When 20-year-old Aya Najame, an Arab Muslim, was a little girl growing up in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, she would go on cultural exchange trips to Jewish schools to learn about the Jewish way of life. Jewish children would do the same, visiting Najame’s school to learn about her life.
Arab citizens and permanent residents in Israel make up just over 20% of the country’s population. The roughly 2 million people are distinct from Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza – but they are far from a uniform group. Most are Muslims, but there is also a large Christian Arab minority. And while around 1.5 million hold Israeli citizenship, many of those living in Jerusalem have only permanent residency status and are not full citizens.
And to be honest, we are the next target,” said Diane Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer who lives in Haifa and has previously served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian side in peace negotiations. She said that after the Hamas attacks, hate speech towards Palestinians reached new levels. “You hear statements like ‘people are human animals and they should be finished off,’” she told CNN. Buttu said that as a Palestinian in Israel, she feels like she is by default considered a threat.
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