JAFFA, Israel (AP) – When 14 Israelis light torches in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the country at Israel’s splashy Independence Day ceremony on Thursday, Arab newscaster Lucy Aharish will stride across the stage in an act of defiance.
The 34-year-old journalist who believes Israel should remain the Jewish state will be challenging some of her Arab compatriots who commemorate Israel’s independence day as “the catastrophe,” when many Arabs were uprooted from their homes in the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s founding. She also will be thumbing her nose at some Jews who believe she doesn’t deserve the honor.
But more than anything, when she holds her torch and intones the traditional phrase, “for the glory of the State of Israel,” she says she will be sending a symbolic message to the ceremony’s most prominent guest: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I exist. I am going to light a torch. And I am going to be really proud to tell him, that whether you like it or not, I am not going anywhere,” said Aharish, sitting in a studio at i24news, an Israeli cable news channel where she anchors an English-language program for international audiences. She also hosts a Hebrew-language talk show on Channel 2, the country’s highest-rated TV station.
Netanyahu shocked her and many others when he warned on election day last month that Israel’s Arab citizens were heading to the polls “in droves,” urging his nationalist supporters to balance them out.