No rejoicing for Israeli Arabs on Independence Day

Men walk past Israeli flags raised in preparation for Israel's Independence Day in Tel Aviv April 26, 2009. Israel marks its 61st Independence Day on April 29.

UMM EL-FAHM, Israel (Reuters) - When Israel marks its 61st anniversary this week, most of the Arab citizens who make up 20 percent of the population will not celebrate.

To many in the Arab minority, the birth of a state that describes itself as a Jewish homeland is no cause for rejoicing.

"Of course I will not celebrate (Independence Day). Why would I when I feel discriminated against? I don't feel Israeli," said Mahmoud Agbaria, 23, a student from Umm el-Fahm.

Israeli leaders have acknowledged institutionalized discrimination against Israel's 1.5 million Arab citizens. Arabs say little has been done.

"There is no doubt that the government has failed with regard to Israeli Arabs," said Mohammad Darawshe of the Abraham Fund, a group advocating co-existence between Arabs and Jews.

"As long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is unsolved, problems between Jews and Arabs in Israel will persist," said Darawshe, who takes pride in instigating mandatory spoken Arabic and Arab culture studies in 39 Jewish elementary schools.

Israeli Jews mark Israel's creation 61 years ago with official ceremonies, military aerial shows, parties and barbecues Wednesday. Streets are adorned with blue and white Israeli flags emblazoned with the Star of David.

But there will be no festivities in the town of Umm el-Fahm, where Arab residents clashed with Jewish ultranationalists who last month tried to march into the city to assert Jewish dominance.

Violence between Arabs and Jews in the mixed town of Acre last year on the Jewish day of atonement, Yom Kippur, and an Israeli offensive that killed hundreds in the Gaza Strip in January further fueled tensions.

In Umm el-Fahm, on the border with the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli flags can be seen only outside the police station and atop the Arab town's only government building.

Veiled women walk past the imposing golden dome of the Abu Ouwaida mosque on a narrow, winding road dotted with green and white flags of the Islamic Movement in Israel, whose leader, Raed Salah, was indicted last year for inciting violence.

"NO LOYALTY, NO CITIZENSHIP"

The appointment by Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman as foreign minister has raised Arab concerns.

Lieberman's far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party accuses Israeli Arab lawmakers of seeking Israel's destruction and voicing support for attacks by Palestinian militants against Israelis.

"No loyalty, no citizenship," was Yisrael Beiteinu's campaign slogan in the February parliamentary election. It emerged as the third largest party and key coalition partner in Netanyahu's right-leaning government.

Lieberman's deputy Daniel Ayalon said the party would push for laws requiring Israeli statesmen and legislators to pledge allegiance to the Jewish state as a condition for taking office.

"We are for free speech, but we cannot have a situation where public servants get paid by the state and attack the state," Ayalon said.

During the 22-day Gaza offensive, which Israel launched with the declared aim of halting cross-border rocket attacks, Israeli Arabs held protests in several towns, waving Palestinian flags in solidarity with brethren in the Hamas-controlled territory.

Israeli Arab lawmaker Ahmed Tibi said during the war that every vote for the then-ruling Kadima party was a bullet in the chest of a Palestinian child.

Israel's Central Elections Committee voted during the offensive to disqualify two Arab parties, including Tibi's Raam-Taal, from running in the election after hearing arguments that they identified with the Jewish state's enemies.

That decision was overruled by Israel's High Court.

PARTING COMPANY

Lieberman has proposed trading areas in Israel, including Umm el-Fahm, where the majority of Arab citizens live, for Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

An election poster in Arabic for the communist Hadash party encapsulated what Umm el-Fahm residents thought of Lieberman's plan: "We shall stay here, in spite of them."

Four Hadash candidates -- three Arabs and a Jew -- won seats in parliament in the February ballot.

Lieberman's proposal is also disputed by Zionist parties. Parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin of Netanyahu's rightist Likud party said during a visit to Umm el-Fahm last week that the Arab town would remain an "inseparable" part of Israel.

Israeli far-right parties suspicious of the loyalties of Arab citizens also point to the annual marches organized by Israeli Arab lawmakers to mark the 1948 Palestinian "Nakba," or catastrophe, when some 700,000 Arabs fled or were forced from their homes during the war over Israel's creation.

Lieberman's party wants to introduce a law that would grant government benefits, such as discounted education and housing assistance, to Israelis who served in the army. That would exclude Muslim and Christian Arabs, exempt from army service.

(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis; Editing by Douglas Hamilton and Samia Nakhoul)