Muhammad Zoabi, 16, angers his famous relative MK Zoabi by stating eloquently that Israeli Arabs should be thankful for the Jewish state.
: 4/7/2014,
Muhammad Zoabi, 16, an Arab
Muslim from Nazareth, is causing anger in Muslim circles, and considerable joy
in Jewish ones, by stating in a unique interview that he is a Zionist and loves
the state of Israel.
"I really believe that I'm a
lucky Arab and a lucky human being
and a lucky Middle Eastern[er] that I was
born in this little tiny
piece of land!”, he stated. Pointing to the Golan Heights from the window of
his interviewer's home, in the Israeli community of Massad, he noted how bad
life is beyond the border, for Syrians.
People in Syria are being killed
because they want freedom, Muhammad said. but in Israel, he explained to
interviewer Susan Deane Taylor-Gol, “we are living freedom, freedom is our
life! No one can take our freedom... We're the hope in the region. I think that
if the Syrians and the Egyptians, and the Lebanese and the Jordanians and all
of our neighbors want to have a really democratic life, they should come to us,
and they are more than welcome!”
Zoabi explained that it is not
easy to be a Muslim Zionist. He said that “the bad sides” of Arab culture have
taken control of the society, that he has been attacked several times for his
views, and that some people call him a traitor, or even “a Jew.” He added with
a smile that he cannot understand how people could see the word “Jew” as an
insult, when the Jews only recently emerged from a situation in which they were
being ruthlessly slaughtered, to one in which they are “one of the smartest and
strongest nations in the world.”
MK Hanin Zouabi (Balad) responded
to Muhammad's pro-Israel Facebook page
and video by saying that “the state of Israel has trained him into obedience.
Sometimes, the oppressed identifies with the oppressor because he lacks pride
and political awareness.”
Muhammad is unfazed by such
statements and vows to “stand with the Jewish people until the last day of my
life.”
