Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Example for Middle East

Friday, July 19, 2002 | 9:07 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

DURING THE PAST 12 DAYS observers of Middle East governments got a clear view of the differences between a democratic Israel and its neighbors. There is no one Israeli or group of them who can make an executive decision that can't be successfully challenged by the people or its courts. That little nation is the only one among all of those many countries which also has a free press.

For several years the Christians of Bethlehem have been pressured not to sell their homes or property to another Christian or Jew. Any transfer of ownership of homes and land had to be to a Muslim. The results of this pressure has resulted in a rapidly declining Christian population only speeded up when the city was turned over to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. This issue has been raised and condemned in several of my columns.

Last week along comes an angry Israeli Cabinet voting to endorse a proposed law that would ban Israeli Arabs from buying homes in Jewish communities built on state lands. This may not sound harsh until you realize that 90 percent of the land is state owned or controlled.

The Cabinet's action disturbed me and I found it difficult to believe that Israel would take such measures, no matter how angry they became over the blood being drained from its veins by Palestinian terrorists. I knew that this wasn't the action of the Israel that I have learned to respect. Although still angry and upset I thought even if this becomes law Israeli courts will step in and challenge it.

The New York Times reported, "The bill was designed to counter a March 2000 Israeli Supreme court decision that there could be no discrimination between Jews and Arabs in allocating state lands.

"The court decision was handed down in a case involving an Israeli Arab, Adel Kaadan, who was turned down when he applied to buy land to build a home in the Jewish village of Katzir in Galilee. Like many rural communities in Israel, Katzir was built by the quasigovernmental Jewish Agency, and Mr. Kaadan was rejected because he was an Arab.

'The court ruled that the state could not discriminate in allocating land, even if it was acting through the Jewish Agency, part of whose mission is to establish communities for Jews in Israel.

"The bill seeks to invalidate the ruling by legislating that communities be built exclusively for Jews. An explanatory note attached to the bill asserts that the court decision undermines the Jewish Agency's mission to settle Jews in Israel -- that the court 'preferred the principle of equality of a state of all its citizens to its value as a Jewish state. ...' "

Thank heavens for the separation of powers and the reaction I expected from the Israeli Jews. Never, during the past two decades in Israel have I experienced any religious bigotry on the part of the Jews. They were the people who made arrangements, during the first bloody intifada, for me to attend Christmas Mass at the birthplace of Christ. Just a couple of months ago, when in Israel, I saw the Israeli troops out of respect for the Church of the Nativity surround the terrorists within it, but not attack it. Now I wondered how a large majority of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Cabinet, on a single vote, had lost their bearing leading to justice.

This week I got an answer that never would have come from a Middle East country run by a dictator or a royal family. Sharon's Cabinet set aside the bill, which in effect kills it. Their action had created a firestorm of opposition from some segments of the press and some opposition parties. Even Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein attacked the bill and Zehava Galon, a Knesset member, is quoted saying, "If the law is going to pass, I'm going to appeal to the high court. ..."

Very simply, the Cabinet's initial actions resulted in about the same response Americans gave the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals when it decided that the name of God doesn't belong in our Pledge of Allegiance. It didn't take long for the circuit court to back down and it took about the same amount of time for Sharon's Cabinet to run for cover.

A freely elected government with a separation of powers and a free press had again shown an example Arab nations should emulate.