Israelization

It's the kind of Islamists that the West wants to see more of, you know, modernists with feet on the ground that sees religion, the good side of any religion.

What Mansour Abbas, the leader of Ram, is representing is the trend among Arab Israelis of Israelization or moving into understanding that Israel is going nowhere and some sort of integration and discussion is needed.

to maximize the benefits for the Arabs as they are now inside Israel as citizens.

Legally, they have all the rights and they are completely equal citizens, but there are political and social barriers that they still have to face.

The first response of Israel, maybe people could have comprehended, but the amount of destruction and demolition that took place in Gaza was beyond the capacity of Arab citizens to say, we can stand behind this.

So I would say, I would even label it the first three months were an Israelization process of Arab citizens.

But in the fourth month onwards, we started re-Palestinization, re-engaging with the Palestinian story.

which distanced Arab citizens further away from the Israeli mainstream.

At the same time, I think that there is a growing sense among Israeli Palestinians that they are part of Israeli society and they want to be more part of Israeli society.

I think there's a growing Palestinianization and a growing Israelization at the same time.

So then let's go over to Ram.

Why is somebody who is looking forward with enthusiasm to voting for Ram, why are they getting a really good one of what they want? Because he can actually

When you come face to face with this reality, when you have face-to-face conversations, you realize that everyone within the borders of Israel confronts the same threats.

And then you can begin to understand that the real story isn't two groups, Jews and Arabs, locked in an eternal conflict, but two parts of a nation coming together in a process I call Israelization.

A silent but ever-growing majority of citizens simply want to live in peace with their neighbors, the ones across the street and the ones on the other side of national borders.

Like I said, extremist voices get amplified.

Arab citizens are going through two major processes.

One is daily Israelization and daily re-Palestinization.

Mm-hmm.

And I think that the Israelization is learning how to become Israelis, and the re-Palestinization is actually acting more and more as diaspora Palestinians-

Mm

... as supporters of a future Palestinian state, which we will not live in.

Okay.

Exactly.