Incitement on Facebook, fear of walking the streets, harassment in places

of work. Have we come to a fault-line in relations between Jews and Arabs

in Israel? / Haaretz Weekend supplement.

Stormy demonstrations against the war, expressions of joy on the Internet at the deaths

of soldiers, and on the other side, an unprecedented wave of racism and Jewish violence

against Arabs. The delicate relations between the majority and the large minority in the

State of Israel have reached a new low in the wake of Operation Solid Cliff and the

events that preceded it. Can they be repaired?

Shai Fogelman, Hilo Glazer, Naomi Darom, Neta Ahituv

31 July 2014

When I heard the first stone strike the car, I froze. The only thing that went through my

head was the tangible understanding that I was going to be a victim, relates Nader

Sarouji, 58, on the attack he experienced about three weeks ago at the hands of dozens of

Jewish rioters in Upper Nazareth. Only the yells of the terrified children in the back seat,

Go Dad! Go Dad! cleared my head. I understood that I had to save my family. I tried to

drive away from there as fast as possible without hitting anyone. That evening Sarouji

had set out at about 10 PM with his wife and two of his children to watch the World Cup

at his brothers home in Upper Nazareth. It was a Saturday night, and I suspected nothing

when I saw Jewish youths at Maccabee Square in the city, because a lot of people gather

there every Saturday night. But when the stones began to strike the car and the youths

approached from every direction, waving Israeli flags and yelling Death to Arabs it was

too late we were caught in the crowd. They threw stones from all directions and hit the

car in many places. We looked death in the eyes. We quickly closed the windows and only

at the last minute did we succeed in getting away from there.

After a short drive, Sarouji came across a police car, but according to his account, when he

asked a policeman for help, he was told to file a complaint at the police station. When

something like that happens in Nazareth, the neighbouring Arab city, the Special Patrol

Units, the Border Guards and all the security forces restore quiet within minutes. That

policeman didnt even offer help. Sarouji drove immediately to the police station in the

city, but was told to return the next day to file a formal complaint to an investigator.

The Sarouji family were among the first Arab residents of Nazareth before they moved to

the Build Your Own House neighbourhood in Upper Nazareth. In 1991, when we

moved, I was the only Gentile who lived in the neighbourhood, he says. He is a

construction engineer and a graduate of the Technion who also works as a marketing and

sales manager for a business run by his wife, Hala, 58. She creates natural soaps based on

olive oil. Their four grown-up children still live with them.

Sarouji relates that he went to live in Upper Nazareth in order to improve the quality of

life for his family and also due to the cramped conditions and lack of land reserves for

construction in the crowded nearby Arab city, where most of his family live. Today not

only is there no space to live there, but even the dead have nowhere to be buried.

He relates that until that attack on Saturday night three weeks ago he had not

experienced many incidents of racism or violence for being an Arab in Upper Nazareth.

The good neighbourly relations motivated him to send both his sons to a Jewish

kindergarten. There they celebrated Purim and Passover and Yom Kippur, and they even

put kippot on their heads. But one day Rabii (one of the boys) returned with tears in his

eyes and said that one of the children in the kindergarten had called him a stinking Arab.

I was angry. A five year old boy. What does he understand? Where did he learn that

expression? I believe in coexistence. I really wanted co-existence in my family life, but in

order to prevent the children from being hurt or ostracized, I transferred them to an Arab

school in Nazareth.

Sarouji relates that on the night of the attack he returned to his home only after the rage

in the streets subsided. I was afraid, definitely I was afraid. I felt that after 30 years in this

city, I had no personal security and there was no one to defend me. Those feelings were

strengthened two days later when he went to file a complaint at the police station. The

investigators first question was, what kind of car do you have? When I replied, a white

Volvo, he said, right Volvo, Mercedes and BMW, those are Arab cars, and he explained

that that is what made me an identifiable target for the rioters.

Since the attack, members of the Sarouji family feel afraid. They tell us that the daughter,

Lona, 17 and a half, does not dare leave the house alone and has difficulty sleeping at

night. The son, Rabii, 24, who was also in the car during the attack, has withdrawn and is

unwilling to talk about what he experienced. The mother Hala says that since the attack

she wakes up several times every night from with terrifying dreams. In her account, the

trauma we experienced at the hands of an extremist and incited minority was hard, but

sometimes I feel that it is harder for me to deal with the way my [female] Jewish friends

have treated me since the operation in Gaza began. She tells us that she and her husband

Nader are members of a group for parents of special-needs children, due to their

daughters problems with attention and adjustment. We are the only Arab parents in the

group, and I never felt racism or discrimination there. They even did a surprise for me on

my last birthday. But since the war I feel that the relationship with the other parents in

the group has suffered a little. There is a distancing. The hardest thing is was to discover

that one of my best [female] friends put on our Facebook page a video clip showing

demonstrators calling for all the Arabs to be thrown to Gaza.

I saw the post at midnight and it hurt me so much that I couldnt sleep. I felt as if she was

addressing that slogan directly to me. At 2:30 AM I wrote to her, my dear, my good

friend, it is a terrible shame that you posted such a thing. In the morning she wrote back

to me that her brother is a high-ranking army officer, her two sons are fighting in Gaza and

that I simply cannot understand what she is going through. What could I say to her, that as

a mother it hurts me every evening when they read out on television the names of the

soldiers who have been killed? That it hurts me that the army of my country is bombing

my people in Gaza?

The trauma of the Sarouji family is a private example of the feeling of embattlement that

is currently shared by many of Israels Arab citizens, but before that it could be seen as a

symbol of the rising of the tensions between Nazareth and Upper Nazareth. Sawsan, an

educator from Nazareth who prefers not to give her family name, relates that her

daughter, a student at Tel Aviv University, experienced this rift concretely when as she

was returning home in a bus. The driver decided to change his route and bypass Nazareth.

He said that he would not go into Nazareth but only Upper Nazareth, and it was no use

telling him that that was the regular route, says Sawsan. And he was also supported by

Jewish passengers in the bus who said things like you want Nazareth? Haneen Zoabi can

take you. I really hope that was an exceptional episode and not something routine.

Sawsan adds that Jews are going to the city of Nazareth less and less, and even owners of

garages and bakeries are saying that their Jewish customers no longer come, or they come

fearfully. And indeed, a survey done this week by the newspaper Globes, which found

that 67% of the residents of the State have decided not to buy at Arab communities or in

shops owned by Arabs, shows that these feelings are firmly grounded in reality.

Fadi Saba, 36, from Nazareth, a partner in the Moka caf in the centre of the city, does not

need surveys to feel the depth of the rift. In the last three weeks we have felt a near total

boycott in Nazareth, he says. On weekends, the city that was always full of Jewish

tourists is completely empty. Since the operation in Gaza began I have noticed a drastic

change in the attitude of the Jewish society towards the Arab population. There was

always an ember of racism, intolerance and rejection of the other, but at times like these

it flares up and burns in the ugliest way possible.

