How the war in Gaza is making life harder for Israel’s Palestinian citizens

Good morning.

As Israel’s war in Gaza rages on, having killed 45,000 Palestinians and transformed the densely populated territory into a landscape of rubble and ash, Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCIs) find themselves in a precarious position.

Comprising 20% of Israel’s population, PCIs have long experienced systemic discrimination. This marginalisation was starkly highlighted in 2018, when the Knesset passed a law declaring Israel the nation state of the Jewish people, effectively undermining the principle of civic equality for non-Jewish residents.

Palestinian identity within Israel is fraught with challenges. Discussions of Palestinian displacement in public settings such as schools can result in punitive measures, such as the potential loss of state funding. Oppression is deeply entrenched: PCIs are issued distinct identification documents that categorise individuals by race and religion, significantly constraining their residential and social mobility.

Even democratic participation is complicated. While PCIs can vote as Israeli passport holders – unlike residents of East Jerusalem who hold only residency status and cannot vote – the electoral process is often marked by intimidation and logistical barriers.

These longstanding inequities have dramatically intensified since the war in Gaza began, with Palestinians experiencing unprecedented erosion of their civil liberties.

For this newsletter, I spoke with Hassan Jabareen, founder and general director of Adalah, a Palestinian-run nonprofit human rights legal centre in Israel, to understand the state of civil rights for PCIs. That’s right after the headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘People here feel they are under a military regime, despite being citizens’

Since the 7 October attack that killed 1,200 people, Israeli authorities have cracked down on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom to protest. PCIs who have made public statements expressing sympathy for Palestinians in Gaza have faced job losses, disciplinary action including expulsion at universities and arrest. In the first two months of the war, more than 270 PCIs were arrested.

The chilling effect has been noticeable. A poll conducted in December showed that 70 % of PCIs did not feel comfortable sharing their opinions about the war on social media.

And it’s not about just what people say, but what they read as well. Last November, the Knesset pushed through a law to restrict the “persistent consumption” of “terrorist materials” – without defining what constitutes such materials. In June, a legislative proposal would have given a government-appointed committee the power to fire academic staff without due process for allegedly supporting or inciting terrorism. Critics decried the bill as undemocratic and a tool to silence opposition.

“Palestinian professors have asked me [for advice] about whether it’s allowed to include materials regarding Palestinian rights in their syllabus,” Jabareen says. He has received phone calls from worried parents asking whether their children studying abroad and participating in demonstrations against the war will be arrested upon returning.

“We are facing a situation where people here feel they are under a military regime, despite being citizens of the state and despite the state and schools claiming that Palestinian citizens enjoy Israeli constitutional rights,” Jabareen says.

The right to protest

While Jewish Israelis have regularly gathered for large-scale protests in solidarity with hostages or against the government, authorities have waged an unprecedented crackdown on assembly by PCIs. In October last year, the then Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai said that any demonstrators coming out in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza would be put on buses to Gaza.

The supreme court ruled last November in favour of a ban on anti-war protests, though it added that authorities could not allow total bans on approved demonstrations. On the few occasions that protest permits were given to Palestinian citizens, they have been under very strict conditions. In one instance, organisers were forced to relocate a planned town centre protest to an isolated football field.

“We passed many wars and we have exercised our right to demonstrate. The police treated us badly, however they didn’t put a total ban on us – this is the first time that we have this kind of ban,” Jabareen says. Veteran political activists, both Palestinian and Jewish, told 972+ magazine that they have never been so fearful of protesting because of the high probability of arrest which, for Palestinians, would lead to months in prison.

Discrimination in everyday life

Palestinian citizens face discrimination in all manner of other contexts, many of which have only become further amplified since the war. In 2017, Adalah identified over 65 Israeli laws that they say “discriminate directly or indirectly against Palestinian citizens in Israel and/or Palestinian residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on the basis of their national belonging”.

PCIs face more violence and worse employment opportunities and health outcomes than other citizens. They are often excluded from local and national politics and face a slew of discriminatory legislation that disproportionately targets them.

So intense is the discrimination and harassment, some do not feel safe to return to Israel. In one unprecedented case, a Palestinian citizen of Israel was granted asylum in the UK earlier this year, on the grounds that he would be under considerable risk returning to Israel because of his race, his Muslim faith, his activism and his opinion that Israel “is governed by an apartheid regime”.

Everything that has happened in the last year, Jabareen warns, will provide “precedent” and legitimacy for further subjugation. “We have to work against that, we have to fight that and we need international support to put the case of the Palestinian citizens on their agenda because, really, we are under risk”.

What else we’ve been reading

• If you’re not signed up already (why not?!), yesterday’s Long Wave newsletter from Nesrine Malik was a real treat, as she discussed the differing takes on Black voter behaviour in the US election with Lauren Williams, deputy editor for race and equity. Toby Moses, head of newsletters

• Adam Almeida is compelling on Portugal’s brain drain (30% of the country’s young people live abroad, the highest emigration rate in Europe) – and the new scheme that hopes to help them stay. Charlie Lindlar, acting deputy editor, newsletters

• Who wouldn’t want a furry, real-life tamagotchi to keep you company on these cold nights? Justin McCurry tested out Moflin, Casio’s latest offering in the robot pet market: “A Gremlins-loving colleague had reminded me not to get Hammy wet – or else.” Toby

• Former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is an inspired choice to review Jordan Peterson’s new tome on religion. He finds it to be “an odd book” rife with “insistent contempt for nuance … and the reduction of any alternative perspective to its most shallow or trivial form”. Charlie

• Jane Martinson is fascinating on Allison Pearson and the way the far right is weaponising the very notion of free speech: “Here we are on the frontline of the culture war, fighting the good fight over a bad tweet.” Toby

Sport

Football | Lucy Bronze opened the scoring after 65 seconds as Chelsea secured a comfortable 3-0 win over Celtic to reach the Women’s Champions League last eight.

Cricket | Counties hosting professional women’s teams will be strictly monitored to ensure the England and Wales Cricket Board’s multimillion-pound investment is being used to achieve gender equality, Beth Barrett-Wild, the ECB’s director of the women’s professional game has said.

Media | The former Newcastle United and England footballer, Kieron Dyer, has received an apology at the high court after settling his phone-hacking case against the Daily Mirror in return for a financial payout.

The front pages

Our Guardian print lead today is “Ukraine attacks target in Russia with UK missiles for the first time”. The Times has “Ukraine launches British missiles deep into Russia”. “Up to 12 British Storm Shadows fired into Russia” says the Daily Mail which adds the strike was “personally approved” by Keir Starmer. “British Storm Shadow missiles fired at Russia” is the headline in the Express. “UK defies Putin as Ukraine fires British missiles into Russia” says the i. “Ukraine fires UK-made missiles into Russia as Kyiv’s allies ‘double down’” – that’s the Financial Times while the Telegraph takes the story forward with “Defence cuts as UK missiles hit Russia”. “Farewell, Liam” – the Mirror covers the Liam Payne funeral. But for a comma, the Metro has the same headline for the same story.

Today in Focus