Combatting Ha’aretz’s Distorted View of the Arab Anti-War Demonstration

On July 25th, 10,000 Arab citizens march in Sakhalin, a stronghold of Palestinian nationalist sympathies. They, like a growing majority of Jewish Israelis have become hostile to the war and hold Netanyahu responsible for its senseless continuation. Rather than giving this unifying context, the Ha’aretz reporter Jack Khoury chose to exaggerate tensions Arab citizens have with the Zionist state and his article was eagerly picked up by the anti-Israel US press.

He cites the reluctance to previously demonstrate due to Arab fears emanating from past events: the 2000 police killings of 13 Arab citizens at demonstrations and the violence that erupted during the May 2021 Gaza war. However, the police force has been dramatically transformed in the last 25 years and even he admits they have rarely had a significant presence at Arab demonstrations. He should also have mentioned that for the last four years its second-in-command, Jamal Hakroush, is an Arab citizen and under his leadership the number of Arab police officers has more than doubled.

And it’s not clear what was the relevance of citing the violence that erupted in the mixed cities during the 2021 war. Instead, he should have mentioned there was no violence there during the current war. Indeed, Jewish and Muslim leaders and organizations in the mixed cities, most prominently in Jaffa, held successful unity events.

Not only does the transformation of the police force and recent events in the mixed cities contradict his claim of “an increasingly hostile climate towards Arab citizens” but so, too, do Knesset actions. Yes, the rightwing Zionists led by Ben Gvir and Smotrich continue to make noise and allow anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bank but their attempts to foment anti-Arab sentiment within Israel have been sharply rebuked by Jewish Knesset members.

Smotrich froze funding for construction of needed Arab schools and other budget initiatives to aid Arab communities. In response, Shas party Interior Minister Arbel overrode his decisions, sending the frozen funds, as well as substantial additional emergency funds, to Arab municipalities. Moreover, the new government adopted a five-year plan for East Jerusalem. Its confirmation resolution stated, “The development and prosperity of Jerusalem…for the benefit of all its citizens…is based on the integration of East Jerusalem residents into the fabric of urban life and Israeli society.” Even here, Smotrich attempted to cut those funds that aided East Jerusalem students seeking entry into Israeli colleges. Since the initiation of this funding in 2018, the number of Palestinian students from East Jerusalem who study in Israel for the first year of their BA surged by 85 percent (to 1,218 students). Smotrich’s gambit proved unsuccessful as the budget for this program was allocated “to encourage higher education for Arab youth.”

It is true that Arab citizens have been troubled by the continued violence visited on Gazans. However, survey data indicates that the war has brought Arab citizens closer to the Israeli state. For each year, 2016-2022, the share of Arab citizens who felt a part of Israel fluctuated between 39% and 43%. But directly after the Hamas attack, it increased to 70%; and even during November as the death and destruction in Gaza mounted, it only declined to 65%. A May 2024 survey found “just over half of Arab Israelis (51.6%) felt that the prolonged war against Hamas had given rise to a sense of ‘shared destiny’ between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel.” Moreover, 61.5% of Arab citizens agreed with the statement: “Hamas bears a great deal of responsibility for the suffering of Palestinian civilians.” These sustained sympathies were reflected in a December 2023 survey that found a dramatic increase in support for Israeli institutions since the previous June 2023 survey.

Throughout the war Arab citizens have placed more blame for Gazan destruction on Hamas not the IDF. At the eight-week mark of the IDF offensive, a minority of Arab citizens held the IDF solely responsible for the harm to Gazan civilians. Among Muslims, 60% held the IDF and Hamas equally responsible with 15.5% holding the IDF solely responsible, compared to 12% who held Hamas solely responsible. This reflected the fact that among Balad supporters, none held Hamas solely responsible but 29% held the IDF solely responsible. Among Christians and Druze, more than three times as many held Hamas solely responsible as those holding the IDF solely responsible.

It is not so surprising that Khoury ignored all the information that conflict with his desired narrative of Arab citizens remaining fearful and hostile to the Zionist regime. He like much of the anti-Israel press rely on selective facts often by the selection of which Arab citizens to interview. Could it be that Khoury interviewed only Balad supporters rather than those who supported Ra’am even though Ra’am not Balad had sufficient votes to gain seats in the current Knesset? While this might sit well with Ha’aretz’s core readership, it undermines presenting an accurate description of the attitudes of Arab citizens.