http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/jaffa-belongs-to-all-its-residents-jews-and-arabs-1.374915
Published 02:39 24.07.11
Latest update 02:39 24.07.11
Jaffa belongs to all its residents, Jews and Arabs
The Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality must move ahead on the task of naming streets
after Arab public figures, especially streets where most of the residents are
Arab.
Haaretz Editorial
Most of the original inhabitants of Jaffa, once one of the most important Arab
cities, abandoned it in 1948. It became a mixed Jewish-Arab city with a
considerable Jewish majority. Nevertheless, it is the right of the
approximately 16,000 remaining Arab residents of Jaffa to commemorate their own
public figures in their city.
>From the time of the establishment of the state and until the 1990s, only four
>new streets were named after Arab notables. In recent years, since Ron Huldai
>was elected mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, a certain improvement can be seen in this
>area, with 11 more streets named after Arab public figures. In a mixed city,
>most of whose streets are named after famous Jewish figures, including many
>rabbis, more streets could be named after Arabs.
Every man has a name, given by his father and his mother, as the poem by Zelda
goes; to every street a name is given by the the municipal committee on street
names. After a long fight, the municipality of Tel Aviv-Jaffa held a ceremony
last week naming a city square after Sheikh Bassam Abu Zeid, who was a leader
of the city's Islamic Movement and its senior cleric. The struggle to
commemorate Abu Zeid, who died three years ago, went on for about two years.
Arab residents of Jaffa wanted to name a street near where Abu Zeid lived after
him, but the city prefered to name that street after two of Tel Aviv's
founders, Shmuel and Sultana Tagger. In the end, Abu Zeid won proper
recognition in a different place.
Jaffa belongs to all its residents, Jews and Arabs. The Tel Aviv-Jaffa
municipality must move ahead on the task of naming streets after Arab public
figures, especially streets where most of the residents are Arab. It is the
right of Jaffa's Arab residents, many of whom suffer from shameful social and
economic neglect, to live on streets named after Arabs. The character of a
mixed city should also express itself in the names of its streets.
Commemorating Arab public figures will only increase the identification of Arab
residents with their city, and perhaps with their country as well. Naming a
square after Sheikh Abu Zeid is a step in the right direction, in Jaffa and in
other mixed cities.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe : [email protected]
Unsubscribe : [email protected]
List owner : [email protected]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
