The Arabs who live in the town see themselves as Israeli, but they face harassment from Jewish hard-liners, and say they would not be spared by Hamas in any conflict
When the sirens blared across the town of Abu Ghosh last week, the men in the coffee shop didn’t bother running to an air-raid shelter. The barrages of rockets aimed at Israel by the militant group Hamas were hardly seen as a threat. Why would they target a peaceful Arab town in Israel?
that began when the Islamist militants killed and kidnapped hundreds of people in southern Israel. But they also feel sympathy for the ordinary Palestinian people in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, who since the current fighting started on Oct. 7 have often borne the brunt of Israel’s own missile attacks and its siege of the territory.
“Israelis call us Arabs, but the Palestinians call us traitors. If we go to Gaza, Hamas will murder us. We are caught in the middle. We are Israelis, but the ordinary people in Gaza are Muslims like us, and we feel sorry for them.”On a normal day before the latest war, Israelis would flock to Abu Ghosh to dine at the famous restaurants of the town, which is reputed to be the hummus capital of Israel.
Yet they know they are hated by extremists on both sides. Jewish settlers, seeking to drive Arabs out of Israel, have sometimes roared into town to burn cars and write hateful graffiti on walls.Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, sparked controversy last week when he warned the police to prepare for violence and rioting by the country’s Arab citizens, who form about 20 per cent of Israel’s population. He was wrong.
“They have money and fancy homes. They oppress the people of Gaza, and they’re the main reason why the people of Gaza are suffering. Hamas just wants territory. Even if we gave them Jerusalem, it wouldn’t be enough.”
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