Arab Israelis call for a 'consensual democracy'

JERUSALEM: A group of prominent Arab Israelis has called on Israel to stop defining itself as a Jewish state and become a "consensual democracy for both Arabs and Jews," prompting consternation and debate across the country.

Their contention is part of "The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel," a report published in December under the auspices of the Committee of Arab Mayors in Israel. It represents the country's 1.3 million Arab citizens, about a fifth of the population.

Some 40 well-known academics and activists took part.

They call on the state to recognize Arab citizens as an indigenous national group with collective rights, saying that Israel inherently discriminates against non-Jewish citizens in its symbols of state, some core laws and budget and land allocations.

The authors propose a form of government, "consensual democracy," akin to the Belgian model for Flemish- and French-speakers, involving proportional representation and power-sharing in a central government and autonomy for the Arab community in such areas as education, culture and religious affairs.

Many of the Future Vision participants are affiliated with elite Israeli academic institutions. For example, Asad Ghanem, one of the document's principal authors, is head of the government and political theory department at Haifa University's School of Political Science.

As such, both Jewish conservatives and liberals have been taken aback by some propositions in the document. Many are angered by its description of Israel as the outcome of a "settlement process initiated by the Zionist Jewish elite" in the West and realized by "colonial countries" after the Holocaust.

Jewish critics argue that the Future Vision negates Israel's legitimacy and raison d'être as the realization of Jewish self-determination. They also charge that it undermines the idea of a two- state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, since that implies the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish one.