AD Gordon, writing in the early 1900s, already understood that the link between physical labour and ideology would play a key role in Israel's destiny. Given the recent bulldozer attack in Jerusalem, the second in a month, the interplay between the two has become even more important.
First of all, the fact that most construction workers are Arabs reflects a truth about Israeli society many of us are not comfortable with: While officially Israeli Arabs have full rights, much discrimination exists. Arabs, whether Israeli or Palestinian, tend to be at the lower end of the socio-economic scale and have blue collar jobs. (For some context: Israeli Arabs are more proportionally represented both in the Knesset and in Israeli universities than African-Americans and Latinos/as are represented in both Congress and American universities.)
Given that fact however, the question becomes: How can Israel prevent future construction attacks from happening, while not depriving the innocent Arab construction workers of their livelihood?
Some would argue this question is irrelevant. The Arabs brought it upon themselves. If they are so against terror, let them protest the terrorist attacks. Let them take to the streets of E. Jerusalem. There are plenty of unemployed Jews who could use the jobs that would be created by the vacancies left when the Arabs are fired. Point taken, but, given aside my moral discomfort with stereotyping, I believe that such insensitivity would be harmful to Israel.
First of all, let's think of one of the basic definitions of a Jewish state: A state that encapsulates Jewish values. Judaism has many values, and here two of its major values contradict each other: The importance of human life (after all, from a security point of view, not hiring Arabs is a fool-proof way of preventing bull-dozer attacks) verse the importance of not oppressing the stranger, loving ones fellow human as oneself, and recognizing the tzelem Elokim - the godliness inherent in each individual, regardless of religion, race or nationality. If the terrorists force us to violate Jewish values in the struggle for self-preservation, then they have won not only a moral victory, but also an anti-Zionist victory: They have forced us to act directly against the Zionist vision.
Second of all, while unofficial discrimination of all sorts exists in most human society, once there is an officially discriminatory policy, whether in hiring Arabs for construction, or in any other sector, then what was formerly a dangerous societal trend now becomes official government apartheid, making a country liable for sanctions and all sorts of international punishment - punishment that Israel is barely avoiding as it is.
Thirdly, and most importantly, it is in Israel's best interest to have an Israeli Arab population that loves Israel. This is because Israeli Arabs have power at the polls, they move around relatively freely in Israel and could be of great use in planning terror attacks and transporting weapons, and also, the less people in Israel with access to weapons who hate Israel, the better. Basically, to quote Lincoln: "A house divided among itself can not stand." Enacting discriminatory hiring practices will anger the Israeli Arab population and further the rift between them and the Israeli Jewish population.
How does Israel stop this rift? Here are a few suggestions:
1. Better and more equitable spending on social services for areas with heavy Arab populations, like E. Jerusalem.
2. Bettering the Israeli Arab schools, while providing Zionist education aimed at making Arabs that they too, have an important role to play and are wanted in the Jewish state.
3. Job initiatives for young unemployed Arab men - young unemployed men is the demographic group most prone to violence.
4. Dialogue between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews. Partnering of Arab and Jewish schools to engage in bi-weekly or monthly inter-student dialogue about the future of the state.
People often focus on the security threats to Israel from without - Iran, Hezbollah, etc. But it is time to start focusing on the threat from within - the bulldozer attack should serve as a wake-up call, that we have Arabs in this country, and failing to learn how to make them part of of our society could prove fatal. If we treat Israeli Arabs like the other, then they will act like the other.
That being said, there is no justification for terror attacks. Other groups, such as African-Americans in the US, when confronted with unfair treatment, have risen in non-violent protest and succeeded. India rose up against the militarily supreme British in a non-violent manner, thanks to Ghandi. The Palestinian liberation movement seems to have skipped that step, and gone from nothing to terrorism. Personal problems are also not excuses for terrorism. Many people have terrible lives, but don't resort to killing others. Terrorism is never justified. To quote Ghandi, "The bomb-throwers have discredited the cause of freedom, in whose name they threw the bombs."
A final note on the Jews-need-jobs argument for not hiring Arabs: The way to give Jews jobs is to strengthen the economy and start addressing the fact that the income disparity in Israel has been widening. Poverty is not fought by taking jobs away from one group of people and giving them to the other. Poverty is fought by creating a better economy that has jobs for everyone. One of the main things that Israel must do is better its elementary and high-school systems, and help retrain adults in blue-collar sectors so that they can seek new jobs and new career paths. In these retraining programs, bread-winners of families must be given priority.
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