Atidna: A Movement Aimed at Eroding Palestinian Identity and Fostering an ‘Arab-Zionist’ Generation

On July 5, 2022, the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an extensive investigation in Arabic about a suspicious youth movement called Atidna.

The investigation was titled Zionist Right Establishing an Arab Youth Movement to Build an Arab Zionist Generation.

According to the newspaper, Atidna is backed by extremist right-wing Israelis with the aim of bringing about a profound change in the identity of the Arab community in the occupied Palestinian territories in 1948.

Their goal is to prevent the unity of resistance arenas, referring to the resistance movements in Gaza, the West Bank, and within the Palestinian territories.

It was clarified that the Israeli government supports this movement through leadership programs and scholarships to integrate Arab youth into the Jewish community.

Various institutions supporting Atidna expose their malicious intentions towards the Palestinians within the occupied territories. These include the Israeli army, the Jerusalem municipality, Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies (IEAJS), the Jewish National Fund, and other governmental entities.

Therefore, Palestinian activists emphasize on social media platforms that it is a “Zionist association seeking to produce a generation of Arab Zionists.”

They assert that the movement operates in 15 Arab towns, promoting youth enlistment in the Israeli army and aiming to erode and weaken the Palestinian identity among the youth.

 

Suspicious Appearance

With the escalating confrontations between settlers and the Israeli Occupation on one hand, and the people of Jerusalem (al-Quds) on the other, regarding the 2018 Judaization of the holy site, a suspicious movement began to gain momentum in dissolving the efforts of Arab youth in the ‘48 territories.

This association was established on December 6, 2018, after six months of increasing Israeli violations against al-Aqsa Mosque during the same year.

The record of its establishment stated that it is a social movement of Arab and Jewish citizens working to promote the “integration of Arabs in the State of Israel as equal rights citizens who recognize Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.”

The registered movement, aiming to strengthen Arab identity and integration into Israeli society, has been gaining momentum since 2020, actively working in several Palestinian cities to recruit and include Arab youth within its ranks.

It aims to establish Arab Zionist youth movements and promote integration and normalization of Palestinians in the occupied territories, as confirmed by the Arab 48 website on July 11, 2020.

The methods employed by Atidna, according to its Arabic-language official website, include providing scholarships, trips, and educational, informative, and entertainment workshops under the banner of “building young Arab leadership.”

According to the same website, the movement is a “coalition of educators and Arab citizen leaders in Israel, along with Jewish partners.”

However, this is sponsored by the Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism in the Israeli government, Amichai Chikli, who belongs to the Religious Zionism party, headed by the extremist Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who is known for his anti-Arab views, and it is funded by American entities.

According to official documents, the founders of the association include both Zionists and Arabs: Erez Eshel, Jalal Safdi, Dalia Fadila, Nael Zoabi, Amichai Chikli, Amit Deri, Eran Alfonta, Even Ream Falah, Ismael Haj Yahya, Vicki Badrian, and Keren Zilberman-Shavit.

The association’s committee members consist of Ashraf Jabbour, Yifat Sela, Sami Algernawi, and Vicki Badrian.

As previously clarified in an investigation by the Israeli Communist Party-affiliated newspaper Al-Ittihad in Haifa on October 9, 2020, Amit Deri, one of the founders and co-directors alongside Dalia Fadila, is the general manager of Reservists on Duty.

This Israeli organization’s main goal is to oppose the global boycott movement against “Israel” and the crimes of the Israeli Occupation by defending the actions of the Israeli army around the world and whitewashing the Israeli Occupation’s image in Western universities and international forums.

It is also active among Arab citizens in “Israel,” focusing on “preparing Arab groups to integrate within teams defending Israel against the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and encouraging military service among Arab youth through the dissemination and sharing of their stories.”

Al-Ittihad pointed out that both Deri and Chikli, both co-founders of Atidna, are involved in fighting Breaking the Silence organization, composed of Israeli soldiers who expose the army’s violations and crimes to Israeli society.

Additionally, Ben-Gvir, one of the co-founders, is a member of the far-right fascist organization Im Tirtzu.

The third founder, Erez Eshel, whose name appears on the association’s website as a board member, has been associated with the HaShomer HaChadash association, which is concerned with “preserving the land of Israel” and promoting “love for the country and Zionist identity.”

