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No 'Jewish character' in Nazareth If French character of France is expressed by discriminatory, low national insurance allowances to children of Algerian descent who are citizens of France, then I have a problem with France's French character. If France's French character is promoted by the designation of French as the country's official language, and by the teaching of French history to the country's school children, then I don't have any problem with France's French character. If Israel's Jewish character means that Hebrew is the state's official language, that the country's day of rest is Saturday, and that Jews can pray and develop their culture, I have no problem with the situation. If Israel's Jewish character is reflected by the sanctification of Saturday according to Orthodox rules throughout the country, then I've got a problem - but it's not my problem alone, and instead applies to the vast majority of the country's Jews. A state's character, like an individual's personality, cannot be anchored in law. Any entity's character is a by-product of nature, tradition, history, an environmental setting and a multitude of other objective factors. You won't find the "state of Israel's Jewish character" in Nazareth. It simply isn't anywhere to be found, because the town's residents aren't Jews. The way of life in Nazareth is different; the religion is different; local folklore is different. So what can be done to preserve Israel's "Jewish character" in Nazareth? Expel the town's residents, and replace them with new ones? Should Jews of Russian origin be brought in, would that preserve the country's Jewish character, in terms of the Shas conception of "Jewish"? Like any individual's personality, the character of a state is something that is more readily beheld by an outsider than by the object itself. Character is also a relative quality: for example, Israel's character, as perceived by U.S. President Bush, differs from the character of the state as understood by Europeans, and is very different from the perception of Palestinians on the Gaza Strip, or in refugee camps. The state's character, in Israel as in France, is fashioned by all of its citizens. Extreme right-wingers are the group frightened by this reality; bandying about the concept of "character," these hard-liners are searching for political gains that are hard to secure in balanced, mature dialogue, and are instead to be notched up via incitement and demagoguery. The attorney general's enlistment in this campaign waged in the name of Israel's "Jewish character" raises many questions. For dozens of years, positions upheld by representatives of the country's Arab population have not changed. They strongly support the Palestinians' right to establish a sovereign state alongside Israel, and they demand civil and national equality as Arab residents within Israel. This being the case, what's new? What's new is that since 1992, since the establishment of the Rabin government, an unprecedented delegitimization campaign has been waged against the country's Arab population. The prime minister's reliance on Arab MKs in the establishment of his government cost him his life. Israelis are prepared to accept Arabs as citizens, even as ones who have equal rights, but they are not willing to accept them as citizens who wield genuine influence which can determine the course of major issues facing the state. In this respect, the Jewish character of the state is vigilantly protected. And since it cannot be acknowledged explicitly that Arabs have no right to fashion the state's policies, heavy-handed hints are thrown out here and there, such as the call for a "clear majority" which was heard in 1999 when there was discussion about a national referendum concerning the fate of the Golan Heights, and the goal was really to nullify any impact made by Israel's Arab population. Not only the right objected vehemently to the "impudence" of Arabs who sought to influence Israel's national agenda. What is called the "left" accepted, at least tacitly, this prohibition against Arab influence. Among members of Israel's "left," calls were heard favoring the rule of a Jewish majority on issues of national import. The Central Elections Committee's disqualification of Knesset members Tibi and Bishara, and the latter's Balad party, has only one goal: to minimize the Arab population's political clout. We will struggle against this effort, because our future is at stake; and all of Israel's democratic forces should join this campaign, because what begins with Arabs could end in places that cannot be foreseen. The writer is the secretary-general of the Hadash party. By Odai Basharat