Published: 11 December 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
The story of how members of Israel’s Bedouin community saved Jewish lives during the Hamas assault has gone largely unreported, but a nonprofit is aiming to change that.
A few days after the Hamas massacre on October 7, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged police to brace themselves for a repeat of the violent Jewish-Arab intercommunal clashes of May 2021.
Shir Nosatzki, a specialist in Jewish-Arab partnership building, had enough experience to know that the situation – so volatile at that point – could go either way: Israel might once again find itself on the verge of civil war; or, alternatively, Jews and Arabs might finally wake up to the fact that they share a common destiny. After all, Hamas terrorists did not discriminate between Jewish and Arab blood when they embarked on their killing spree.
During the Hamas attack, 24 Arab citizens were murdered (19 of them Bedouin) and nine Bedouin were taken hostage. An untold number of Bedouin homes were also destroyed by Hamas rockets. Israel’s Bedouin population is concentrated mainly the south, not far from the Gaza border communities infiltrated by Hamas, which explains why this particular group took such a hit.
“She told me that they were not getting any help from the state, and that while Jewish civil society organization had mobilized to help people evacuated from the kibbutzim and border towns, no such efforts were being made to help the Bedouin,” Nosatzki recounts.
Her organization sprang into action, establishing a joint Jewish-Arab emergency relief center in Rahat, the country’s largest Bedouin city.
“More than just serving basic needs, we wanted to create a sense of solidarity among Jews and Arabs, and make people realize that we’re all in this together,” she says.
READ MORE
‘We’re in This Together’: Viral Videos Spotlight Arab-Israeli Heroes of October 7 Hamas Attack (Haaretz)
RELATED STORY
Unable to Escape Hamas' Rockets, Bedouin Choose to Talk About Their Fears Instead (Haaretz)
To date, 19 members of the Bedouin community in Israel, including six children, have been killed in the war. A hotline with Arab psychologists and social workers has become the best resource of comfort and support for many of them.
