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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

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