Today, nearly two million Israelis of Arab origin live in Israel, or 20% of the population. They come from several communities: Muslims, Christians, Druze and Bedouins. The most common opinion in the Middle East, in the Arab countries enemies of Israel, is that these people live “under the oppression and racism of the Zionist occupation.” But, since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023, several members of this minority have declared their support and belonging to Israel, condemning Hamas without reservation. Some lost their lives, like Amer Abu Sabila, a 25-year-old man killed trying to save children during the Islamist organization’s attack.
Of Lebanese origin, Jonathan Elkhoury’s family was involved in the South Lebanon Army: a Lebanese Christian military force, founded in 1976 to defend Christian villages against attacks by Palestinian armed groups present in Lebanon and other Shiite militias. . In 1982, after several military operations launched by these militias against Israel, the Israeli army intervened in Lebanon where it fought with the South Lebanon Army. Responsible for communications for Diolpact, a civil association specializing in information on daily life in Israel for foreigners, Jonathan Elkhoury presents himself as a Christian Israeli. He insists that Lebanon is still part of his identity. In 2000, the year Israel left Lebanon, 8,000 Lebanese took refuge in Israel, including the family of Jonathan, who was 9 years old at the time. “As for many Arabs living here, Israel is our country, there is only a minority that is still attached to another identity, like that of Palestine. They have the right to express themselves, like everyone the world, Israel is a democratic country”, explains Jonathan from Haifa, his current city in the northwest of Israel.
In Herzlia, in the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv, Tamer Masoudi, an Arab Muslim Israeli, continues his studies in political science at Reichman University. He was born in Beersheba, in the south of the country. Of Bedouin origin, his family had lived in this city for generations. For him, being Israeli, Arab and Muslim at the same time is not a contradiction, but a complementarity. He believes that the majority of Arabs in Israel feel a sense of belonging. Especially the Bedouins, because “a good number of them have joined the Israeli army since the founding of Israel”. Tamer explains the origins of this commitment: “It is because this country gave them status in society, it also united the long divided and separated Arab tribes.” His father and several uncles served in the military.
A racist anti-Arab state?
In a survey published in March 2023 on the Al-Jazeera channel, the government anti-racism coordination unit of the Israeli Ministry of Justice confirmed that 32% of complaints filed in 2022 came from Arab citizens suffering from discrimination. The rest of the complaints were filed by Ethiopians (17%) or Israelis of Russian origin (18%). “There is indeed racism in Israel. But we are a country governed by the law, you can always file a complaint. At the government level, we have several far-right ministers, but their extremism is limited to speech. No decision “affected our rights as an Arab minority living here. We have the same rights as other communities in terms of studies, work, social security”, assures Jonathan.
“The Arab community here is diverse, we find them in the army, the police, medicine, the justice system and even in politics. A few years ago, Mansour Abbas, an Israeli Arab, became the head of the United Arab List and he was a minister delegate in the Prime Minister’s office. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t racism, but racism exists everywhere, even in France or the United States. I here are Jewish friends, racism has been hitting them for generations, I also have Arab friends who have suffered from discrimination. This does not represent the State, but a part of society,” confirms Tamer.
Several Arab countries do not recognize Israel. According to them, it is a colonialist state which has occupied the land and homes of Palestinians since 1948. We must therefore continue the battle against it. Others believe that creating two states is the only solution: Israel retains the borders before 1967, the year of the war started between it on one side, Syria, Egypt and Jordan on the other, or 78% of the historic land for Israel, compared to 22% for the Palestinian state. The Israeli capital would remain Tel Aviv and that of Palestine East Jerusalem.
According to Jonathan, since 1948, Israel’s goal has been peace. It has always accepted UN decisions regarding its borders with its neighbors. “In 1995, Israel signed the Oslo Accords to end the war and build two states, but five years later the Palestinian nationalist political party, Fatah, launched a new Intifada. This continued until 2005 and ended with Israel’s departure from the Gaza Strip. A year later, Hamas took power in Gaza. It did not stop attacking us. Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli Prime Minister, tried to conclude a new peace agreement in 2008, but this was refused by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel’s objective has always been to make the Middle East a land of prosperity. As proof, in recent years Israel has took the initiative to normalize its relations with several Arab countries: United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.”
