FORWARD: … For many Jewish Israelis, Zoabi, who was elected to the Knesset in 2009 on the list of the Balad party, embodies the threat within Israel itself to their very concept of their own country, at least among some of the country’s Arab citizens. This is not without some irony: Forty-three-year-old Zoabi is also a product of, and a contributor to, some of the state’s most prominent institutions. After studying philosophy and psychology at the University of Haifa, where she earned her undergraduate degree, she received her master’s degree in communications at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and later worked as a math teacher and school inspector for the Ministry of Education.
Nevertheless, Zoabi told The Jerusalem Post shortly after her arrival in the Knesset that for her, the concept of a Jewish state was “inherently racist.” Israel, she said, must become a “state of all its citizens.”
“I will not give you legitimacy to be a Jewish state,” she told a Forward reporter. “At the same time, I want to live with you. I don’t offer you a racist definition, I offer you a very democratic vision, not based on Palestinian nationality but on universal values, which are equality, freedom, justice and democracy. I want equality with the Jewish citizens.” Zoabi said that the struggle, both inside and beyond the Green Line, must be conducted nonviolently… (more)
To me, the very fact that she, as a Muslim woman who is critical of Israel, is free to make the statements she does–as a member of the Knesset–speaks volumes about the uniqueness of Israel in the Middle East.