Besieged on all sides, Israeli Arabs preach message of coexistence

At a hotel perched on a hillside above Nazareth, fresh Israeli evacuees from northern kibbutzim near the Lebanese border sit for breakfast at tables next to Arab families.

On a breezy balcony overlooking the predominantly Christian-Arab town in the Galilee region, they laugh and chatter as their children play together in an adjacent courtyard.

“This is the way things should be. We are proof that coexistence is not only a possible future, but the only possible future,” says Ghassan, a server. “But we can’t make our voice heard.”

Variously describing themselves as Israeli Arabs or Palestinians – they are citizens of Israel with a Palestinian identity – they are suffering a twin tragedy from the escalating Israel-Hamas war, grieving friends and relatives killed by Hamas in Israel and by Israeli missile strikes in Gaza.

Pinned in by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia in the north, a far-right Israeli government that is detaining anti-war activists, Israeli public pressure campaigns, Palestinian factions, and an enraged Arab street, these Arab and Palestinian Israelis say they cannot publicly share their pragmatic message of peace and coexistence without being attacked on every side.

Deepening their silence are ongoing far-right Israeli pressure campaigns pushing companies, schools, and universities to fire Arab Israelis or expel them from school for expressing solidarity with civilians in Gaza.

But by their actions and expressions of solidarity, they say they hope to impart the values of “shared humanity” and the “equal value of life.”

“We are in mourning”

Of the 2.1 million Arab and Palestinian citizens of Israel, many refer to Oct. 7 as a “black day.”

Among the 1,400 people killed in Hamas’ attack that day, 18 Israeli Arabs were killed and hundreds were displaced. Israeli Arabs say they all have friends or co-workers who were killed or kidnapped. And they say Israel’s war against Hamas and siege of Gaza, in which as of Wednesday 5,700 Palestinian residents of Gaza, including 2,000 children, have been reported killed, is a second, deep-cutting “tragedy” for the community.   

“We are in mourning. Innocent Israeli men, women, and children lost their lives. And now the Israeli military is killing and starving innocent men, women, and children in Gaza,” says Ibrahim, who did not wish to use his real name. He spoke in Nazareth, hours after returning from a shiva mourning gathering for a Jewish friend and neighbor whose relatives were killed by Hamas. “For what?”

“It is a very difficult situation,” says Ghadir Hani, an activist with Standing Together, a progressive Jewish-Arab peace movement that has been assisting Israeli evacuees, renovating bomb shelters, and fighting against hate speech targeting either community.

Taylor Luck

A view of the predominantly Arab town of Nazareth, in northern Israel, Oct. 21, 2023.

Ms. Hani lives in the mixed Jewish-Arab town of Acre, north of Haifa, and has lost Jewish Israeli friends who were killed or kidnapped in the Hamas attack.

“Whenever I post on social media, I face attacks from people in Gaza and Arab states. If I post about innocents being killed in Gaza, I can face legal action and harassment in Israel,” Ms. Hani says.

“They have to understand that we have relatives in Gaza, we have Israeli Jewish friends. Their humanity is our humanity. Why do we have to always condemn?” she says. “We are all hurting right now.”

Even anti-war expressions and calls to end the siege in solidarity with the suffering Gazan children have become sensitive.

“Chilling effect”

Israeli police broke up peaceful anti-war protests in Haifa and Umm al-Fahm last week and arrested six people despite their not raising Palestinian flags – deemed at times by Israeli police to be a symbol of incitement that far-right government ministers want banned – or chanting pro-Hamas or blatantly pro-Palestinian slogans.

Israeli Police Chief Kobi Shabtai said last week that police were following a “zero tolerance” approach and that there was “no authorization for protests” in wartime.

Legal advocates say Israeli law allows for peaceful protests even amid the war.

Sawsan Zaher, legal adviser at the Emergency Coalition of the Arab Society in Israel, says as of Tuesday Israeli authorities have arrested more than 60 Arab citizens for social media posts deemed to be “incitement,” “behavior that could harm public order,” or “terrorism” – for sentiments ranging from denouncing the killing of children in Gaza to posting the Palestinian flag. Israeli police say they have arrested 63 individuals “on suspicion of supporting or inciting terror.”

One recent high-profile arrest was of Nazareth singer Dalal Abu Amneh, who was detained and placed under house arrest for posting “there is no victor but God” alongside a Palestinian flag on her Facebook page, a post she has since deleted.

Several Nazareth residents cited the singer’s detention and the “tense atmosphere” in their refusal to speak on the record to the Monitor or provide their name. Multiple community leaders and Arab members of Israel’s parliament declined to be interviewed.

Although legal advocates say the arrests will not hold up in court, they say the pressure campaign by Israeli activists has resulted in private employers firing 50 Arab Israelis and universities expelling or suspending 100 Arab students.

“It is creating a huge chilling effect” in the community, says Ms. Zaher. “It is another reminder you are not equal, and it has a damaging effect on the social fabric.”

Taylor Luck

Wall graffiti honors the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed by Israeli fire in 2022 while covering a gun battle between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in the West Bank, in Nazareth, Oct. 21, 2023.

So too is the pressure from Palestinian factions and Arabs who view coexistence as “surrender” and “propaganda,” due to the power imbalance between Israelis and Palestinians in the conflict and, they say, in international media coverage.

“If we say anything, the Arab world calls us traitors,” says David, a Nazareth art gallery owner who did not wish to use his real name. “We have a beautiful message to share because we know peaceful coexistence can work; we have lived it, but,” he mimes a zipping motion over his lips, “no one wants us to speak. Politically and legally, in many ways, we can’t.”

Abu Youssef, a Nazareth baker, emphasizes the pressure from both sides. “Palestinian factions don’t want us to publicly criticize Hamas because they think that it means we support the war killing of Gazan civilians. Hamas are extremists; they don’t represent us. They didn’t ask us if we wanted to be dragged into war that makes all our lives miserable,” he says. “At the same time Israel pressures us to condemn and condemn like we are responsible, like we are constantly under suspicion.”

Northern residents warily await a ground invasion into Gaza and any Hezbollah response.

Should Hezbollah open a northern front, Arab communities would likely be in the line of fire of Hezbollah missiles. Still fresh in residents’ minds is the destruction in Haifa and Nazareth and deaths among Arab Israelis from the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

“We are waiting for the missiles to drop on us at any second,” Hamed, a Haifa falafel vendor, says calmly as he wipes the restaurant counter Monday evening, moments after serving sandwiches to two young Israeli soldiers. “This is our home and our community. We are in front of the firing line of these conflicts, but we have the least influence over events.” He shrugs. “We live our life and hope for the best.”

“When a missile comes at you, it doesn’t stop and ask, are you Jewish or an Arab?” adds Mohammad, a Nazareth driver.  

“We don’t need more war”

Also fresh in the community’s memory is the Jewish-Arab intercommunal violence during the Gaza war in May 2021 that killed three people and injured hundreds, which Arab residents say they wish to avoid.

Grassroots activists such as those at Standing Together are working to defuse potential tensions and bridge gaps among Arabs and Israelis, despite the extreme rhetoric.

“In Israel there are extremists who say the land ‘from the river to the sea’ is theirs. On the Palestinian side there are extremists who demand ‘from the river to the sea,’” says Mohammad, the driver.

“At the end of the day, the only scenario is for us to live in peace and in equal rights with one another. We don’t need more war or bloodshed to realize it.”

On a Saturday in Nazareth, the markets were unusually empty, the vast majority of stores shuttered, the old market a ghost town.

Arab member of the Knesset Aymen Odeh said in an op-ed and posts on his social media accounts: “Israeli babies, Palestinian babies, they all cry the same, laugh the same. Regardless of their mother tongue, they all communicate in the same way, and want the same simple thing: to live a good life. As leaders, as adults, we have a responsibility toward our young ones to allow them to have a good life.”