Word: zayad
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...insecurity would keep Arab minds off "thoughts of a so-called cultural-nationalistic nature." Koenig insisted that "the nature of the Levantine character is superficial, does not probe in depth, and has an imagination that gains the upper hand over national thinking." Complained Nazareth's Communist Mayor Tawfiq Zayad: "Many of Koenig's recommendations are already official policy. We are constantly spied on, we are discriminated against in the schools, our land is confiscated, and there are no government industries in the Arab sector." Even though Koenig's recommendations were considered unacceptable in Jerusalem, Haim Kubersky, Director...
...surprisingly, the Israeli government has shown little enthusiasm for Zayad and his gadfly coalition of Communists, Christians and Moslems. "When he was elected, we said to ourselves that we would just have to make the best of it," says Shmuel Toledano, the Israeli government's chief expert on local Arab affairs. "Our assessment of Nazareth, after nine months of Zayad, is that things are no better today than they were before...
That is hardly true. Zayad sued the Israeli Ministry of Education for funds that it was withholding, on a technicality, from Nazareth's school system, and he won the case (and $51,000). He is demanding a larger cut of the national budget for municipalities, especially Nazareth, and he loudly complains of government obstructionism...
...effect of Zayad's campaign has been to polarize Nazarenes into a self-conscious Arab minority, and this worries some of Zayad's townspeople almost as much as it bothers Jerusalem. "We are Arabs, yes," says Restaurant Owner Abu Nassir, a Catholic, "but we are Israelis too. For 28 years we have lived in harmony with the government. What Zayad is doing is dangerous. You cannot fight the government and expect to live in peace...
...Zayad does not expect to live in peace. He expects it will take quite a lot of fighting to make Nazareth, which he now calls "a mess," a better place...