We call them “Israeli Arabs”, but they define themselves as “Palestinian Israelis”: Ibrahim Abou Ahmad and Shahd Bishara were finally able to demonstrate on Friday against the war in Gaza, in the small Arab town of Shefa-Amr, in the north of Israel. For several weeks, for the first time since the bloody attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7 in Israel, demonstrations have been authorized in the region, where a large part of Israel's Arab minority lives (21% of the population). population).
However, the demonstrators were not numerous on Friday, a maximum of 150. The small procession, also made up of Jews from peace movements, marched under the banner “Only peace will bring security” sending the extremists from both camps back to back. .
“This peace march was organized by the Standing Together movement and the Women Making Peace movement, demanding a ceasefire agreement and the return of those abducted,” according to a video reposted by Standing Together.
** ועת עומדים ביחד ותנועת נשים עושות שלום, בדרישה להסכם הפסקת אש והחזרת החטופים. pic.twitter.com/uT8rqmerbN
— |فرات نصار|פוראת נסאר|FURAT NASSAR (@nassar_furat) March 29, 2024
“Peace, freedom, social justice”, but also “Liberty, freedom for Palestine”, they sang as they walked down the main street of the city planted on a hill in Galilee. Opened by a police car, the parade passed along the Christian cemetery, greeted by the smiles of visibly surprised residents. Last week, there were several hundred of them at Majd al-Krum, at the initiative of an Arab organization to say “Stop the war!” », According to an AFP videographer.
“Solidarity with the people of Gaza” without forgetting the hostages
In November, on the other hand, the demonstrators had to give up marching in one of these towns, due to lack of agreement from the police, confirmed by the courts. On TikTok, the police chief warned, in a message subtitled in Arabic: “If you want to identify with Gaza, I will put you on a bus” for this destination.
“Today in Shefa-Amr/Shfar'am, we demand a ceasefire agreement and a hostage agreement - the only way to save innocent lives in Gaza and bring back the hostages alive,”
Today in Shefa-Amr/Shfar'am, demanding a ceasefire agreement and hostage deal - the only way to save innocent lives in Gaza and bring back the hostages alive. pic.twitter.com/WWCo8m214F
— עומדים ביחד نقف معًا Standing Together🟣 (@omdimbeyachad) March 29, 2024
Friday, from Shefa-Amr, 160 km from the territory besieged by Israel in retaliation for the attack of October 7, Shahd Bishara was able to express his “solidarity with the people of Gaza”. “Our common humanity cannot accept the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the massacres in Gaza. And of course let's not forget the hostages still captive in Gaza,” pleaded this 30-year-old doctor.
“Since October 7, Palestinian society in Israel has been very, very oppressed by the authorities, we have not been able to express our solidarity with the people of Gaza, with the Palestinian people of Gaza. And recently, we have made a lot of efforts to obtain permission from the police to organize such protests,” Shahd Bishara emphasized.
“The future of the two peoples concerns us”
“We understand the pain of our people, the Palestinians, and the pain of our Israeli friends, and the future of both peoples concerns us,” read Hyam Tannous, in a message in Hebrew. Here “we remember what happened on October 7. And we also say that our community has been affected,” said Ibrahim Abou Ahmad, 31, a “political and peace” activist.
He calls himself a “Palestinian Israeli”, and refuses the expression “Israeli Arab” used in Israel: “It denies so many elements of what we are. The problem is that the term
Palestinian
is presented (in Israel) as a political claim, not as a people. But we are this people. »
For him, “we must stop this conflict entirely for good”. And “we are the solution to the conflict!” The only ones who live both realities, who speak both languages! ", he said, calling for self-determination and a change of government on both sides, and then on the Israeli side, a true Judeo-Arab party with common goals. Until now “we had been prevented from expressing our solidarity,” says Shahd Bishara.
“Systemic discrimination” begins to decrease
The NGO “Mossawa” (“Equality” in Arabic) has documented an increase in “systemic discrimination” against Arab citizens of Israel since the war: arrests after publication of verses from the Koran or messages of solidarity on social networks, attacks at university, discrimination at work, demonstrations banned in Palestinian Arab localities.
In recent weeks, "there have been fewer cases", also because the association has taken legal action for many of them, explains to AFP its director, Jaafar Farah, who has obtained that the police no longer deal with investigations into freedom of expression without judicial supervision.
According to him, out of 350 arrests, 140 are still the subject of proceedings. At the beginning, the NGO recorded around twenty arrests daily, compared to a few per week currently. Today, “Arabs and Jews were together in an Arab city, it is a very strong statement,” underlines Mr. Abou Ahmad.