From Iron Dome to bomb shelters: How Israel’s defence system is built to exclude its Palestinian citizens
Israelis take shelter during a missile attack from Iran
Nouraldin Araj and The New Arab staff write on 17 June 2025:
On 15 June, an Iranian missile struck the Palestinian town of Tamra inside Israel, killing several civilians. Within hours, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented: “Missiles don’t differentiate between Jews and Arabs”.
His remarks sparked fury among Palestinian citizens of Israel, who pointed out the grotesque hypocrisy of a government that systematically excludes Palestinian communities from basic protection infrastructure, while investing billions in shielding Jewish citizens. Israel’s entire defence system, from bomb shelters to the Iron Dome, operates on a discriminatory logic that values Jewish lives and devalues Palestinian ones.
Arab towns, especially in the Naqab (Negev), are routinely classified as “open areas” where Iron Dome is programmed to allow missiles to fall, or worse, detonate interceptors above them, showering civilians below with shrapnel.
While Jewish communities enjoy comprehensive networks of fixed and mobile shelters, Palestinian areas suffer a severe shortage of even the most basic safe spaces. In some towns, shelters simply do not exist. In others, a single shelter, often located in a school or nursery, is expected to serve thousands.