Israel’s relationship with its Palestinian citizens has been on the agenda for many years. In 1973, Shmuel Toledano, who served as Arab affairs advisor under three prime ministers, penned a report analyzing this relationship and offering projections into the future. “The cumulative baggage of bitterness, alienation and disappointment with the state on the one hand and Jewish society on the other have reached, in my estimation, alarming proportions, with time working fervently against us,” Toledano wrote. Still, rather than suggest ways to improve the relationship, the report shifts the blame back to Israel’s Palestinian citizens: “Most of them fall into the arms of the Communist Party, a few into the arms of terrorist organizations.”

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Page from transcripts of government meeting held on July 29, 1973

Israeli Arabs - Situation Assessment and Projection,
March 8, 1973