The state of Israel is defined as a state exclusively for the Jewish people, and the fulfillment of this state came at the expense of the indigenous population of Palestine. Nonetheless, after the birth of Israel, a Palestinian minority remained within the borders of the newly established Jewish state. Yet, this minority does not share the aim of the Zionist movement, which is to establish a Jewish nation in the land of Palestine.
Since 1948, native Palestinians have been expelled from their homes and have been replaced with Jewish settlers, and Israel has devoted the bulk of its budget to the absorption of Jewish immigrants.
Furthermore, the several educational programmes within Israel are intended to help Jewish students, which created a divided work market where Jewish employees enjoy white-collar jobs, whereas the Palestinian minority is concentrated in blue-collar jobs.
Palestinians have not occupied a prominent position in government similar to that of the Jewish Israelis, and it does not seem like they will hold any strategic positions that could create a noticeable change to their situation anytime soon. This is due to the nature of the Jewish state and the divisions that separate Jews from Palestinians, preventing the latter from holding decision-making positions in the state.
Israeli Military Rule, 1948-1966
Following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, a military government was put in place to take control of the Palestinian populated areas within its borders. This military government was imposed on the Palestinian citizens of Israel until 1966.
Although this rule lasted for slightly less than two decades, it left a long term negative impact on the Palestinians in Israel, as they faced a harsh and cruel system of oppression and control.
While the urban areas were under tight control and civilian monitoring, military rule was mainly imposed in rural areas. The military rule was under both the Israeli Ministry of Defense as well as the Israeli secret service, also referred to as the Shabak.
The Palestinian minority in Israel was seen as a “hostile community”; therefore, they were continuously monitored and under close supervision. They were also described as a “fifth column” that could revolt against the state at any given moment.
Under Israeli military rule, governors had unlimited control over the Palestinian minority, giving for instance, the governor the right to expel people from their homes, arrest individuals without a warrant, and detain them without trial, as they could also shut down businesses, newspapers, and schools. The governor also had the authority to prohibit protests and demonstrations.
Furthermore, there were other aspects of this military rule, as Palestinian political activists who were suspected of identifying with Palestinian nationalism were either imprisoned or expelled.
Also, Israel’s official land confiscation policy continued under the umbrella of military rule in the name of public interest and security.
During the period of this brutal rule, in 1956, a massacre took place in the village of Kafr Qassem, a tragic episode of the minority’s early situation within the Jewish state.
During this massacre, the Israeli police killed Palestinian civilians who returned home from work during a curfew that they did not know of. Tragically, this cruel massacre ended with 48 Palestinian casualties, some of them being children.
Poetry was one of the very few areas of Palestinian national identity that survived the Nakba
Early Palestinian Resistance to Israel’s Systematic Oppression
Within the Israeli political system, the Communist party was the only party that enabled the Palestinian minority to freely express their national aspirations without the risk of being arrested, as long as they did so within Marxist discourse.
In general, if Palestinians in Israel openly waved their flag or any other national symbol, they risked imprisonment. However, if they chanted a Communist song about the right to self-determination, they would be immune from the state’s persecution.
On one hand, some Palestinians joined the Israeli Communist party to use its internationalist discourse to disguise their inner Palestinian national aspirations. On the other hand, others joined the party because they genuinely believed that Communism would lead to a social revolution that would bring equality to everyone.
Either way, by 1967, the Israeli Communist party had become the strongest political force within the Palestinian community.
Aside from political activism, cultural activity flourished within the Palestinian community. Among the Palestinian cultural elite, poets always stood out.
Poetry was one of the very few areas of Palestinian national identity that survived the Nakba, also known as the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, without being damaged whatsoever. What Palestinian political activists did not openly express, poets did with force.
Additionally, one of the most significant issues reflected in the Palestinian cultural resistance is land.
Since the start of the ethnic cleansing operations perpetrated by the Zionist settlers in 1948, a continuous conflict emerged between the Jewish settlers and the Palestinians around the control and ownership of lands.
After the establishment of Israel, the Jewish majority managed to take over most of the Palestinian-owned land, as more than 70% of the land owned by Palestinians has been confiscated.
Consequently, land as a symbol and physical object has occupied a unique place in Palestinian culture and heritage.
When it came to the ownership of lands, the Palestinian minority bravely resisted the orders of the Israeli government to expropriate land. The Palestinian community’s defiance against the state on March 30, 1976, resulted in direct clashes with Israeli security forces.
This clash led to the death of six Palestinians, as tens were also wounded. This day later became known as Youm Al-Ard (the Land Day), which became an example of the Palestinian community’s struggle against the Israeli state, as the minority sought to gain collective political rights and to strengthen its national identity.
Palestinian public figures and politicians have used the idea of land to gain political support. For instance, Usrat Al-Ard (the Family of the Land) was the first Palestinian nationalist group to use the land issue as an act of symbolic resistance and to declare its nationalistic agendas.
Also, an important dimension of the Palestinians’ cultural resistance against the suppression of the Israeli authorities is the usage of specific names and labels to affiliate where individuals came from before 1948, as every Palestinian belonged to a certain clan/neighbourhood before being displaced.
When a Palestinian left their neighbourhood of origin, they were often called after the area’s name, like Jizmawi for those who came from the village of Ijzim.
Further, regarding the Israeli education system, the state-run Arab education system in Israel is designed to blur any type of Palestinian nationalism. According to a recent article published by Haaretz, Palestinian Israeli teachers still face this dilemma, as the Israeli school curriculum ignores major historical issues such as the Nakba.
A civics teacher in the Lower Galilee, Neven Abu Rahmoun, states that “the curriculum doesn’t reflect my students’ story; it ignores the Palestinian narrative and only presents the Zionist narrative.”
