@Falcon29
I am curious about the Palestinains (descendants of people who mostly managed to stay in their original villages, towns and cities during the Nabka) that are Israeli citizens. What are they doing currently and what can they do in the future to help change the status quo? You almost don't hear about this topic anywhere. It is like they are not represented in the media despite making up almost 20% of the population. That is a significant minority. I know that there is an Arab party in Israel (United Arab List) but they only have 5 seats in the Knesset out of 120. Are there other such parties or are they divided?
I found this party as well. 1 seat in the Knesset.
en.wikipedia.org
I also just read about this.
en.wikipedia.org
In 2015 they were apparently the third largest faction in the Knesset.
Later they broke up.
I will be honest. To me it is hard to understand why there is not 1 Palestinian voice in this regard (political - individuals will always have various different opinions - it is natural) both across Gaza/West Bank and within Israel.
There are some articles covering the state of Arabs in 1948 borders. They're a minority under threat of Jewish fundementalism:
وسّعت السلطات الإسرائيلية دائرة التضييقات على الفلسطينيين في أراضي 48، وقمعت حرية التعبير بكافة أشكالها، سواء في المظاهرات الاحتجاجية المناهضة للحرب أو وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي.
www.arab48.com
كانت لـ”طوفان الأقصى” آثارها الارتدادية الواسعة على فلسطينيي الداخل، انعكس بسياسات قمعية إسرائيلية منعت أي تضامن مع غزة أو إبداء الرأي بالحرب، ومن أقدم على ذلك تمت مواجهته بالاعتقال والتهديد والقمع.
www.aljazeera.net
Would be harder for Israel to create divisions, buy off people etc.
Similarly in the US. The Palestinian community in the US and the wider Arab community should follow the Jewish examples in this regard when it comes to political organization. Beat them at their own game eventually by numbers, hard work, unity, accomplishments etc.
Unfortunately it seems to me as the same as the current sad reflections of actual politics on the ground in the Arab world and lack of unity and cooperation overall which is the root of most of our challenges and troubles if you ask me.
Palestinain community in the US has a ego problem. And inability to recognize the seriousness of the situation, as well as inability to comprehend why they need to form effective political organizations.
With ego problem, the certain cliques want to be center of attention and decision makers (money involved ?), if they don't like you on a personal level they won't allow you to influence the community. And they'll be jealous of you if you make more sense than they do.
Another aspect is some people are afraid FBI will come knocking on their doors. I don't know why. It's a irrational fear. Worst case scenario you have a conversation with them. But these days their approach is much different. They're operating in the background and focusing on actual threats. It's Jewish organizations that will try to take what you said and construe it as a antisemitic statement to your employers to get you fired.
Thats why there need to be organizations where Palestinians and others are self employed and not working at your average unrelated corporation.
I did notice there were some good organized efforts to follow Jewish examples. Like with Stop Zionist Hate. It was successful and I don't know who it's run by. But many pro-Israel extremists had to deal with the dilemma they created that they didn't think would come back to hurt them.
I also did find a US based Palestinain-American council that is probably not widely known to Palestinian Americans. They seem to try to get pro-Palestinian officials elected at local, state, and federal levels. Here is their mission statement:
..
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US Palestinian Council (USPC) is a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization that aims to represent, educate and advocate on issues of concern to Palestinian Americans, strengthen ties between the US and Palestine, and push forward a vision based on liberty, justice, and human rights for all.
Our Mission
uspalestiniancouncil.org