The situation today is much worse that in the past and in my opinion the long-term

ramifications for Jewish-Arab relations will be very serious, adds Saba. After the events

of the Second Intifada in October 2000, the Arab public made a real attempt to integrate

and find a place for itself in Israeli society. A generation of young people has grown up

here, who due mainly to the Internet and the social networks have managed to jump over

the walls of the closed Arab society and find themselves a an identity and belonging that

the generations before them did not have. So their crisis of confidence is very large. I

believe that in many ways we will be unable to return to the place where we were at the

time of the events of 2000 and this time we will have to start far behind that.

The banality of racism

The recent battle in Gaza was code named Solid Cliff [Defensive Edge in English], a

name that is fitting in view of the constant stories about the true heroism of IDF soldiers

deep behind enemy lines, generals who day and night praise the home front for its

steadfastness and the overwhelming public support, nearly unprecedented in scope. But

behind the cloak of shared fate, mutual solidarity and national fortitude, in recent

weeks a systematic and sometimes unruly ravelling of the already-delicate fabric of

relations between Jews and Arabs has begun. This tear will be difficult to repair, no matter

how great Israels strategic achievements are. The incitement against the Palestinian

citizens of Israel is evident in all areas of life and its manifestations are many: from

drumhead court-martials in the social networks through calls for economic boycotts,

denial of sources of livelihood to people who express identification with the other side

or who have been marked as the other side by a much of the population, all the way up

to harsh physical violence. Sometimes they are spontaneous outbursts, like what

happened to the Sarouji family and the lynching in Jerusalem (about which more below)

but in many cases they are the product of a sturdy and well-oiled machine.

Last week Ali Zoabi had the misfortune of experiencing the power of the organized

incitement machine. Last Sunday evening Zoabi, 35, the chef of the Kalamata restaurant in

Jaffa, received an angry telephone call from a friend who told him a correspondence was

posted on Facebook in which he is quoted as having said in response to the death of a

soldier, six million is my lucky number. Someone attached a picture of Zoabi to the post

and wrote: This is an Arab whose name is Ali Zoabi. He lives in our country, works at a

restaurant in Jaffa, and welcomes the deaths of all the Jews and says that the number he

loves best is 6 million. Please share urgently!

I was in a panic, says Zoabi. I understood that someone had hacked my Facebook

account. I never wrote anything like that. All my life I have worked with Jews, I live in

neighbourhoods with Jews in Jaffa, most of my friends are Jews. In high school I took a trip

to Poland, I cried at Auschwitz. My opinions are the most centrist in the world. It never

would have occurred to me to say anything like that. Its a blood-libel to put a black stain

on me.

More telephone calls soon followed, including to the restaurant. My wife got calls from

friends at work and was shocked, we hurried to the police station to file a complaint. After

that I went to Facebook and posted a status that my heart is with the soldiers, that I hope

that they will return safe to their parents, and my heart is also with the innocent people in

Gaza who have been caught in a situation that is not their fault, that I hope there will be

peace and that I did not write those words, someone was trying to frame me.

The episode refused to die. I got an e-mail or message on Facebook, with an alleged

correspondence by Ali, says Amikam Beluko, one of the owners of the Kalamata, and

then began abusive calls and calls by supposedly concerned citizens who said, that man

works at your place, look what he wrote on Facebook. I said theres nothing to talk about,

Ali denies that its his post and even if its true, theres no story here. We went through

two days of dozens of abusive messages on Facebook fire the traitorous employee, die,

you are boycotted, how can I know he will not poison me in your restaurant. Telephone

calls that begin as if it is a regular reservation and then the caller asks, does Ali Zoabi work

for you? It seems logical that while soldiers are dying, go die with them, go to Gaza, we

will make sure than no one eats at your place and youll go bankrupt. So far the volume

was reasonable. I wrote a clarification on Facebook, quite neutral, that said that we do not

judge a man on his origins, what was posted was incorrect and we stand behind him and

behind the IDF. Much less than what I wanted to write, but never mind its business

after all.

But on Wednesday night a week ago the status was put on the Facebook page of Not in

our school, the purpose of which is to expose opponents of the Operation and the IDF,

especially Arabs, and to cause them to lose their jobs. The page has about 28 thousand

followers. We demand that this guy be fired immediately, for 6 million reasons!!! is

written on the page, next to the qualification: friends, we ask again that you not contact

the profile that appears in the picture, and especially do not threaten his life!! Just

address the appropriate parties!! Thank you and Am Yisrael Chai!!!!

The post on Zoabi got over 3,400 links and 1,344 shares. At that point everything went

crazy, says Beluko. Starting on Wednesday last week and throughout the whole weekend

the restaurant was flooded with harassing phone calls. Beluko: You employ terrorists,

die, burn. I tried to talk to them but it was impossible, theyre a bunch of psychos. Among

the quotes that were e-mailed to the restaurant: A person who expresses support for the

Holocaust is not worthy of being a member of the staff of an Israeli workplace, especially

in a restaurant, where that same person comes into daily contact with food that is served

to diners and is likely to use that access to harm them the minimum that you can do is

stop showing contempt for us by sucking up to people who want to destroy us, even if

they happen to be employees of yours. I demand of you as an Israeli business to

dismiss Ali Zoabi immediately and to please report to the Israel Police to put him on trial

for incitement. To the extent that you decide otherwise we will see that as identification

with the enemy and expect consequences. An e-mail that arrived in English read: I plan

to tell all my thousands of friends to avoid your restaurant like the plague. He could

poison the customers!! You are negligent, or irresponsible, or evil.

I also got a lot of supportive calls, from all my friends and former employers, everyone

who worked with me, says Zoabi, but people who called the restaurant said that I am a

terrorist, a hater of Israel, statements like in dictatorships. Dozens of calls a day. I couldnt

work, I sat in the kitchen and was busy with phone calls and people who contacted me. It

was the Ramadan fast, but even in the evening I couldnt eat. Fortunately Amikam is a

thoughtful man who understands the situation and expressed full support. If it were a

person with more extreme views or a weaker spine I would have been fired. Even so, it

will hurt me in the future, if I want to open a restaurant or work in another place. The

damage is long-term.

The fear spread to his private life as well. My wife was afraid to leave the house in the

evening hours. I tried to tell her that people arent that crazy around here, but she said

that we cant know, were the only Arabs in the building. My younger brother and my

sister wanted to go shopping in Bat Yam, I told them not to go, in case someone heard

them speaking Arabic. Its a holiday now and were off work, but Im telling you that 80%

of the Arabs of Jaffa will not leave Jaffa, from fear.

I fear that one day I will come across a group of right-wing extremists on the street, he

adds. And what will I explain to them? Pull the complaint to the police out of my

briefcase? Im pretty sure theyd attack me. It makes me very angry, as an Arab who is

loyal to the State of Israel. Recently I have heard statements that I didnt think people

would dare say openly. I had thought that racists were ashamed, that they said such

things only in private. Part of my family is in Gaza, and my heart aches for those innocent

simple people there. I do not support terror, I am for peace for both peoples and stopping

the killing on both sides.