Majority of Israeli Arabs disagree with Hamas
For his part, Tamer understands Arabs who grew up in fear and hatred of Israel and Jews, due to an anti-Zionist ideology. He suggests that they visit Israel to see its reality far from what they hear in the media. “Following the Abraham Accords, young people from the United Arab Emirates came to us and they saw the diversity of our territory, they changed their ideas. I am not saying that Israel is an ideal country, we have still work to improve our democracy. But what we have built over the past seventy-five years is miraculous: a short time ago, I looked at photos of this land before the founding of Israel, we see a big difference in technological, health levels, not to mention the iron dome that protects civilians. I hope that the rest of the Middle East will follow in Israel’s footsteps on the path to modernity. It’s so sad to see the Arab countries suffering economic and social crises or real civil wars, rather than progress by putting aside hatred of Israel. We must leave the past in the past, otherwise we will never be able to move forward.”
For Jonathan, most Israeli Arabs, contrary to the propaganda spread in the Middle East, are not only in disagreement with Hamas but are engaged, each in their own area, in the fight against the Islamic movement. “We must know that our destiny is that of Israel. When Hamas attacked us, we were shocked. I think that no human being should accept what they did and we must all show their true colors: they burned people alive, they killed children, they filmed all this and published it on social networks. It is impossible to live with Hamas, their project is not to create a Palestinian state, but to destroy Israel.”
On the day of the Hamas attack, Tamer woke up to the sound of sirens. While looking at his cell phone on social media, he saw a video of a Toyota pickup with men standing there shooting at civilians. He thought the scene was from the Daesh era, but it was October 7, in Sderot, an Israeli town next to Gaza. “My mother and my 18-year-old little brother were visiting Sderot, if they had been in the street at that time, they could have been eliminated. The Hamas massacres resemble what Daesh committed, that does not represent Arabs or Muslims or any human. Personally, I do everything I can to show the truth of Hamas on social media to the whole world and especially to Arabs.”
Currently, with the bombing of Gaza by Israel, around 7,000 civilians have been killed, including almost 3,000 minors. For Jonathan, “it’s just horrible, but Israel is doing what it can not to harm civilians. Before the attacks, the army sends messages to residents to leave the targeted areas. Israel sent a message to the UN on the need to empty northern Gaza of civilians before launching the bombardment. But Hamas and other jihadist groups are using these civilians to give Israel a monstrous face. They are doing everything to prevent the population to leave. Hamas keeps 500,000 liters of fuel, it uses it for war instead of helping the population. Since October 7, it has sent more than 6,000 missiles against Israel to kill Israeli civilians, about a third of them fell on Gaza. Al-Ahli hospital is a good example: nearly 200 civilians were massacred there because of a missile launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
“Seeing children killed by bombings in Gaza breaks my heart,” says Tamer. “They have nothing to do with it, just like the Israeli children. Let us remember that it was Hamas who started this war. Their savagery attacks us all: Jews, Muslims, Arabs. Not to mention the Palestinians suffocated by them. ” According to him, the two-state solution remains possible. “Just before the massacre of October 7, Palestinians, women and men, from Gaza and the West Bank, came to work in Israel, there were zero problems. Cohabitation can be established once we have gotten rid of the radicals in Palestine and Israel.” For Jonathan, “the majority of residents in Gaza no longer support Hamas. It is urgent, for the Palestinians to live freely, that they join us to fight against this terrorist movement, this is our shared objective.”
* EWriter and poet born in Damascus, Omar Youssef Souleimane participated in demonstrations against the regime of Bashar el-Assad, but, hunted by the secret services, had to flee Syria in 2012. Refugee in France, he has just published Being French (Flammarion).
.