To handle this dilemma, many teachers jump back and forth between the two narratives. Yet, some teachers risk getting in trouble with the Israeli Education ministry if they express an opinion on the Palestinian question.
Netanyahu previously declared that the Palestinian community were officially going to be considered second-class citizens, as the Prime Minister publicly wrote on a social media platform that "Israel is not a state of all its citizens."
Netanyahu’s Leadership and the Establishment of the Joint List
Adding to their misery, prominent right-wing figure Benjamin Netanyahu started his second term as Prime Minister in March 2009, which led to further deprivation of the Palestinian minority’s rights, as his government took several steps to undermine them.
As a result, Israeli-Palestinian relations notably deteriorated. Under Netanyahu’s right-wing government, specific laws restricted Palestinians from living in several Jewish villages.
Moreover, in the Negev desert, where most Bedouins live, Netanyahu’s government has sought to cement Jewish control of the area by demolishing Bedouin settlements and replacing them with planned Jewish towns.
The leaders of the Palestinian minority started a debate among themselves over how to respond to these institutional attacks on them.
On the one hand, some wanted the Palestinian minority to deepen its integration into Israeli politics, joining forces with the left-wing parties to push for equal citizenship.
On the other hand, some wanted the community to withdraw from Israeli politics altogether while simultaneously establishing autonomous educational, political, and cultural institutions. Overall, the leaders favored the former approach.
In January 2015, the Arab parties in Israel decided to band together to establish the “Joint List” led by Ayman Odeh, which ended up being a remarkable success.
Most of the Palestinian minority voted for the Joint List, making it the third-largest political party in the Knesset after the centre-left Zionist Union and Netanyahu’s Likud party.
The position of the Joint List as the third-largest party in the Knesset was in itself a significant achievement, both in terms of potential influence and symbolically for the Palestinian community in Israel.
Following the Joint Lists’ major success in the Knesset elections, Netanyahu’s government responded with further actions to weaken the Palestinians’ political position within Israel.
For instance, in 2015, his government banned the northern branch of the Islamic movement, an organisation that gained significant support from the Palestinian minority around opposition to what it describes as Jewish threats to Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.
A year later, right-wing Jewish lawmakers continued their attacks on the Palestinian minority by introducing a suspension bill allowing a majority of the Israeli parliament to eject any parliamentarian that incites violence or denies the Jewish character of the state.
This suspension bill came after three Palestinian members of the Knesset visited the families of Arabs who were murdered after attacking Israelis. The Palestinian community saw this law as a direct attempt to sideline their politicians on the national stage.
Netanyahu previously declared that the Palestinian community were officially going to be considered second-class citizens, as the Prime Minister publicly wrote on a social media platform that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens.”
He posted this after passing the Nation-State law, which holds that Israel is exclusively a nation-state of the Jewish people. “The Israeli government has done everything in its power to reject those of us who are Arab Palestinian citizens, but our influence has only grown,” claimed the leader of the Joint List after the Knesset officially passed the Nation-State law.
Following the “Deal of the Century,” which U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled in 2020 with the goal of normalising relations between Israel and Arab states, anger among the Palestinian minority towards Netanyahu increased drastically.
This outrage was primarily due to a proposed redrawing of the Israeli border that would put several Palestinian villages and towns outside Israel.
Odeh claims that Netanyahu is behind this plan, emphasising the need to end his leadership, as 80% of the Palestinian community who are familiar with this plan oppose it.
According to a Palestinian citizen of Israel, members of the minority are willing to stay within the borders of Israel with an Israeli I.D. due to the dire situation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Many Palestinian citizens of Israel consider Netanyahu the worst ever Israeli Prime Minister. Thus, Ayman Odeh made the removal of the Likud party leader his main priority since he stepped into the Israeli political scene in 2015.
Ultimately, after around 12 years in power during his second spell, Netanyahu was ousted from the premiership and replaced with Naftali Bennett, who represents “Yamina,” a right-wing nationalist party.
A notable change regarding the Israeli state policies towards the Palestinian minority is unlikely to happen, however, as Bennett is often labelled an ultra-nationalist, describing himself as more right-wing than Netanyahu.
The Palestinian community’s harsh conditions in Israel are not likely to improve under the new leadership. In fact, their situation might even deteriorate.
Recent Crackdown on the Minority during the Sheikh Jarrah events
During the recent events in Sheikh Jarrah in May 2021, the Israeli authorities launched the biggest nationwide crackdown against its Palestinian minority in decades.
In Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood located in occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian families were being forcibly evicted from their homes to be replaced with Israeli settlers.
This led to a mass wave of protests by the Palestinian community in Israel. Consequently, members of the Palestinian minority who participated in these protests were arrested.
The authorities tried to label the crackdown campaign, known as “Operation Law and Order,” as a response to Palestinian and Jewish rioters. Yet, the overwhelming number of those arrested were Palestinians.
Mohammad Barakeh, the chairman of the “High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel,” which is deemed a national representative of the minority, claims that the crackdown operation was a “campaign of intimidation and terror against the Arab public to exclude it and justify repression and persecution [against it].”
Resilience through Culture
Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Palestinian minority within its borders has been oppressed and intimidated. However, Palestinians have long resisted Israeli suppression through cultural activity, most notably through poetry.
Some Palestinians resisted Israeli state policies by teaching their own narratives at schools, as the state-run education system is designed to suppress any type of Palestinian nationalism.
And their unification in recent years led to successfully removing Netanyahu from his position as Prime Minister, who many Palestinian citizens of Israel consider as the worst ever Israeli Prime Minister.