Prof. Effie Yaar, head of the Evans Program for Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel

Aviv University, claims that today there is no longer any shame in saying I hate Arabs,

and not only to say it, but also to attack. The process of radicalization he speaks of is also

backed by numerical data he has compiled from Peace Index surveys done by the Israel

Democracy Institute and the Open University. Already for two decades now the Right has

constituted about 55% of the Jewish public, the Centre about 20% and the Left about 15%.

The ratio of the Right to the Left among Jews in Israel is more than three to one.

The strengthening of the Right inclines towards the extreme Right, both the secular and

the religious. We are seeing a process of radicalization in Jewish society, the cutting edge

of which is the settlers. A link has been forged between the Haredi-religious public and the

secular-rightist public (which is led by leaders like Avigdor Lieberman), who are creating

together a strong camp that is hard to influence. This bloc is becoming hegemonic, in the

sense that the rule of the majority expresses the spirit of the era. You could say that the

spirit of the era today is extreme right wing. So it is clear that if this is the mood of Israeli

society, all the conditions for hatred of and hostility towards Arabs are present.

Haaretz: Can the attitude towards the Arabs change in the near or distant future?

It will not change through internal processes. All the more so because in the education

system and then the IDF they are constantly strengthening this radicalization process. In

that regard, those to whom liberal democracy in Israel is close to their hearts have cause

to worry.

Haaretz: And where do the Israeli Arabs stand regarding their identity and their loyalty?

The Arabs in Israel are caught between four identities Israeli, Palestinian, Arab and

Muslim/Christian. There are tensions between those identities. Surveys we have done

show that the weakest of those identities is the Israeli one. Theres a hierarchy, in which

the Arab identity is stronger than the Palestinian one, and the Palestinian one is stronger

than the Israeli one. But still, their loyalty to the State of Israel is much greater than the

public thinks.

Haaretz: Are they a minority that suffers from problems that minorities suffer from at

the hands of the majority, or is this a special case?

If we seek a case for comparison, then we could compare the Arab minority in Israel to

the German minority in Czechoslovakia before the Second World War. A large German

minority lived in Czechoslovakia, which was an exemplary democratic state between the

two World Wars. When Nazism began to rise in Germany, the Czechs feared that the

German minority would play the role that is ascribed to the Arabs in Israel today as a

fifth column that would undermine the foundations of the Czech state. What

characterized the German minority in Czechoslovakia was that it was supported by a state

that had become powerful. Similarly the Israelis fear that the Arab minority, which is

supported by the large and strong Arab world, will turn its back on them. But unlike

Czechoslovakia, which was one of the stronger democracies, it cannot be said of us that

we are an enlightened democracy at least, not in recent decades.

Prof. Amal Jamal of the political science department of Tel Aviv University also shares the

view that racism has come to be much more formal and supported by the political

establishment, in a way we had not seen before. When there are ministers who speak

explicitly like Lieberman, Bennett and even Lapid here and there, the public feels that

racism, incitement and violence against the Arab public has legitimacy. Its not new, of

course, but what is new is its strength, clarity and boldness. What was concealed in the

past is now found out in the open, theres no longer any shame. The social networks do

not change its nature, but they definitely strengthen it. And lastly is the dichotomy, which

has taken hold more and more in recent weeks, between friend and enemy, lack of

understanding for a middle position, the complexity of the Palestinian population in Israel.

Either you are with us or against us. If you are not an enemy you are a potential enemy.

Jamal mentions that even in the year 2000 (the Intifada) the electric company, Bezeq [the

telephone company] and other service providers did not enter Arab villages for months.

But then no one was saying boycott. Nor were there fascist right-wing storm companies

on the streets. Now the racism is clear and established.

It also stems from sociological processes within Jewish society religiositization (the

strengthening of the religious establishments) and the trend towards nationalism. The

connection between religion and nationalism has become very racist. The people in those

storm comopanies come from a very clear background of nationalism with semi-religious

or traditional outlooks. Now they are in the establishment. Israel Our Home and the

Jewish Home are avowedly nationalist parties with a very authoritarian outlook that want

to repudiate aspects of democracy in order to subjugate the Arab public, and they will not

settle for democratic instruments to subjugate the source of the threat.

Haaretz: What role do the media play in this public atmosphere?

They remind me of the media from before 1973, with the Editors Committee (then the

press censored itself, which led to complacency about the military balance [in advance of

the Yom Kippur War trans.]). The Israeli media have closed ranks and rallied to the flag

with zeal like we have not seen for a long time, and they bar the possibility of serious and

far-reaching discussion about what is going on and the policies of the government. In this

context the great influence of Israel Hayom is notable. Yediot Ahronot has become Israel

Hayom 2, and Channel 10 has become the second Channel 2. The power of Israel Hayom is

in setting the boundaries of legitimate discourse, and that has very strong influence.

Bending the upright generation

Jamal holds the media responsible for the disciplined tone, but an additional media

component is linked to the choice of subjects to be covered. The flood of prolonged

coverage, the usual deployment on the border of the Gaza Strip and in hospitals, the

merry-go-round of commentaries by the military correspondents, political correspondents

and Arab affairs correspondents, and the crate full of clichs of whichever security expert

is on duty does not leave much time for introspection, if any. Accordingly, even a brutal

lynching like the one that took place this week in Jerusalem against two young Arabs

received minor coverage. For those who missed it, the two, residents of Beit Hanina, said

that their assailants were equipped with an iron bar and a baseball bat. According the

account one of them gave to the correspondent Nir Hasson of Haaretz, one of them

came from the direction of Neve Yaakov and said give me a cigarette, I told him I didnt

have any, he heard that I was an Arab and went and came back seconds later with his

friends, maybe 12 people. They had sticks and iron bars and started to beat us. The two

were taken to the Hadassa Ein Kerem hospital in serious condition. They were operated

on in the neurosurgical department and the next day their condition stabilized and one

was classified as fair and the other as good.

That incident, as a living embodiment of the hate in its most explicit and direct form,

managed to claw its way towards the bottom of the newscasts and the newspapers, but

Jerusalem in the past few weeks has become one big price tag scene with a pile of

incidents that have not made it to the mainstream media. Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher for

the Ir Amim organization which monitors the social fabric in Jerusalem through the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict, has compiled some of them: Palestinian taxi drivers were attacked

after a right-wing demonstration in front of the prime ministers house, when Israelis

stopped them on Haneviim Street and checked their identities; the vandalization of a

Muslim prayer-room on the premises of the Egged company; an Arab lawyer and her

client were hit with pepper spray by three passers-by as they left an office in Givat Shaul,

and more and more.

Niv Hachlili detailed in the independent Internet magazine The Hottest Place in Hell a

series of similar incidents that took place on Saturday night two weeks ago: a woman who

was walking with her two children in the Old City said that two young Jews tried to stab

her, a cleaner who was attacked on the edge of the Musrara neighbourhood and a

resident of Jabal Mukaber said that his wife and daughter were attacked in the industrial

zone of Talpiot as they were on their way home. Hachlili stressed that those incidents

were not reported to the police and were not covered in the Israeli media, and added that

the events of recent weeks have shredded what remained of the cloak of coexistence in

the capital city between its Israeli citizens and its Arab residents.

