bsent on the eve of the election to warn Nazareth against voting
bRakah lest it suffer loss of funding. Money was poured into the
bcoffers of the Arab Labor Party puppets. All in vain. The Com-
bmunists swamped the old hamulla chiefs who had slavishly fol-
blowed the government line in return for political favors.
bAs usual, the Israeli was “stunned.” He could not believe
bthat eleven of the seventeen council seats had been won by
bRakah. He could not imagine that the new mayor of Nazareth
bwas Tewfik Zayad. Tewfik Zayad at the time was forty-six years
bold, a politician and poet. His poetry? To commemorate the first
banniversary of the Yom Kippur War, in October 1974, Zayad
bwrote a poem in praise of the Egyptian crossing of the Suez
bCanal:
The sun was in the midst of the sky
and the black faces fed the soil with their flesh
the heavy half-tracks and the metal eagles
chewed the Bar-Lev Line’s insides
. . . and all the eyes wept with joy
. . . the crossing was holy
and holy will be the homeland . . .
bZayad, already a Knesset member on the Rakah ticket, be-
bcame a national hero to the Arabs of Israel for his poem and his
bwillingness to incite openly against the state. For, after all, the
bArabs did not vote Rakah for its communism, but rather be-
bcause it was the only successful political group that was anti-
bZionist. It was their method of voting against the Jewish state,
bagainst the Jewish “occupation” of what was now called “Is-
brael.” It was their way of voting for “Palestine,” and the only
bshock that is understandable is that the Jews were shocked by
bthe Rakah win. It was only the venality and corruption of the
bNazareth hamullas that enabled the Labor Party to perpetuate an
billusion of Arab satisfaction with the Jewish state.
bThe political “boss” of Nazareth for a quarter of a century
bwas Knesset member Seif-E-Din Zuabi. He had been one of the
btypical “Uncle Ahmeds,” a faithful and reliable follower of the
bgovernment who did its bidding in return for political and eco-
bnomic favors. The Israeli newspaper Ha’Aretz (December 12,
b1975) called Zuabi “the man who is precious to the authoritites
band who for twenty years had behaved as if Nazareth was his
bown property.” He and his large hamulla had ensured the il-
b