In a previous interview with The Marker magazine in 2016, the Partner CEO, Dalia Fadila, claimed that she seeks to build an Arab “Post-Nakba” generation.

This means a generation that moves past the Nakba (the Palestinian exodus of 1948) and subsequently breaks down the psychological barriers separating Arabs in “Israel” from “integration” into the Zionist state.

 

Palestinian Zionists

According to Haaretz, the organization Atidna relies on donations, and its budget has tripled within two years. In 2020, the association’s budget was 2.7 million shekels, but in 2022, it increased to 7.8 million shekels.

The major portion of its funding comes from an American fund called the Israel Endowment Funds (PEF), a non-profit fund that collects donations for “Israel” and distributes them to organizations without revealing the identity of the donors.

The Jewish Schusterman Family Foundation, known for supporting liberal projects, provided a one-time grant of 700,000 shekels to Atidna in 2021.

One of the significant revelations of Haaretz’s investigation about Atidna is that its objective is to eradicate the identity of the rising generations among Palestinian citizens through cunning government-backed methods.

The investigation points out that it is not merely a corrupt Israeli initiative with destructive aims but a strategic right-wing government project with sinister motives.

It aims to create a “new Arab citizen” in “Israel,” one with a hybrid identity lacking a clear backbone, who does not demand his rights and aligns with a far-reaching vision sponsored by the Zionist right.

Nevertheless, Haaretz states that this project will explode in the faces of its patrons as soon as Arab youth realize that Jews only intend to use them as pawns, solely as a means to further the Judaization of the country.

The left-leaning newspaper draws parallels between this movement and the “covenant of blood” project with the Palestinian Druze, where true equality is lacking in the Jewish “state of Israel.”

Haaretz quotes a former member of the movement who said, “When we were young and envisioned Atidna, we spoke of Jewish-Arab partnership, but over time, I realized that this is colonization, not partnership.”

The investigation notes that while Arabs constituted around half of the founders during the establishment of the movement, by 2022, only one Arab remained on the administrative committee.

 

Explicit Scheme

Al-Ittihad published an investigation on October 9, 2020, shedding light on the dangerous nature of Atidna, affirming that it is not just another “coexistence” association but a right-wing Zionist movement.

It was confirmed that significant amounts of money are spent on the movement, evident from the extensively funded advertisements on Facebook and billboards, as well as the relatively rapid and suspicious expansion of the movement on the ground.

The newspaper stated that its essence, nature, vision, founders’ concepts, core project, objectives, and specific Zionist right-wing context indicate that it is a right-wing Zionist movement.

It clarified that its danger and ideology represent an attempt by the ruling right-wing camp to shape a new direction towards Arab citizens, particularly in the Zionist right-wing context, through the program and project of the Zionist right-wing association Atidna.

One of the co-founders of the association, Amit Deri, stated in an interview with Israeli Channel 7 at the beginning of 2018, “I will raise youth with Jewish and Zionist identity.”

According to Al-Ittihad’s investigation, the Jewish partners in the project, who are the real founders and leaders shaping the movement’s agenda, belong to the Zionist right-wing camp, as mentioned on the association’s website.

It refers to the fascist and settlement-oriented right-wing camp, including Likud, Jewish Home, Religious Zionism, and the settlers’ criminals.

The investigation points out that, in its official definition of Atidna, the association claims that its main goal is to integrate Arabs into Israeli society, but that has not happened until today.

The Atidna movement does not hide its long-term aspiration to become a political movement and part of the coalition and participation in the government, as stated by Dalia Fadila, the General Manager of the movement, in an interview with the Jerusalem Post on September 9, 2020.

Following extensive coverage about the Zionist nature of this association and its suspicious objectives, particularly from Haaretz, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper responded to that in an Arabic article on July 7, 2023, titled Atidna Annoys Them.

It criticized what it called Haaretz’s recruitment for a “despicable and audacious mission” in accusing the project’s organizers of being “Zionists” because their aim is the “creation of Good Arabs,” adding that “the enemies of Zionism and the haters of Israel are angry.”

It defended the Atidna movement, claiming that it provides hope for genuine integration of Arab Israelis and promotes brotherhood instead of hatred.