And indeed, social activists we have talked to tell us that hardly anything remains of the

tapestry of the cosmopolitan life of Jerusalem, in which the populations were entwined.

The city centre, including Cat Square, Zion Square and Haneviim Street, is almost empty of

Arabs, and even in the shopping centres at least the Malha mall their presence is not

felt.

It is noteworthy that this rift exists in all the mixed cities, even if the racism often takes a

form that is murky, deceptive and ambiguous. An Arab accountant from Lydda said this

week that three of his Jewish clients left him in the past week, just like that, with no

explanation. And two Arab youths, originally from the Galilee, who have been living for

several years in Tel Aviv and work in the restaurant sector, received notice this week from

the owner of their apartment that their lease would not be renewed and they must vacate

the premises immediately. The landlord lives next to us and he always made us feel

comfortable, he was our best friend, until the Operation began. Suddenly he stopped

greeting us, made faces, flung words at us like soldiers of ours were killed today, and a

few days ago he said that we had to leave as soon as possible, said one of them. Its not

just him. If I am on the street and talk on the telephone in Arabic people pass me widely,

make comments. I was sitting on a bench on Rothschild Boulevard and someone started

to curse youre killing us, go to Gaza, they should expel you all.

On the whole, it seems that given the spirit of the era the mere use of the Arabic language

in a public place has explosive potential. Film director Suha Arraf, 45, who lives in Haifa,

tells us: last week I got on the train to Tel Aviv. I had not heard the news that morning,

but from the talk of the people in the train I understood that soldiers had been killed.

Sentences like they should cleanse Gaza, a very charged atmosphere. In the middle of

the trip one of the passengers got a phone call and began to reply in Arabic. It was as if he

had thrown a bomb. Someone yelled at him that he was bothering her by talking loudly,

even though the young woman right next to her was yelling at someone on the telephone

in Russian and no one said anything to her. He answered her, Im speaking quietly, and

people started to yell at him to turn off the telephone. Someone yelled that they should

separate the Arabs from the Jews and they shouldnt ride in the same train. I told her that

she was a fascist and a racist who wants to go back to the age of slavery, then they all

started to yell at me and at the guy.

According to Arraf, incidents like that have become routine, like the one that happened to

her recently in Haifa: I was standing in line at an ATM and the woman in front of me was

taking a long time. I asked her, have you finished? and she said, what do you want,

stinking Arab? I asked her, why stinking? I just showered. A third incident took place

just before her conversation with a correspondent for the Haaretz supplement: I had just

arrived in Tel Aviv, I was standing at the University station and waiting for a bus, my

telephone rang and I answered in Arabic. I told the caller how theyre looking at me here,

it looks like they want to murder me. I look modern, and when people suddenly find out

Im an Arab they dont know what to do. And then the yelling began arent you [plural]

ashamed? arent you [singular] ashamed? I leave the house a lot less often now,

because I dont want to go through that.

Those who must leave their homes try to reduce as much as possible the potential for

friction with hostile elements, for example by minimizing Arab-looking characteristics. H,

an Arab lawyer [female] from the centre of the country relates that the day after the

murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir I heard from a friend who is doing a doctorate at the

Hebrew University that while she was travelling on a train she saw an attack on a

Palestinian woman wearing a head-covering. Even she, a strong and educated woman, has

begun to conceal herself, to wear sunglasses, so they cant tell shes an Arab. When Im in

a bus I try to answer my phone as little as possible, so they dont hear me speaking Arabic.

I notified all my friends that I will not answer. In my car theres a black ribbon from a

womens organization with writing in Arabic Im against the murder of women. Not long

ago I was in a traffic-jam at Modiin and I saw that they were looking at me inside the car,

right away I put it away. I told my mother, dont go out alone. She wears a head-covering,

so they can tell shes an Arab.

In 2002 Prof. Khawla Abu-Baker published with Prof. Danny Rabinowitz the book The

Upright Generation, which described the third generation of the Arabs of Israel, the third

generation of the Nakba, who do not fear to express their national identity and to struggle

for it. Among other things they did that when they played an important role in the events

of 2000, thereby differentiating themselves from the generation of their parents who are

described in the book as the worn-down generation and the generation of their

grandparents, who are the generation of survivors. But the year 2000 has passed, the

separation fence has been built, the Occupation is not going anywhere, and

manifestations of racism have only become more common and harsh. Has that upright

generation disappeared? Has its stature been lowered? Does the Arab sector still harbour

hope for a new generation of strong leaders?

Prof. Abu-Baker says that it is too soon for eulogies. The upright generation is organizing

demonstrations in the centres of the Jewish cities as well as in the Arab communities.

They are mobilizing civil society internationally, following the Israeli media and analyzing

them from a Palestinian perspective, spreading the news from Gaza to the world,

gathering donations for the needy in Gaza and morally supporting the population. The

fear of heckling on the Israeli street is more instructive about the behaviour of the Israeli

Jewish street, not the Palestinian.

Haaretz: But still, the level of protest on the Arab street is at a low level sporadic

demonstrations, a symbolic strike. Can we expect a popular uprising like in the time of

the Intifada?

I analyze the response of the Jewish street as acts of revenge that resemble the stance

of masters who are surprised at the responses of their slaves. Jews are employed in

Arab society, some of them serve in the reserves or have relatives fighting now in Gaza,

but they have not been dismissed from their jobs or been subjected to acts of revenge.

Haaretz: Or maybe it is harder to mobilize the Palestinian public in Israel to identify with

Gaza than to identify with the residents of the West Bank, like during the Intifada?

In quiet times, there are intra-Palestinian arguments about the stance to adopt towards

Israel. But when Israel is bombing the civilian population in the West Bank or Gaza, the

humanitarian issue dissolves all the political or national disagreements. The Palestinian

voices that support Operation Solid Cliff are unusual.

Haaretz: Twelve years have passed since The Upright Generation was published. Can

we now speak of the characteristics of the fourth generation?

Yes. Their responses are more measured, quick, professional, critical, bold, organized and

comprehensive than those of their parents. As a group they are guided, supported and

protected.

Meanwhile, in view of the worrisome increase in incidents, and the feeling that the

enforcement authorities are unable to stop them, the Shutafut Sharaka (partnership)

Forum, a coalition of social organizations for a shared future of equality for Jews and

Arabs, has launched an interactive map to report incidents of racism against Arabs in

Israel. The map, which is entitled Kifaya (enough in Arabic), provides a compact

geographically-divided platform for the purpose of preventing the testimonies from being

drowned in a flood of social networks, and is intended to make it easier to deal with them

and to follow up on them, whether through direct dialogue with the perpetrators or

exposing the incidents in the media. Most of the testimonies are published anonymously,

in a way similar to an on-line support group. In Sharaka they say that many of the stories

that reach them are not put into writing at all, from fear of those involved that active

response could elicit further harassment.

