home - not that it is a home only for Jews. Netanyahu's words were: "Israel is not a state of all its citizens....Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish Nation - and his alone." (There is no gender-neutral form in Hebrew.) In many outlets his words were mischaracterized. The Independent wrote: "Netanyahu says Israel 'belongs to Jewish people alone' in attack on nation's Arab population." The Palestine Chronicle claimed he said: "Israel Is the Nation-State of Jews Alone." Netanyahu's next sentence spoke of Israel's Arab citizens: "They are equal in rights like all of us." He made clear the distinction between Arabs as individuals and Arabs as a nation, just as Israel's laws do. Individuals have all the rights of any Israeli citizen to health care, education, self-fulfillment, and more. But the national aspirations of Arabs, as a nation, must be found among one of the 22 Arab nations. One must be careful to use the Israeli prime minister's actual words and their contextual meaning.