Arab Leaders: Peres' Legacy 'Mixed'

Jerusalem, 29 September, 2016 (TPS) -- MK Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union) praised Shimon Peres as a visionary who wanted to integrate Israel’s Arab community into the country’s social fabric, but other Arab leaders have resisted honoring the late president and prime minister.

Speaking at a session of the Zionist Union Knesset faction, Bahloul stated he admired Peres’ patriotism despite the fact that that many people assume that Israeli patriotism would conflict with Bahloul’s Arab identity.

“In 1995, Peres asked me to become ambassador to Finland. He wanted to integrate the Arab community into the highest levels of Israel’s [public service].

“Shimon always knew how to look forward and to work for the future,” Bahloul said.

Other MKs, however, estimated that from an Arab perspective Peres left behind a mixed legacy of positives and negatives that prevented them from issuing formal statements following his death. As of this writing, no Arab organization in Israel, including the Joint List party, had issued a statement regarding Peres’ death.

Joint List Chairman Ayman Odeh (leader of the Hadash faction of the Joint List) told the IDF Radio that he would not attend the funeral, but also cited Peres’ activities during the 1990s as important milestones for Arab Israelis. Confronted about the silence of the Joint List party, MK Odeh answered in those terms:

“I must say that during the 1990s, [former Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin and Peres acted very significantly to help the Arab community in Israel gain legitimacy. For us, it is very important, it represents a message for the future. It is the right direction.

“But in  later years, president Peres did not remained on this path, did not lead, and stayed silent. He never criticized the prime minister. And, of course, I cannot celebrate Peres’ roles in [Israel’s War of Independence in] 1948, 1967, the slaughter of people in Qana [during the 1996 Operation Grapes of Wrath against Lebanon]. So Peres is a complicated issue,” Odeh concluded.

Following his interview on the IDF Radio, Ayman Odeh posted an official reaction to Peres’ death on his Twitter account.

Odeh’s comments marked a sharp departure from the tone of Joint List colleague MK Basel Ghattas (member of the Balad faction of the party), who responded to Peres’ stroke in early September saying in a Facebook statement: “Let us remember in his death his true essence as a tyrant. He was directly responsible for various atrocities and war crimes committed against us…He is completely covered with our blood.”