From a Facebook status to immediate dismissal

But only in rare cases are the victims able to wage an effective struggle like that of Omar

(not his real name), 31, from Taibe, who has worked for six years as a department

manager and acting assistant manager at a Shufersal supermarket. About two weeks ago

he was called to the branch managers office, where the district manager and the

manager of the security department were also waiting for him. Did you post this? they

asked him and showed him two statuses from his Facebook page, with photos of police

and soldiers beating demonstrating Arab women and children, and the words, Whats

this, you play the big heroes with women and children? Next to one of the pictures were

the words, Do you want to meet your Maker, you sons of bitches? Omar: If the police

would beat up men, that wouldnt interest me, thats their job, he explains. But these

were women with babies, thats what made me mad. I am not in favour of violence at all.

I told the managers, yes, thats my page. Theres no incitement here, its just an opinion.

They told me to go out for half an hour, and then they called me to give me a letter for a

dismissal hearing.

Omar left the branch and immediately called [Member of the Knesset the Israeli

parliament] Ahmad Tibi, who he knows personally. Tibi told me, give me your Facebook

password, I have to check that what you said was legal. He checked and told me, its

perfectly OK, nothing here crosses the line. Theres no incitement. He talked to the CEO

of Shufersal who promised him that he would deal with the matter fairly. Tibi told me, go

to the hearing and report to me how it went.

By then the matter had come to the attention of journalists from the Arab sector, and he

began to be interviewed. Attorney Najwan Shabta, who specializes in freedom of

expression, called and offered to accompany him to the hearing, which took place in the

presence of the district manager and the branch manager and a representative of the

workers committee. But when the hearing started, when the committee representative

heard that Omar had brought a lawyer with him, she asked that the hearing be cancelled

and that it be held on another day and that Omar appear without legal representation.

After deliberations between the representative and the managers, they announced to

Omar that the hearing was cancelled and instead there would be an inquiry, to which he

could not bring a lawyer. The inquiry was set for three days later.

At the inquiry the managers told him: Go back to work, and dont take this as an Arab-

Jewish matter, says Omar. They asked me, do you want to say something? Then I told

them that there is a Shufersal employees group on Facebook, including assistant

managers, department managers and employees of all ranks who wrote far worse things

about the Arab side: murder, kill. Really? asked the manager I didnt know. I will

monitor that group, and whoever wrote those things will be dealt with.

Omar asked to be transferred to another branch, but pending the arrangements for that

he has returned to work at the old branch. Three quarters of the Jewish workers dont

talk to me, even people I helped economically when they were in hardship. When I pass

by them they whisper, death to Arabs so that I can hear it. I restrain myself, as much as I

can. It wasnt like that during Operation Pillar of Cloud. [Israels military campaign in Gaza

in 2012. Called Pillar of Defence in English trans.]

Omar learned well the lesson about his freedom of expression. I removed the Shufersal

logo from my Facebook page. I changed my name from English to Hebrew. I removed my

photo and put a black square. Its frightening that they can go in whenever they want and

check what youre writing, and there are so many groups that monitor Arabs on the web.

Since the incident was published, I have been approached by many people who asked how

they can contact Tibi. There are many people this has happened to but did not have the

good fortune to know a Knesset Member.

The reply from Shufersal: Shufersal takes every incident of incitement very seriously,

encouragement or support for acts of violence or any other extremist or hurtful

statement, and we deplore any statement of that kind. We look into every incident that is

reported to us thoroughly and we deal with it immediately. The employee was invited to a

discussion to clarify the facts and not to a hearing, and the contact with MK Tibi had no

effect on the outcome of the inquiry. Every incident is examined on its own terms, and the

decision is made based on the facts of the incident and the findings that emerge from the

investigation that is conducted. The company treats its employees with complete equality,

and whenever an incident of violation of instructions or company policy is uncovered, the

matter will be dealt with without any regard for the employees religion or origin.

OM, a nurse who has worked for several years at the Sheba hospital, also struggled for his

job. His dismissal began on the day the four children were killed on the beach in Gaza,

after which he posted the following status on his Facebook page: The IDF is a war

criminal, it kills innocents, and the State claims that it was a mistake. I call for the incident

to be investigated. It did not take long for the phone call to come from the hospital, and

OM was invited to appear at a dismissal hearing within an hour. He quickly consulted a

lawyer, Jamal Tawfiq Mahamid, who asked the hospital to postpone the hearing by 24

hours because he was not free to appear on such short notice. For its part the hospital

management announced that if he did not show up at the appointed time, , the hearing

would take place without him, and that is what indeed happened. OM was suspended for

two weeks ex parte.

In response OM appealed to the Labour Court in Tel Aviv, claiming that the suspension

was inconsistent with freedom of expression. The first deliberation at the appeal will take

place on 31 July, and OM says that he has received a great deal of support in the

meantime from Jewish workers at the hospital, who call, text and talk to him about his

just struggle. A doctor even sent a letter to Prof. Zeev Rotstein, the director of the Sheba

hospital, asking him to reconsider his decision, on the grounds that it contradicts

democratic values.

Although OM and Omar struggled overtly, they still ask not to be identified. After OMs

name was mentioned on a website, he was subject to a hail of threats and invective, from

threats to break his legs to cutting his tongue out and of course, sending him to Gaza.

They robbed me of my right to freedom of expression, says OM angrily. And the

imbalance also disgusts me. From Jewish employees I have seen far worse statuses, like

they should kill all the Arabs, throw all the Arabs to Gaza and another who says we

should all be burnt. Not one of them was called to a hearing. Unlike what they said, my

post was not inciteful at all.

Attorney Mahamid is disappointed at the hospitals behaviour, but not surprised. When

all the left-wing correspondents, commentators and Knesset members are afraid to

publicly condemn the killing of civilians, it is not surprising that the hospital would act like

that. No one has made the distinction, and we are not allowed to make the distinction,

between the war on Hamas and killing the civilian population in Gaza. We are a whole

slice of the population that is barred from expressing its opinion. Knesset members and

ministers are State employees too, and they express opinions far worse than what OM

said, but no one thinks to dismiss them for incitement to violence.

The reply of the Sheba Medical Centre: Prof. Zeev Rotstein suspended a nurse, a member

of a minority group, who had written on his Facebook page, in a status open to all, that

soldiers of the IDF are war criminals in view of the employees failure to appear at the

hearing, he was suspended effective immediately, and subsequent disciplinary

proceedings will be dealt with by the Civil Service Commission. The director of the Medical

Centre would like to make it clear that Sheba is an island of tolerance for its entire staff

and all who pass through its doors. An attack on this value in such a harsh way, and

especially at this time, when the entire hospital is enlisted in caring for soldiers and

civilians as well as sick and wounded Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, cannot be tolerated.

Whoever contravenes the principle of tolerance has no place with us in Sheba.

