‘They just see you as an Arab’: Israel’s Palestinian citizens given cursory protection from attack

8 comments

1. It is true that Israeli Arabs face significant discrimination and poverty and oppression, and that Israel deprioritizes them for the Iron Dome. It’s true that there’s rampant organized crime caused by a racist police force that intentionally neglects Arab lives because it’s controlled by a radical right winger.

   But… the main responsibility for deaths caused by a bombing belongs to the bomber. I highly doubt Israel has any military installations in Tamra.

   Two things can be true at once. Israel discriminates against Arab citizens and cares less about their lives, and Iran bombed a bunch of innocent civilian Arabs for the sin of being in Israel.

   EDIT: confused this with the Houthi missile that hit Hebron, edited

2. Cool, now how many Arab-Israelis have died fighting for their country over the past two years? Five? How many are walking around with missing limbs or permanent disabilities due to Palestinian terror?

   Two million Arab citizens are literally sitting out an entire war while the Jewish and Druze population die to protect their country and they still have the chutzpah to complain about muh inequality. Unbelievable.

3. Just wait until you see how many public hospitals exist in Palestinian towns/cities. I’ll give you a hint – until recently it was 0. I believe they opened the first one right before the war started.

4. 6 hours ago a missile hit a relatively new apartment building in Petach Tikva. It killed 4 people who stayed in their safe room (Mamad).

   The missiles do not discriminate. If they hit a direct hit they are very likely to penetrate even those safe rooms.

   Edit: Still no updated source in English, can translate this Hebrew source though:

   https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/r1lxvwpxee

5. It’s a common hasbara talking point that Palestinian / Arab citizens of Israel have equal rights. Israelis will use this along with their false notion they are a democracy to provide further legitimacy as a civilised state and not an apartheid ethno-state.

   Yet there are 65 laws that discriminate against Palestinian / Arab citizens of Israel. [Here’s a database of them.](https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7771)

   This community also fares worse in every socio-economic metric.

   Some lowlights:

   **1. The Jewish Nation-State Law**

   * One of Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws. Stipulates that the right to self-determination in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories “is unique to the Jewish people” and encourages racial segregation and discrimination against Palestinians in housing by directing the state to promote the “development of Jewish settlement as a national value.”

   **2. The Law of “Return”**

   * Gives Jews from anywhere in the world the right to immigrate to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and to automatically receive Israeli citizenship. At the same time, Israel denies indigenous Palestinians who were expelled during and after Israel’s establishment their legal right to return to their homeland because they aren’t Jewish and treats Palestinian citizens of the state, who comprise more than 20% of Israel’s population, as second-class citizens.

   **3. The Admissions Committee Law**

   * Authorizes hundreds of smaller towns to set up “admissions committees” to reject applications from Palestinians, LGBTQ people, and others deemed undesirable using criteria such as being “unsuitable to the social life of the community… or the social and cultural fabric of the town.”

   **4. Absentee Property Law and Land Acquisition Law**

   * Allows Israel’s government to expropriate land and other property belonging to Palestinians who were driven from their homes during the state’s establishment. The primary tool used by Israel to steal huge amounts of land and private property from Palestinians who were expelled and denied their right to return, including many internally displaced within Israel’s borders.

   **5. Israel Lands Law**

   * Another of Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws. Stipulates that ownership of state lands can only be transferred between the government and quasi-governmental agencies like the Jewish National Fund, which only leases land to Jews. Ninety-three percent of the land in Israel is state owned. Israel’s discriminatory land policies make it extremely difficult for Palestinians with Israeli citizenship to gain access to land for residential, commercial, agricultural, or other uses.

   **6. The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law**

   * Prevents Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who are married to Palestinian citizens of Israel from gaining residency or citizenship status, including those who were expelled from towns inside what became Israel in 1948. Forces thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel to leave the country or live apart from their spouses and families.

   **7. The Nakba Law**

   * Bans public funding for institutions and organizations involved in commemorating the [violent expulsion](https://imeu.org/article/quick-facts-the-palestinian-nakba) of three quarters of all Palestinians during Israel’s establishment as a Jewish-majority state in 1948, known to Palestinians as the “Nakba” (“catastrophe”).

6. I was listening to my local ABC radio and they had a man on from Australia. He has Jewish heritage and has lived in Israel for a few years with wife and two children.

   His family had the exact same safe room in his apartment complex which he describes as a 3×3 room with heavy door and reinforced concrete. He said all other residents had the same. He isn’t Arab, yet had the same bunker style this Arab family who died did.

   To say it’s only Arabs who get the short straw in Israel when it comes to protection is drawing a long bow as it is dishonest at best.

7. this is very badly sourced article. individual (apartment or private house) “safe rooms” (actually bomb shelter room) are part of building code in Israel since 1992. It’s responsibility of builder to build it and responsibility of local municipality that performs inspection of building and grants permit to occupy it to verify that it exists.

   it’s well known that in majority-arab cities happen a lot of unpermitted construction and all possible rules and regulations are ignored.

   this specific house (based on what i remember from news reporting) didn’t really have standard bomb shelter. house next to it, also didn’t have it and whoever lives there goes down to basement.

   dedicated public shelters that are described in the article are very rare in israel. in my city i know only one. usually as public shelters used underground parking lots or basements on public buildings (like schools) that are reinforced for this purpose (once again, according to law from 1951)

   also it bulls that “safe rooms” are bad. i just watched on tv segment about chunk of 10 floor building were blown away by missile hit but everybody who were in safe rooms got out without a scratch. so far the only casualties that were in safe room happened when missile (with half ton payload) directly hit it.

8. Absolute bollocks. There were casualties whenever a missile direct hits most of them on major civilian centres in Israel. Many involve elderly folks who can’t run three times a night.

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