The New York Times · 29 January 1971

CP-1971-013

Arabs in Israel: Minority Torn Between 2 Worlds

By Peter Grose

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Transcribed from the clipping

ABU GHOSH, Israel, Jan. 28 — “As Israeli Arabs, our problem is that other Arabs dismiss us as Israelis and other Israelis suspect us as Arabs.” Speaking in a soft and cultured voice, Dr. Subhi Abu Ghosh, a 42-year-old social scientist thus summed up the identity crisis of 330,000 Arabs who chose, or whose parents chose, to live under the flag of Israel.

These are the more modest families of Palestine who decided in 1948 to remain in their cities, towns, villages and farms within the newly proclaimed country, rather than flee, like the intelligentsia and politically conscious, to become refugees in neighboring Arab countries.

Now an inarticulate minority in an allen society, their plight has political, economic and social aspects. There are no powerful champions of the Israeli Arabs, neither within their own ranks nor in foreign capitals, near or far. No one takes up their cause; they have produced no rebels. The rest of Israel is bustling and building.

The Arab villages remain dusty or muddy, depending on the season, sleepy and crumbling as they have been

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