Raja al-Amuri from Jerusalem also found herself in the line of fire due to Facebook. Al-

Amuri, a 23-year-old mother of two, is a first-year student in biotechnology at the

Hadassah College. She has a bursary for excellence and another one for economic need.

On the evening of 19 July she was studying for an exam when she began to get messages

on her cellphone. I didnt look, I kept studying, and then my [female] friend called and

told me that someone had taken a status from my Facebook page and gave it to the

colleges students association, who made a fuss about it.

The status was a photo of a wounded soldier, with the words I hope that they all come

back like this, or not at all. Al-Amuri says that she did not write that. I hardly ever go to

Facebook, and they already hacked it in the past. I have a family, I have children, theres

Ramadan now and exams, I have no time for Facebook at the moment. I didnt write that

status.

Another student [female] in the college printed the status, stuck posters of it all over the

campus and wrote something like, this is an Arab student who studies with me, I do not

know how she could have written something so racist. I started to get messages on the

phone 60-70 messages with abuse like daughter of a whore and threats to kill me.

They sent me pictures of dead children in Gaza and wrote this is how they come home to

you. Someone [male] wrote to me, I hope they kill you and your children.

According to al-Amuri, later that day someone called me from the college and asked if it

was my Facebook account. I said yes, and she said, OK, bye. The next day, al-Amuri

received a notice from the college telling her that she could not return to the college

because she had posted a racist status, and that she had to return the bursary she had

received. My sister studies at the college, she went to the administration and tried to talk

to them but they didnt want to listen. They said, yes yes, well get back to you but they

didnt get back. I called ten times and they didnt answer me.

After the murder of Muhammad Abu-Khdeir I saw a status by a [female] student in

Facebook that said, lets kill the Arabs in all the Territories, we want to kill them. We

went to the students association and they didnt do anything. Everything happened to me

within two days, even though they know me at the college from my studies and the work I

do in connection to my bursary. In my opinion they should know that I do not act that

way. Al-Amuri consulted a lawyer, who sent a letter to the college with a request that

they reply within a week, but he got no answer.

On Tuesday, a few hours before the interview with the Haaretz supplement, al-Amuri was

contacted by the police. They told me to report for questioning at 18:00 today. My

lawyer cant go. Ive already missed two exams and I dont know what to do, says al-

Amuri.

The colleges reply: The College embraces the values of equality, democracy and freedom

of expression. Jewish, Arab, secular, Haredi, right-wing and left-wing students study

together in the College, and each one of them is permitted to exercise their legitimate

right to freedom of expression. The College does not and has never monitored the

Facebook accounts of its students. The post under discussion was posted, not by the

College, on the Colleges official Facebook page. It was not found at the initiative of the

College. In view of the concern that the post included words of incitement and sedition

which are proscribed by the law, the College contacted the student about the matter, and

only after the student admitted that she had written the post did the College contact the

Israel Police about the matter. The students allegations are inconsistent (to put it mildly)

with the facts. The College regrets the students conduct and her distortion of the facts

Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi: The dismissal or expulsion of Arabs for what they wrote on

Facebook is illegal. But beyond the law its a witch-hunt of Arabs. Its pure McCarthyism.

Its also the practical translation of fascism in this war Israeli society has undergone an

upgrading from fascism to invasive, persecutory, threatening and intimidating fascism.

Have you heard about any Jew being fired because he wrote that they should kill another

1,000 Palestinian children? MK Ayelet Shaked wrote a status that called for the killing of

Palestinian mothers (They are all enemy fighters and their blood is on all of their heads.

Now it includes the mothers of the shahids, who send them to hell with flowers and

kisses. They need to follow their children, nothing is more just. They need to go, along

with the physical houses where they raised the snakes, wrote Shaked). Imagine if an Arab

MK wrote something like that. Arabs have been dismissed from their jobs in Israel for less

than that.

Attorney Sawsan Zahar, the manager of the social and economic rights unit at Adalah, the

Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, explains that those dismissals violate two

laws, which still exist in Israel despite the general atmosphere of impunity. The first is the

Employment (Equal Opportunities) Law of 1988, which stipulates that it is forbidden to

discriminate against a person, including dismissal, on the grounds of political opinion. The

second law is freedom of expression, which began as a ruling by the High Court of Justice

in 1953, and since then has been strengthened to the point of becoming a constitutional

right. According to the law, you cannot dismiss a person only because of what they say,

explains Zahar. This means that most of the dismissals of Israeli Arabs that we have seen

recently have been illegal. Even if these posts are not exactly conciliatory or are even

unpleasant in one way or another, they still constitute verbal expressions and not acts,

and so they are not considered something for which restricting freedom of expression can

be justified.

Zahar explains that Adalah has recently received many complaints about arbitrary

dismissal, which in her opinion are intended to appease public opinion by punishing

people for certain posts punishment for apparent disloyalty. On Thursday a week ago

representatives of the organization have submitted requests to the Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission and to the Labour Laws Enforcement Supervisor at the Ministry

of Industry, Trade and Labour [called the Economy Ministry since 2013 trans.] to

investigate these incidents as well as the general atmosphere that leads to such

discriminatory dismissals. She says that most of the dismissals have been in the private

sector, but the law is the same law for both civil servants and for private employers.

And what about removal from educational institutions?

The law that applies in academic cases is the Students Rights Law, and the supervising

body is the Higher Education Council. The law permits freedom of expression for students

and bars their removal because of their political positions. But unlike in work-places, every

academic institution has its own regulations according to which they are permitted to

discipline students who violate the universitys regulations. We get many complaints from

Arab students who have been subject to disproportionate disciplinary proceedings,

hearings and even expulsion because of things they have said. Were in the process of

appealing to the Higher Education Council, which will instruct the universities not to

restrict the students freedom of expression.

I, Israeli Arab

A quick perusal of the social networks reveals that if everyone who called for death to

Arabs or joyfully cheered the killing of Gazan civilians were deprived of their means of

livelihood, the unemployment offices would collapse under the weight. Still, one cannot

but be revolted at statements such as the one by an educational counsellor at the Lydda

municipality, who wrote on her Facebook page, 13 killed (killed soldiers) may there be

many more Amen, or an employee of the Tiv Taam supermarket chain who wrote May

all their soldiers die. And all the Jews. Burn them, Hamas (they were both dismissed from

their jobs).

The rage and the ferment in the Arab sector became particularly salient after the murder

of the youth Muhammad Abu Khdeir from Shufat, after which hundreds of Arabs from

the Triangle, Wadi Ara and Nazareth launched demonstrations which quickly became

riots, including the ritual of raising banners condemning the State, burning tires, throwing

stones and Molotov cocktails (at the entrance to Qalansawe). The Wallah! website

reported that during the disturbances masked people attacked a 20-year-old IDF soldier,

who was evacuated to the Meir hospital in Kfar Saba in fair condition, and in another

incident a Jewish drivers car was burnt after he was forcefully removed from it by the

demonstrators. The same day the police arrested about 50 people on suspicion of

involvement in disturbance of the peace in Jerusalem, cities in the Triangle, Taibe and

Qalansawe. Similarly it was reported that on about 15 Palestinian youths burst into a

Sabbath dinner at the Diaspora Yeshiva on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and started to throw

large stones into the dining room. And that on Al Khanka Street in the Old City in

Jerusalem a Jewish woman was attacked by a group of Palestinians, and the attackers fled

only after her husband fired into the air.

