Elias Shoufani, who died a few days ago, forcefully helped unleash an urgent rebuttal to a dangerous belief that prevailed in the aftermath of the 1948 tragedy. This dangerous belief sought to persuade the Arabs in general that those Palestinian Arabs who stayed in Israel were either “suspects” or should “not be trusted.” Elias Shoufani was a leader in helping deconstruct this fallacy and slander.
Elias came to Lebanon and Syria with Sabri Jaris and others, to put an end to this obvious and reckless distortion and untruth. Elias was a pivotal leader in bringing to Arab consciousness the awareness of the wealth of resilience, commitment, and resistance of the Arab population in Israel. This enhances the overall Arab scene with an awareness, appreciation, and a challenging role to the Zionist project, especially by highlighting the institutional discrimination against them in Israel and clearly proves the deficit of Israel’s claim to be “democratic.”