The first female Knesset Member of an Arab party, Hanin Zouabi (Balad), is scheduled to begin her term next week when the 18th Knesset is sworn in. A member of one of the oldest Arab clans in Israel, she claims that Jews have no national right to be here – though Jews have been here many centuries longer than her ancestors.

Historian Dr. Rivka Shpak-Lissak of Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University has taken on the challenge of presenting and countering Zouabi’s positions on the question of Jews and Arabs in the Land of Israel. Her article appears on the Hebrew-language Omedia site.

Born in the Land of Israel, Shpak-Lissak, has been quoted on these pages before, in a summary of her ambitious project detailing the Jewish history of towns in the Land of Israel that are now known as Arab.

Zouabi: Jews May Remain Here - But Not the Jewish Nation

MK-elect Zouabi is a protégé of former MK Azmi Bishara, who escaped from Israel two years ago to avoid charges of espionage and providing aid to Hizbullah that had been raised against him. She has even visited Bishara in Jordan. Like Bishara, Zouabi feels that the Jewish State must be liquidated in its current format, and be reconstituted as a “state of all its citizens.” She is of the opinion that Jews may remain here – not because they have any national claims or rights to the Land of Israel, but merely as individuals who happen to be here.

“She is willing to accept the Israeli Jews on condition that they detach themselves from the Jewish Nation,” Dr. Lissak writes. “But, she has a different standard for Arabs. Arab-Israelis are Palestinians, she feels, and an integral part of the Palestinian nation and the greater Arab people. The Palestinians have a right to keep their links with their nation, Zouabi says, but Israeli Jews do not have the same right. This is essentially racism against the Jewish People.”

Lissak notes with irony that Zouabi herself has claims in this land that go back no more than 500 years, and, according to one scholar, only 126 years.

Two schools of thought exist as to the origins of the Zouabi clan. One, based on family tradition, says that they arrived from Iraq 500 years ago, around the beginning of the Ottoman period. Another opinion, that of historian and Land of Israel expert Prof. Ze’ev Vilnai (father of Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai), as well as other sources, is that the Zouabi clan originated in the Irbid region in Jordan, and was invited to cross the Jordan River into present-day Israel in 1873. The invitation was proffered by the Ottoman-Turkish regime, and the Zouabis, granted prestigious benefits, moved to the Givat HaMoreh area near present-day Afula.

Today, the Zouabi clan is among the wealthiest Arab clans in Israel. They live in several villages, such as Nin (the Talmudic-era Jewish town of Naim), Sulam (the Jewish Shunem), and Dehi – all in the vicinity of Afula, as well as several others in the Galilee and Sharon areas.

An uncle of the MK-to-be served as a Supreme Court justice, and another one was Mayor of Nazareth and Deputy Health Minister on behalf of the Labor Party. Another Zouabi clan member, Sayef A-Din Zouabi, was a left-wing Knesset Member in several Knessets on behalf of the Alignment (precursor of Labor) and Arab parties.

Newcomer Claims Rights

Hanin Zouabi, whose ancestors have been in Israel only between 126 and 500 years, “claims more rights to this Land than do the Jews who lived in the Galilee continuously since the 1st Century BCE,” Dr. Lissak writes. “Jews lived in Pekiin up until the 17th century, in other towns until the 18th century, and in the currently-Arab town of Shfar’am – up until 1920. In Hevron, Jerusalem, Tzfat, and Tiberias as well, there was a continuous Jewish presence. “

“The long historical ties between the Nation of Israel and the Land of Israel are evidenced in the archaeological findings, from the Hebrew place names of most towns – including the Arab towns, which preserved the Hebrew names in Arabic form – and from history books. The Zouabis are not the original residents of this land, but rather immigrants who have lived here at most a few hundred years. What right do they have to negate the rights of Jews, whose fathers and forefathers lived here for thousands of years, to a State of their own in their historic homeland?”