Prof. Amal Jamal suggests that the importance of these scattered manifestations of revolt

should not be exaggerated: The demonstrations came in response to the policy of

searches and collective punishment by the IDF after the kidnapping of the Jewish youths

in the West Bank, and also after the news of the Arab youth who was burnt. Arab society

is not passive and no one can sit at home. True, there were violent demonstrations, but

that is always on the margins of every conflict like this. Especially when an Arab boy is

kidnapped that angered people because the police could have prevented such a thing,

and at the beginning the news talked about how all the options were open regarding

the motive and his being a homosexual etc. The murder of a child is always a catalyst. And

the fact is that what lowered the flames was the feeling that the police took the matter

seriously and caught those responsible.

And what about expressions of joy when soldiers are killed?

We must separate the wheat from the chaff. There is no doubt that the Arab population

is in great distress over this conflict, the scale of the killing leaves no one indifferent. On

the other hand, the leadership of the Arab public contains responsible people and most of

them have never expressed joy or agreement at the killing of civilians or soldiers, apart

from extremists. There are people who say it, but they do not represent the political or

intellectual elite or most of the religious elite. Joy at the misfortunes of others is very

much on the margins.

Nevertheless, it is possible that these outbursts are still a local expression of radicalization

of positions of the Arab population in Israel, as reflected in the Index of Jewish-Arab

Relations in Israel, an annual survey conducted by Prof. Sammy Smooha of Haifa

University and the Israel Democracy Institute. In 2012 the Index showed a growth in the

tendency of Israeli Arabs to be alienated from the State, with 49.5% of the respondents

replying that they support the creation of a single Palestinian state on the entire territory

of the Land of Israel [1] between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea (compared

to only 16.6% in 1995 an 19.7% in 2003) and 24% of them denied the right of the State of

Israel to exist (compared to only 10.3% in 1995 and 11.2% in 2003). However, the data

from Smoohas last survey, which was conducted in the last quarter of 2013, indicate that

that trend has halted, for the first time in 12 years.

The data show that last year there was some improvement in the image of Jews in Arab

eyes, such that there was a reduction in the degree of their alienation from the State and

a peaking of the long-term growth of their sense of grievance. There are three possible

explanations for the peaking of the tendency of Arabs to harden their position, says

Smooha. First, disappointment with the Arab Spring recognition of the fact that

salvation will not come from the unstable Middle East, especially in view of the rise of

extremist Islamic movements. Second, a process of bridging of social gaps between Jews

and Arabs that began years ago and is now beginning to manifest itself, including

academic and economic integration; the third possibility focusses, paradoxically, on

Liebermans call for the Triangle to be annexed to the State of Palestine. On the face of

things that should produce alienation, but it worked the opposite way. The Arabs, most of

whom strongly oppose this proposal, had to explain to themselves why they do not want

to be detached from the State of Israel and to recognize the advantages of living in a

democratic welfare state. Still, Smooha admits that if the survey took place today, the

findings would probably be completely different.

Good for the economy, not the State

During Operation Solid Cliff, which serves as an effective vector for the campaign of

delegitimization of the Arabs of Israel, we have often heard the call to hurt them through

their pocketbooks. This is the opportune moment for Facebook groups like Not in our

school, Boycott haters of Israel, The Fifth Column in Israel, Concentrate those who

harm Israel(which was closed this week due to surfers complaints of incitement, along

with the page Revenge of the Jews, in which photos of the victims of the lynching in

Jerusalem were proudly displayed) and Boycott Nazareth businesses, which serve as a

platform for finding anyone who speaks out against soldiers of the IDF or dares to express

solidarity with Gaza, and work as a coordinated and orchestrated system to cause them to

lose their jobs or their means of livelihood.

Last week those initiatives received backing from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman,

who called for a boycott of Arab businesses that had gone on strike in identification with

Gaza. In reply, MK Ahmad Tibi compared Lieberman to the Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef

Goebbels, which itself whipped up a storm. Tibi stands by his words: On 1 April 1933

Goebbels convened his aides and called for a boycott of Jewish work-places because they

had demonstrated against the Germans and harmed national morale, he says, and

because the Jews have experienced this themselves, it is even worse when Jews do it.

What makes the boycott of Arab businesses even more absurd is the fact that Lieberman

and the government themselves passed legislation against boycott not long ago.

But it is impossible to speak of economic dispossession, whether expressed by calls for

boycotting a bakery in Acre or withholding a bursary from an Arab student, without

discussing it in the broader context of the distribution of resources. Space constraints

prevent us from describing here all the planning injustices the State has done to the Arabs

for generations starting with seizures of land, then the consistent refusal to build new

villages or towns for Arabs (since the inception of the State not a single one has been

built), up to the refusal to approve master plans in Arab communities, which forces Arab

citizens to build without permits. In matters of housing, the starting-point for Arabs is

much worse. In this regard it suffices to mention that public housing does not exist in Arab

communities, the various admission committees that prevent their integration into

community settlements [Heb. yishuv kehilati] and Yair Lapids programme for

remission of Value Added Tax which discriminates against them on the grounds of not

serving in the military the most current example.

Prof. Rassem Khamaisi of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at

Haifa University, who specializes in strategic planning and urban management, has been

warning for years in his studies that the States obstruction of joint employment zones has

perpetuated the Arab populations state of dependency on the Jewish sector. When all

the employment zones are located inside Jewish communities and regional councils, they

are the ones who scoop up all the revenues and property taxes, even though most of the

employees, and sometimes even the entrepreneurs, are Arabs. In the evening they go

back home to their communities where they dont get adequate services.

Khamaisi lists several locales that could serve as leverage for economic development if

someone would take the Arab population into account, including the Teradion industrial

park in Misgav (part of it was built on land that was expropriated from Sakhnin, which

gets no benefit from it), the Tziporit industrial area (same thing it stands on land

expropriated from Kfar Kana but the revenues go only to Upper Nazareth) and the small

industrial area in Eilabun, the property-tax receipts from which do indeed go to the [Arab]

community, but its aspirations for expansion are blocked by the State (the Lower Galilee

Council agreed to the expansion of Eilabuns boundaries but the Interior Ministry struck

down the decision and now its under deliberation at the High Court of Justice).

This whole current discourse about boycott is making Arab workers and entrepreneurs a

lot more vulnerable and is perpetuating among the youth the perception that the Jews are

not interested in seeing them integrated into the economy, exhibiting creativity and or

creating startups, adds Khamaisi.

