In her opening speech in the Knesset on Tuesday afternoon, Labor Party MK Ibtisam Mara'ana-Menuhin called for Arabs and Jews to unite through a shared recognition of trauma.
“It’s our time to take action, to create a real partnership based on mutual recognition of each other’s pain. It’s our time to stop being silent and to stop silencing each other, it’s our time for revolution,” she said.
She said that Israeli Arabs, some of which identify as Palestinian, suffer from “a prolonged case of post-traumatic stress disorder, one that has never been treated or widely addressed.”
“As with any post-trauma, we react to triggers, anxiety attacks, anger, fear, mistrust, loneliness and despair. Afraid that ‘soon there will be an expulsion’ and ‘soon they will take us from here.’”
Mara'ana Menuhin, who is the first ever MK who is part of a mixed Muslim-Jewish relationship and family, recognized that the PTSD she spoke of is not exclusive to Arabs, and that “it also belongs to my Jewish brothers and sisters.”
She spoke of the six-million Jews who were cruelly exterminated in the Holocaust, soldiers who have died in the battlefield and never returned home, people who have died in terror attacks, citizens who have fallen due to encounters with victims of hate.”
“Maybe it’s time we got to know each other’s trauma,” she said. “Maybe it’s time for healing that will give us the strength to dare, to make true peace. Living together, Arab and Jewish men and women, we will learn to forgive and raise a healthier generation.”
Her opening speech was followed by a blessing of congratulations from Labor leader Merav Michaeli.