On 31 January 2014 Ziyad Abou-Habla, CEO of the Economic Council for Arab Sector Development, spoke to Fathom’s Bethany Coates about the NGO’s work to integrate the Arab population into Israel’s economy. He also discussed the importance of Arab participation in politics and the need to challenge the misconceptions that both Arabs and Israelis can hold about each other.

Abou-Habla said: ‘Our vision in the NGO is “one state – one economy”, once we have one economy there are not two different peoples. It is important that there are two communities, Arabs and Jews, which work for the Arab people’s development. The main problem is how to change the misconceptions about the other side. I am fighting to integrate the Arab population into Israeli society in order to let the Jewish people know that we are not second rate in society, we are equal and we have to be treated as such. Also, when the Arab parties say: “vote for Arab parties, do not vote for the Jewish [parties]”, you can’t imagine how effective this is in deepening the differences and the barriers between Arabs and Jews. My first priority is to get a common speech. What is the problem in voting for Meretz or other parties, if they have strategies for Arab integration into the Israeli economy and politics?’

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