Jabir Asaqla, joint director of the Sikui organization for the advancement of civil equality

between Jews and Arabs, claims that recently there has indeed been an effort to integrate

the Arabs into the economy, but it was done mainly for utilitarian reasons: since Israel

joined the OECD, there has been an understanding that the Arabs and the Haredim can

either be partners in production and the economy or they can be a burden, and the

government prefers the first option. That is why, for example, the Authority for the

Economic Development of the Arab, Druze and Circassian Sectors was created in the

Prime Ministers Office. The efforts in this sector are good, but not enough, and they stop

at the borders of the economy. The moment we want to take our citizenship seriously and

become an integral part of Israeli society, they block our path. The whole recent wave of

legislation, like the Jewish Nation Law or the Value Added Tax Law for apartments are

intended to create a situation in which the Arabs will be unable to influence the society.

We are good to work, but not good enough to be a legitimate part of the State.

According to Asaqla, regarding the degree of violence and incitement, we have reached a

point we have not seen before and he holds responsible the right-wing government that

gives backing to these attacks, whether through silence or explicit encouragement. As for

solutions, Asaqla believes that the key is to be found in the creation of joint areas on the

institutional level, like hospitals, train stations and other public areas. Even if we remain

divided on the definitions of the State, those institutions can serve as areas that are civil,

not national, with Arab and Jewish workers.

Initiatives of that kind are promoted by the NGO Neighbours, which was established by

a group of architects, engineers, economists and environmentalists, Jews and Arabs,

residents of the Galilee, who last January announced the creation of a joint regional

planning centre, with the participation of the Misgav Regional Council, the Sakhnin

municipality and the Deir Hanna and Arraba Regional Councils for the purpose of creating

projects in the fields of tourism, environmental quality, education and more.

Dr. Hussein Tarabieh, chairman of Neighbours, says that five key people were assigned to

the matter from each authority, and they began to formulate outlines for such projects,

but then, in a very Middle Eastern way, the border conflict between Sakhnin and Misgav

came into the picture, which sowed an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and tore the

delicate fabric of the togetherness. It was a long-standing conflict rooted in Sakhnins

aspiration to expand to create more space for its residents and to create industrial areas,

which came up against the opposition of Misgav, which is not happy to give up slices of its

jurisdiction and bring the Arab city closer to its residents. An exchange of invective in the

media (Mazen Ghnaim, mayor of Sakhnin, told The Marker in connection to the Teradion

industrial park that the dust and the dirt go to Sakhnin, the money goes to Misgav)

certainly did not help to resolve the disagreement in the negotiations, and it will be

resolved by a boundaries commission appointed by Interior Minister Gideon Saar, which is

to give its recommendations next month.

Meanwhile, Solid Cliff came along. The initiative for regional cooperation has been frozen,

and other ideas that were proposed in the spirit of those optimistic times, not really so

long ago, like merging the Bnei Saknin football club with its neighbour and calling it

Sakhnin-Misgav, have wilted. In that sense, it is only symbolic that this week it was

reported that Eliran Danin, who was the only Jewish player in Bnei Sakhnin, was leaving

the team on the grounds of acclimatization difficulties.

One step forward, a hundred back

In the middle of the well-kept garden in front of the Sarouji familys house in Upper

Nazareth grows an olive tree. We planted it here as soon as we moved to the city, in the

hope that it would be a house of peace, says Nader Sarouji as he stands next to his white

Volvo, pockmarked from the stones that were thrown at it. He says that in the days after

the attack, some neighbours came and asked after us, but I felt that they came out of

curiosity, not from a moral stance, an attempt to express support or to protest against

what had happened. Honestly, I was disappointed. We had been living together in good

neighbourliness for 30 years.

But Sarouji retains his optimism. It was precisely during those most critical days, the

week the shells fell like rain on Gaza and more Israeli soldiers were killed, that my

neighbour Yaakov came and helped me prune the garden. He was just walking along the

street, saw that I was arranging the planters and cleaning the yard, he asked how he could

help and then joined me. We worked together in silence. We had nothing to talk about.

Besides thank you, what could I say to this man who had taken the trouble to help me,

while maybe his children or brothers are now serving in the Israeli army and killing

members of my people in Gaza.

Multiple arrests the policy of silencing voices

Since the murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, and especially since the beginning of

Operation Solid Cliff, there have been many demonstrations by Israeli Arabs against the

Operation, in protest against the murder and from revulsion at the discrimination they

feel. The demonstrations were varied, some of them were peaceful and others stormy.

The police arrested a large number of demonstrators, in numbers comparable only to the

events of October 2000. In demonstrations in Haifa 48 Israeli Arabs were arrested,

including two minors, and after all those arrests, only two indictments were filed. At

demonstrations in Nazareth 40 people were arrested, including 26 minors, with nine

indictments.

Attorney Suhad Bishara from Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, is

representing some of the arrested people. Bishara says that the police acted harshly and

violently, and describes many false arrests and violations of the rights of arrestees. Most

of the minors were interrogated without judicial representation, not by youth

investigators and without the presence of a parent, and they were told that if they asked

for a lawyer it would only harm them. All that is against the law. Some of them were

pressured to confess that they had thrown only one stone and that way theyd get a

lighter punishment.

She says that many of the minors are 14 and 15 year olds for whom this was their first and

only encounter with the authorities. Many of them were beaten and needed medical care.

The organization is filing complaints about these violations to the Police Investigation Unit,

and is considering whether to complain to the Attorney General about the matter.

Were the demonstrations violent?

I was not present at the demonstrations, but I know that at least the demonstration in

Haifa, at which there were many arrests, was not violent at all. No one threw stones, no

streets were blocked, the march took place according to the law accompanied by police.

From the material in the arrest files, there were about 400 police at a demonstration of

hundreds of demonstrators. You dont see numbers like that at Jewish demonstrations.

There were Special Patrol Units, police on horses, police dogs and police with full

ammunition. These are things youre not supposed to see at demonstrations at all. But for

some reason we see them at demonstrations for Arab rights.

There were also arrests at homes. We know of many minors who were taken from their

homes at three and four in the morning. According to their accounts, they were not part

of the events, but the police decided to take them from their beds in the middle of the

night. Of course that is a traumatic event. They take them from their homes as if they can

do whatever they want. They could have been summoned the next morning to report for

questioning with their parents. It would have achieved the same result in a less violent

and menacing way.

What is the purpose of those mass arrests in your opinion?

It is clear that it is an attempt to deter and to intimidate and part of the policy of

silencing people.

Translators note

1. I.e. the territory of the State of Israel plus the lands it has occupied since June 1967,

which corresponds approximately to the historical geographic region of Palestine. It is

often called Eretz Yisrael (literally, the Land of Israel) by Jews for historical-religious

reasons and due to the areas status as a the Jewish Holy Land and a Divine endowment as

reflected in the terms appearance in the Bible, or for political-nationalist reasons, in

affirmation of the State of Israels right to control and colonize the West Bank, if not to

formally annex it, by virtue of the Jewish Peoples historical-moral and in the view of

some, legal right to possess that territory.

Translated from Hebrew by George Malent