‘Palestinians in Israel are siding with Palestinians in Gaza, not with Hamas’

BEN LYNFIELD: The Nation-State law, house demolitions and lack of jobs have left Palestinians feeling excluded from Israeli society: ‘When the clashes started, they realise they're on the Palestinian side’

JERUSALEM - For Israeli Jews, the stone throwing, torchings and near-lynchings undertaken by young members of the Arab minority in their midst are a source of fear and along with similar Jewish violence a sign of the unravelling of the fabric of Israeli society.

For Palestinians under devastating aerial bombardment in Gaza, however, they are an Israeli-provoked sign of Palestinian solidarity.

"The Palestinian citizens of Israel suffer a lot of discrimination and they want to express that they are part of the Palestinian people and part of the Palestinian identity. They don't want to leave the Palestinian people alone because they are the same blood and roots and are facing the same power," said political analyst Muhsen Abu Ramadan in a phone interview from Gaza City.

"People feel horrible here. They feel afraid so much because there is no safe area in the Gaza Strip," he added.

Returning to the subject of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, he said the violence of their youth was the fault of the Israeli government. "The young people attack because there is no equality for them, they are deprived of equal rights and they are fed up and they see Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza facing occupation and military attacks and aggression."

In the view of Ashraf Ajrami, the West Bank-based former Palestinian Authority minister for prisoner affairs, Israeli actions in Jerusalem are what ignited the Arab citizens of Israel.

These included the planned eviction of Palestinian families to make way for settlers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and police raiding Islam's third holiest site, al haram al Sharif (the noble sanctuary), which Jews revere as the Temple Mount.