Besieged on all sides, Israeli Arabs preach message of coexistence
NAZARETH AND HAIFA, ISRAEL- At a hotel perched on a hillside above Nazareth, fresh Israeli evacuees from northern kibbutzim near the Lebanese border sit for breakfast at tables next to Arab families.
On a breezy balcony overlooking the predominantly Christian-Arab town in the Galilee region, they laugh and chatter as their children play together in an adjacent courtyard.
“This is the way things should be. We are proof that coexistence is not only a possible future, but the only possible future,” says Ghassan, a server. “But we can’t make our voice heard.”
Variously describing themselves as Israeli Arabs or Palestinians – they are citizens of Israel with a Palestinian identity – they are suffering a twin tragedy from the escalating Israel-Hamas war, grieving friends and relatives killed by Hamas in Israel and by Israeli missile strikes in Gaza.
Pinned in by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia in the north, a far-right Israeli government that is detaining anti-war activists, Israeli public pressure campaigns, Palestinian factions, and an enraged Arab street, these Arab and Palestinian Israelis say they cannot publicly share their pragmatic message of peace and coexistence without being attacked on every side.
Deepening their silence are ongoing far-right Israeli pressure campaigns pushing companies, schools, and universities to fire Arab Israelis or expel them from school for expressing solidarity with civilians in Gaza.
But by their actions and expressions of solidarity, they say they hope to impart the values of “shared humanity” and the “equal value of life.”
“We are in mourning”
Of the 2.1 million Arab and Palestinian citizens of Israel, many refer to Oct. 7 as a “black day.”
Among the 1,400 people killed in Hamas’ attack that day, 18 Israeli Arabs were killed and hundreds were displaced. Israeli Arabs say they all have friends or co-workers who were killed or kidnapped. And they say Israel’s war against Hamas and siege of Gaza, in which as of Wednesday 5,700 Palestinian residents of Gaza, including 2,000 children, have been reported killed, is a second, deep-cutting “tragedy” for the community.
“We are in mourning. Innocent Israeli men, women, and children lost their lives. And now the Israeli military is killing and starving innocent men, women, and children in Gaza,” says Ibrahim, who did not wish to use his real name. He spoke in Nazareth, hours after returning from a shiva mourning gathering for a Jewish friend and neighbor whose relatives were killed by Hamas. “For what?”
“It is a very difficult situation,” says Ghadir Hani, an activist with Standing Together, a progressive Jewish-Arab peace movement that has been assisting Israeli evacuees, renovating bomb shelters, and fighting against hate speech targeting either community.
Ms. Hani lives in the mixed Jewish-Arab town of Acre, north of Haifa, and has lost Jewish Israeli friends who were killed or kidnapped in the Hamas attack.
“Whenever I post on social media, I face attacks from people in Gaza and Arab states. If I post about innocents being killed in Gaza, I can face legal action and harassment in Israel,” Ms. Hani says.
“They have to understand that we have relatives in Gaza, we have Israeli Jewish friends. Their humanity is our humanity. Why do we have to always condemn?” she says. “We are all hurting right now.”
Even anti-war expressions and calls to end the siege in solidarity with the suffering Gazan children have become sensitive.
“Chilling effect”
Israeli police broke up peaceful anti-war protests in Haifa and Umm al-Fahm last week and arrested six people despite their not raising Palestinian flags – deemed at times by Israeli police to be a symbol of incitement that far-right government ministers want banned – or chanting pro-Hamas or blatantly pro-Palestinian slogans. ……….CONTINUE READING AT THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR