Israeli Arabs, a community that denounces its marginalization

Self-styled “interior Palestinians”, even though the Israelis call them “Arabs,” the Palestinians who stayed on their land when it was created. Israel in 1948, they are again expressing their discomfort in the last days.

Israel officially has 1.8 million “arab”, Muslims and Christians, or about 20% of its population, descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who stayed in 1948.

They have long denounced their discrimination and although they have the right to vote and 12 of them are elected in the Israeli Parliament, out of a total of 120 deputies, they affirm that no Arab party has ever participated in a government coalition.

They pay taxes, benefit from social advantages and can theoretically access all positions. But, in a July 2000 decision, the Supreme Court recognized that the Arab minority is the victim of discrimination, especially in the area of ​​employment.

They, who frequently bring the Palestinian cause to parliament or regularly demonstrate against the wars in Gaza and acts of violence in the occupied West Bank, are not bound, like others. israelis, to military service.

Only some of the 130,000 Druze, a minority stream that emerged from Islam, are required to do military service for three years.

Due to recent acts of violence in East Jerusalem, in the Gaza Strip and now in several Jewish cities-arab From Israel, a new trend is emerging, says on Twitter Majd Kayyal, a militant for the Israeli Arab cause based in Haifa, a mixed coastal city (north).

“For decades, it has been shouting + Palestine +, + Gaza +, + Al-Aqsa + and for the first time + Haifa + has been shouting,” he writes.

“Haifa stands up to protect itself and support Lod, Jaffa, Gaza and Jerusalem: it is the intifada of unity,” he adds, referring to the Palestinian uprisings of the years 1980-1990 and 2000.

In Lod, an industrial city 40% populated by arab, a 32-year-old Israeli Arab family man was shot dead this week during the clashes. Images circulating on social media suggest that armed nationalist Jews who were in a nearby building are behind the death.

One of the most sensitive points is the confiscation of land, since the authorities israelis they have seized almost all the lands of the municipalities arab to install Jewish immigrants in those places.

The localities arab they receive far less public funds for their development than Jewish municipalities, and building permits are trickle down.