Reporter: Jews, Arabs are coexisting

Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican

4/2/2008 - 4/3/08

Jews and Arabs continue to coexist in Israel despite their unresolvable political differences, says a Palestinian journalist scheduled to speak in Santa Fe on Sunday.

Khaled Abu Toameh said most Americans he has met on his speaking tour of the United States "think that Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land are just basically killing each other every day."

However, he said, "they're also doing a lot of things together. We talk to each other. We live with each other there. So normal life is also continuing at the same time."

But Toameh, the only Arab reporter on the mostly Jewish staff of Israel's biggest English-language newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, is pessimistic about peace.

"I have no hope of anything getting better," he said in a telephone interview. "I'm one of those who believe that it can't really be solved. There's no solution that will satisfy both sides 100 percent. Sadly, when I look on the Palestinian side, I see that in the past 15 years, the Palestinians haven't really prepared for statehood. All we have in the Palestinian areas today is anarchy and lawlessness."

The 44-year-old Toameh describes himself as a secular Muslim. His mother is from the West Bank, and his father grew up in a town now inside Israel. Toameh grew up in Jerusalem, speaks English, Arabic and Hebrew, and is an Israeli citizen. In his seven years on the Jerusalem Post, he has mostly focused on Arabs both inside Israel and in the territories, like Gaza and the West Bank.

"I get criticism from both sides. That's when I feel that I'm doing my job," he said. "I get criticism from Arabs who say, 'Why do you bring the dirty laundry out? You should not be writing about things that reflect negatively on the Arabs, like financial corruption.' ... On the other hand, I get criticism from Jewish readers who say, 'Why are you reporting on what Hamas says? We don't want to hear that.' I always tell them, 'Look, how will you know what these guys think?' ...

"The Israeli media interviews Palestinians more than the Palestinian media. The Palestinians have to have a way to get their message to the Israeli public, so the Palestinians have never ever boycotted the Israeli media. On the contrary, we, the Arabs living there, we always admire the Israeli media because of its openness and its freedom. We used to say, 'We hope one day we'll have a free media like the Jews.' "

Toameh's 10-day speaking tour is sponsored by StandWithUs, an international nonprofit committed "to a Jewish, democratic and secure Israel living in peace with its neighbors," according to its Web site.

Speaking to The New Mexican by telephone from Seattle, Toameh said Arabs he has met in the United States often are more extreme in their criticism of Israel than Arabs in Israel. He said he isn't enough of a Koranic scholar to argue with Islamic clerics who say the Quran condemns Jews, but he doesn't believe in using religion for political purposes.

Fundamentalist Christians who want the Jews to build a third temple on the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem to bring about the Biblical Apocalypse are "playing with matches," he said. "All these people come with crazy ideas. ... Leave us alone, please! We already have enough problems."

The Iraq war has had little impact on Israel, Toameh said. But if the United States suddenly withdraws, "the extremists will be emboldened," he said. "So if you want to leave Iraq, leave it in an honorable way. Don't make a cut-and-run policy. Don't make it look as if it's a victory for Osama bin Laden and all the terrorists."

Toameh said Israel's political strife is no reason to avoid traveling there. "Most people there, Jews and Arabs, are nice people," he said. "It's very safe these days. I think the chances of being killed in a car accident in Israel these days are higher than being killed by terrorists. The situation has improved significantly. Even the rate of crime has dropped."

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.

IF YOU GO

Who: Palestinian-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh

What: Lecture and question-and-answer session

Where: St. Francis Auditorium, 107 W. Palace Ave.

When: 3-5 p.m. Sunday

Admission: Free