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15 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 MAY 2021 Maha Nassar is Associate Professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Arizona OPINION MIDDLE EAST Maha Nassar THE world's attention has turned again to deadly scenes of Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and the launching of rockets by the militant group Hamas in- to Israel. It follows two weeks of protests in East Jerusalem against attempts to forcibly displace Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and Israeli po- lice raids on worshippers in the al-Aqsa mosque compound. But in towns across Israel, another important – and underreported – de- velopment is taking place. And it could change how we talk about Palestinians and Israelis. Since May 9, 2021, thousands of Pal- estinian citizens of Israel, numbering some 1.9 million people and often re- ferred to as "Arab Israelis," have taken to the streets to express support for their fellow Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem. Protests are taking place in both mixed Arab-Jewish cities like Haifa, Jaffa and Lod, known as Lydda to Palestinians, as well as in predomi- nantly Palestinian cities and towns like Nazareth and Umm al-Fahm. The size and scope of the demonstra- tions have surprised many political an- alysts who usually discuss these Pales- tinians as part of the Israeli social and political fabric, separate from Palestini- ans elsewhere. But as a historian of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, I'm not surprised by this recent turn of events. Palestinian citizens of Israel have a long history of identifying with their fellow Palestini- ans, though rarely on this scale. Policy of isolation, integration As I argue in my book "Brothers Apart," following the establishment of Israel in 1948, state officials tried to cultivate a sense of loyalty among the minority of Palestinians who remained in their homeland. It was part of a larg- er Israeli effort to isolate them from the vast majority of Palestinians who either fled or were expelled from the newly es- tablished state. These "Arab Israelis" were placed un- der military rule until 1966 and were unable to directly contact family mem- bers living in refugees camps. Most were granted Israeli citizenship in 1952, but they faced a host of discriminatory laws that denied them access to their land, limited their economic opportunities and restricted their movements. While they could vote, form political parties and hold public office, extensive gov- ernment surveillance – and punishment of those who criticized the state – cre- ated a pervasive climate of fear among these Palestinian citizens of Israel. Discrimination and economic dis- advantage continue today. Palestinian towns and villages in Israel face housing shortages and economic underdevelop- ment. Hiring practices that require job applicants to live in certain areas or to have served in the military – something very few Palestinian citizens do – end up pushing Palestinians into precarious low-wage jobs. While direct housing discrimina- tion was banned by the courts, Jewish communities often set up admissions committees that effectively limit the number of Palestinian citizens living in majority Jewish towns. This de facto segregation is also re- flected in Israel's school system. Stu- dents in Arab state schools receive less funding per capita than those in major- ity Hebrew state schools. In addition, Palestinian citizens are subjected to "stop-and-frisk" police policies. And professionals face every- day forms of racism from some Jewish Israeli colleagues who are surprised by their level of education. Palestinian citizens of Israel have been protesting these conditions since the founding of the state, but within lim- its. In 1964, the Arab nationalist Ard group called for "a just solution for the Palestinian question … in accordance with the wishes of the Palestinian Arab people." In response, the Israeli govern- ment banned the group and arrested its leaders on charges of endangering state security. Centering Palestinian identity Despite these restrictions, their ex- pressions of Palestinian national iden- tity have grown louder. Following Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jeru- salem in 1967, Palestinian citizens of Israel and those under occupation met one another regularly, leading them to develop a sense of joint struggle. That joint struggle was on display in October 2000 when thousands of Pal- estinian citizens rallied in Palestinian towns and mixed cities across Israel in support of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories during the second Palestin- ian intifada, or uprising. Israeli securi- ty forces killed 12 unarmed protesting Palestinian citizens of Israel and arrest- ed over 600, undermining the idea that Palestinian citizens could achieve full equality in Israel. Since then, Israel has launched sev- eral economic development and civil service initiatives aimed at integrating Palestinian citizens into the state. But these initiatives have not done much to alleviate the discrimination that Pales- tinian citizens still face. Moreover, the right-wing shift in Israeli politics has led to even more explicitly racist rheto- ric from some quarters, including grow- ing support for expelling Palestinian citizens from Israel altogether. In response, more Palestinian citizens identify themselves as belonging to one people who are collectively resisting settler colonial rule. A younger gener- ation of grassroots organizers has tak- en the lead, as seen in the annual com- memorations of the Nakba – the loss of Palestine in 1948 – every May 15. This centering of Palestinian identi- ty was on display in March 2021 in the Palestinian town of Umm al-Fahm. Pro- tests against seemingly local problems – crime and gun violence – turned in- to an expression of Palestinian national identity as protesters waved Palestinian flags and sang Palestinian songs. The latest protests around Sheikh Jar- rah and incursions in the al-Aqsa com- pound likewise promote a common Pal- estinian cause. At a rally in the mixed city of Lydd, a few miles south of Tel Aviv, one Palestinian citizen protester scaled a lamppost and replaced the Is- raeli flag with a Palestinian one. Meanwhile, the funeral of Lydd pro- tester Moussa Hassoun on May 11 drew 8,000 mourners as he was laid to rest wrapped in a Palestinian flag. Since then, protests have swelled even fur- ther, leading Israeli security officials to impose a curfew on the town and call in reinforcements. Fragmented no more? The current protests suggest that Is- raeli government attempts to isolate Palestinian citizens of Israel from Pal- estinians in the occupied territories and in exile and to integrate them in- to the Israeli state have failed. And any heavy-handed reaction to demonstra- tors could only serve to further alienate Palestinian citizens from the state of Israel. Scenes of police violently breaking up peaceful protests, Israeli security forces being deployed into Palestinian neigh- bourhoods inside the country, and armed Israeli Jewish vigilantes attacking Palestinians in mixed cities could also, I believe, further reinforce the image of Israel as a colonial power in the minds of not only its marginalized Palestinian minority, but also their international supporters as well. What could result is a new type of Pal- estinian mobilization, one that belies the idea of a fragmented people and unites all Palestinian people in a joint struggle. TheConversation.eu Protests by Palestinians in Israel signal growing sense of a common struggle Palestinian Arabs being expelled from their home in Haifa in 1948