Lido, Israel – A week after Israel began bombing Gaza last October, Ghassan Munayer received a call from Israeli police.
Officers warned him not to make critical Facebook posts about the war or call for demonstrations in the Lido. [Lod in Hebrew]where Palestinian nationals of Israel like Munee coexist with Jewish Israelis.
“They said, 'We're looking at your Facebook,' and told us not to write anything 'satanic,'” said Muneye, a human rights activist. “I said, 'Do you have any examples of posts like this?' He said, 'Don't be smart.' You're being watched. ”
Tensions in the mixed Palestinian-Israeli city have been nearing a boiling point since Israel launched its war on Gaza following a deadly Hamas attack on October 7. But few places are as tense as the Lido. Lido is run by far-right mayor Yair Rebibo, and relations between Palestinians and Israeli Jews have been troubled for years.
Palestinian activists say they fear for their lives, living in the shadow of Israeli authorities and heavily armed Jewish Israelis, many of whom belong to supremacist movements. They warn that the city could “explode” into conflict, leading to persecution and expulsion of Palestinian residents.
“Palestinians know that the Israelis will try to kill us or arrest us under any circumstances, because we are at war,” Munayer told Al Jazeera.
“Israel is just a democracy for Jewish Israelis, and many Jewish Israelis want us to leave Lido and go to Arab villages.”
“Living under constant threat”
Palestinians in Lido make up about 27 percent of the city's population, many of whom live in poor urban areas, and predate the Nakba, or catastrophe, which forced 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages. , whose family has lived in Lido for generations. During the founding of Israel.
Among them are the children and grandchildren of Palestinians who fled the village of Majdal, about 40 miles (62 kilometers) from Lido, during the Nakba conflict. Some went to Gaza from Majdal (now called Ashkelon in Israel). All Palestinian families remain divided between Lido and Gaza.
Maha al-Naqib, a Palestinian human rights lawyer from Lido, lost 16 of her relatives to Israel's relentless bombing in Gaza. Despite her trauma, she refrains from commenting or criticizing her war on social media due to her fear that she may be arrested.
In the first two weeks starting October 7, at least 100 Palestinians in Israel were arrested for posting on social media expressing sympathy or anger over Israel's war in Gaza. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war so far, the majority of them children and women. Thousands more are lost under the rubble of war and are presumed dead.
“Palestinians live under constant threat… All Arabs here live in fear,” Al Naqib told Al Jazeera. “The Israelis want us to think that we live in their homes. This city, this place, is not ours.”
Munayer added that Israel has historically sought to punish or crush expressions of solidarity between Palestinians living in Israel and those living in the occupied territories. He added that Palestinians in Lido are angry at all reports of Israeli atrocities coming out of the Gaza Strip.
“Israel doesn't want us to feel solidarity with our brothers and sisters. They don't want us to demand collective rights,” he said.
“We are not treated as citizens.”
Israeli extremists have long viewed Lido and other mixed cities as battlegrounds where they are fighting to swell their numbers and gradually erase the Palestinian presence.
This is the stated mission of Garin Tolani (Seed of the Bible), an Israeli supremacist group that intentionally settles Palestinian settlements throughout Israel. Because most Palestinians cannot obtain building permits, members of the group and other far-right Israelis are taking advantage of this discriminatory policy to build new housing in densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods.
When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, many settlers moved to Lido and other mixed cities. Illegal settlers from the occupied West Bank have also moved strategically to “Judaize” the city of Lido, often resulting in severe gentrification and heightened tensions with the Palestinians. .
But Nisrin Shehada, a Palestinian activist in Lido, said that whenever a conflict erupts, security forces and the mayor of Rebibo exclusively protect Jewish Israelis.
“We are citizens of this state, but we are never treated as citizens,” she told Al Jazeera from her office.
Mr. Shehada recalled Mr. Ridd's solidarity protests with the Palestinians who were expelled from East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah and attacked at Al-Aqsa Mosque in May 2021.
Back in Lido, far-right Jewish Israelis attacked and shot a group of Palestinians on May 10 in response to a protest. They killed Moussa Hassna, 32, a Palestinian resident of the city.
After the incident, protests intensified, as did ethnic violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Yigal Yehoshua, a Jewish Israeli man, was murdered by a Palestinian mob a week later.
Human Rights Watch said Israeli authorities responded very differently to the killings of Hasna and Yehoshua. All of the Jewish-Israeli suspects were released on bail within just two days of Hassuna's murder and have since been cleared of all charges. However, eight Palestinian men were quickly arrested in connection with Yehoshua's murder and charged with “murder” and “terrorism.”
Police also failed to protect Palestinians from violence by far-right Jewish Israeli groups, arresting 120 Palestinians in Lido but only 34 Jewish Israelis.
“The protests were understandable and expected, but the government made all Palestinians pay the price,” al-Naqib said.
“I know they want us out.”
Palestinian residents of Lido told Al Jazeera that they do not want any clashes with far-right Jewish Israelis in the city of Lido, despite Israel's continued atrocities in Gaza. Many fear that if tensions escalate, the Palestinian community could be shot at or forced out of the city altogether.
Since October 7, Israel's far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has distributed thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to Jewish Israelis across the country and to illegal settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories. Many people openly carry these weapons around in Lido.
“Israel distributed guns here like candy,” al-Nakib told Al Jazeera.
The tense political situation and the militarization of civilians forced moderate Jewish Israeli and Palestinian community leaders to form a committee. Their mission is to reduce communal tensions and avoid conflict.
Shehada is a member of this committee, which frequently attempts to dispel fake news in the hope of maintaining cautious calm within Lido. She explained that she has no close Jewish-Israeli friends, even though she collaborates with Jewish-Israeli colleagues.
“I have never heard anyone on the committee say that we should all live together in peace and love. We need calm in our respective areas because everyone is really scared.” ,” she told Al Jazeera.
But with Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month, coming up next week, the committee's efforts could be in vain. Typically, during the holy month, Israeli authorities tend to crack down on Palestinian worshipers who go to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Violence at the mosque could spark another deadly conflict in Lido.
“If there is a problem with al-Aqsa, there will be a war,” Shehada said. “We all know what's going to happen.'' [Israeli extremists] They want to get rid of the Palestinians. ”