Arab MKs Confess: We Wouldn’t Want Our Daughters to Marry Jews
January 24, 2018
Arab Knesset members from the Zionist Union and the United Arab List have revealed in recent interviews that they don’t want their daughters intermarrying with Jews.
MK Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union) told Channel 12 that “intermarriage is not recommended. I don’t want my children to assimilate. I want you [the Jews] to keep your culture and I will keep my culture. As far as I’m concerned, a Jewish son-in-law is not recommended.”
MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List) said it was up to his daughter to decide, but he already knew what her decision would be. “She will decide not to go in this way [intermarriage],” he said. “I know her views and she told me that she would never marry a Jew.”
Yad L’Achim, which works year-round against intermarriage, recalls a cover story in the Haaretz weekend magazine that featured interviews with eight present and former leaders of the Labor party. All but one, Avrum Burg, expressed opposition to intermarriage.
The list of prominent leftists included Burg, Amir Peretz, Yael Dayan, Yossi Beilin, Nawaf Massalha, Hagai Merom, Chaim Ramon and Nissim Zvili.
Massalha, the first Muslim Arab to hold a ministerial portfolio in an Israeli government, shared his personal experiences on the subject. “In Kafr Qara, where I live, students who studied abroad have returned home with European wives. It almost always ended in failure.”
Beilin, a dominant member of the group, surprised observers when he said, “I would prefer that [my daughter] not [intermarry]. You ask me who I am closer to, more similar to –Yaakov Litzman [the chareidi politician] or Saeb Erekat? I feel close to both of them. But if you ask me whose grandchild I’d prefer to see my grandchild marry? That of Litzman.’
Merom unequivocally rejected Burg’s position on intermarriage. “I’d want my children and grandchildren to marry Jews. Avrum is a dear friend, but he’s gone off the deep end with his theories. Apparently, his next choice will be to simply up and leave this country…”
Harav Shmuel Lifschitz, one of the heads of Yad L’Achim, said this week that “both Arabs and Jews don’t want intermarriage. Intermarriage cuts the branch upon which the Jewish people sit. Preventing assimilation is an internal Jewish matter and has nothing to do with racism. The claim that it is racism comes from elements at the fringe of society and media.”
Harav Lifschitz added that the “astounding number of calls we get seeking assistance in this matter testifies like a thousand witnesses to the failure of mixed marriages.”
