Erasing Palestine: In Israel, Palestinian citizens are treated as the enemy within
A woman raises a Palestinian flag in front of Israeli security forces standing guard during a protest in the coastal city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, on 15 May 2021 to mark the 1948 Nakba.
Mariam Barghouti writes in The New Arab on 15 January 2025:
This article is the second of a two-part report covering Israel’s practices towards Palestinians over the past year – showcasing a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing which transcends the war on Gaza and targets every Palestinian, even those with citizenship rights.
“It doesn’t matter where they are, right now every Palestinian is going through something,” M., 26, tells The New Arab. M. chooses to remain anonymous due to punitive measures by Israeli authorities against those testifying and speaking out against Israeli practices.
M.’s concerns are not without warrant. On 7 November last year, the Israeli Knesset passed a set of draconian laws specifically directed towards Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. The first allows the Israeli Minister of Interior, Moshe Arbel, to deport first-degree relatives of those accused or convicted of terrorism activities. An amendment to the law further extends jurisdiction to implicate individuals and organisations who are considered to have “praised or incited terrorism”.
While the law allows individuals to retain their Israeli citizenship status, it stipulates that deportation can occur for a period ranging from seven to 15 years for Israeli citizens and 10 to 20 years for non-citizens. According to the law, individuals can be deported to Gaza as well as other destinations.
In theory, the law applies to all Israeli citizens. However, its vague criteria and broad definition of “terrorism” are discriminatorily used to criminalise Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. There were more incitement cases against Palestinian citizens in the last 14 months than there were in the last five years combined.
Sparing no one, the Israeli Knesset also enacted a temporary 5-year law which authorises the detention of minors under the age of 14 in closed facilities if they are convicted of murder involving “terrorism or terrorism activities”. More concerning is that the law allows Israeli courts to jail minors in prison rather than juvenile facilities for up to ten days, with a possible extension if the child is deemed “dangerous”.
“As a people we are in the heart of Israel, the heart of the occupation,” Anees Safori, 35, a Palestinian from Shifa Amro in the Naqab, or Negev, tells TNA.
Palestinians with Israeli citizenship are the descendants of those who remained in the territory that became Israel after the 1948 Nakba when over 750,000 Palestinians – 80% of the population – were ethnically cleansed or fled their homes. They have never been allowed to return. Despite being largely neglected from media coverage and political discourse, they continue to endure the violent consequences of Israel’s existential and demographic war.
The suppression of Palestinians in the Israeli state is not new. Under the leadership of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, Palestinians in Israel were subject to martial military law for 18 years until Levi Eshkol took command as prime minister in 1963 and initiated gradual efforts to assimilate Palestinians into Israeli society.
After the 1966 lifting of martial law, Palestinians experienced gradual but limited enfranchisement. Palestinian towns and cities with the closest proximity to the West Bank such as the “Triangle area” and the Naqab (Negev) were the last areas to have martial law lifted as they were considered security risks.
In the decades to come, Israel attempted to forcibly assimilate Palestinians within the Israeli state as second and third-class citizens. This not only left Palestinians at the mercy of Israel’s state but also de jure separated the surviving population from the rest of the Palestinian people.
In recent years, however, any concept of national assimilation or social participation has gradually eroded. Rather than use extreme violence against Palestinian citizens, like in Gaza and the West Bank, the Israeli government has instead begun restricting opportunities for their survival in society.
Inside the belly of the beast
For decades, Palestinians with Israeli citizenship have faced discriminatory laws and violent practices at the hands of the Israeli government and Jewish nationalists. However, being reliant on the Israeli government for their most basic needs such as education, healthcare, and employment opportunities, Palestinians are forced to negotiate their identity with survival.
The Israeli educational system – which is largely segregated – is exclusively geared towards Jewish identity. Curriculums are dismissive of Palestinian history, culture, and identity, with Palestinian students exposed to material that glorifies the Zionist narrative while denying, and criminalising, the history and lived experience of Palestinians. The word ‘Nakba’, for example, has been removed from schoolbooks for Palestinian students, while commemorating the events of 1948 are criminalised under the ‘Nakba Law’.
Part 1 of the series: ‘Erasing Palestine: Jerusalem as a frontline in Israel’s war’