For Abed Abou Shhadeh, the questions about who he is and where he comes from have varying answers.
He tells SBS News that he is a Palestinian citizen of Israel. But the Israeli government describes this community, which makes up about a fifth of Israel’s population, as Arab Israelis.
The 34-year-old writer, podcaster, political activist and former city councilor says he lives in Tel Aviv-Jaffa and adds that it is insulting to Palestinians to drop the second part and refer to his birthplace only as Tel Aviv . Jaffa is an ancient port city in the south of modern-day Tel Aviv, which was incorporated into the city in the 1940s.
“There’s a battle here over a lot of terminology. Both Israelis and Palestinians have a clear distinction between Jaffa and the city of Tel Aviv – they are two different worlds,” he says.
Within Israeli society, these two worlds are clearly divided: there are separate Arab neighborhoods, a separate Arab economy, and separate Arab political parties.
As the first anniversary of the start of approaches, Palestinians in Israel are concerned about their security. Abed says they are deeply affected by Israel during the past 12 months.
Almost every person living in Jaffa has relatives in Gaza. It’s our family.
Abed Abou Shhadeh
“There’s so much pressure and at a certain point it just gets depressing, especially when you see so many children being killed and bombed, getting sick and starving and so on.”
‘Legitimately afraid’
Abed’s family has lived in Jaffa since before the establishment of Israel in 1948.
The coastal city of Jaffa is believed to be over 4,000 years old and is now part of Tel Aviv. Source: Getty / Kolderal/Getty Images
“I come from a very proud family with very deep roots: my grandfather lived through the Palestinian Nakba and my father lived through very difficult times in Jaffa,” says Abed.
“There’s a sense of betrayal when you think about leaving.”
Nakba, which means catastrophe in Arabic, is the to describe the 1948 expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians – a majority of the pre-war population – who fled or were expelled from their homes under threat of force during Israel’s creation.
The Israeli government has banned the use of the term in school textbooks and has systematically hidden documents referring to massacres committed during this period, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Palestinians who remained in Israel after 1948 were placed under military rule until the end of 1966. In 1967, the Six-Day War took place and Israel gained control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said Israel grants equal rights to all citizens, although many Palestinians, who are a mix of Christians, Muslims and Druze, say they face structural discrimination within the predominantly Jewish country.
In 2021, Israel’s Supreme Court said that “equal rights are granted to all citizens of the state, including minority groups,” while rejecting an appeal against the law. which critics say has degraded the status of Palestinians.
Abed has often thought about leaving his home over the past twelve months.
Abed fears that the survival of his community is in danger.
He says some Palestinian women who wear headscarves as part of their faith have stopped using public transport because they consider it too dangerous.
I see what is happening in Israeli society and I do not underestimate that there are plenty of people on the Israeli side who are willing to commit the same atrocities that are being done to us in Gaza.
Abed Abou Shhadeh
Israel’s increase in gun ownership, following the government’s accelerated licensing in the aftermath of October 7, has left Abed questioning his ability to protect his young daughter.
Gun ownership among Israelis has soared in the aftermath of October 7. Source: Getty / Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images
In March, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrated the approval of 100,000 weapons permits since early December.
“You were running or walking on the beach in Tel Aviv and you would see a couple holding hands. They both had M-16 assault rifles on their backs. It’s just everywhere,” Abed says.
“Then you add the accidents to the mix [that] can happen, like a random bullet, and then you realize that it is a traumatized society where people can do anything and you are right to be afraid.
According to a report by Abraham Initiatives, an Israel-based organization that tracks crime statistics, 244 members of the Arab community were murdered in 2023, more than double the number of deaths the year before.
Abed says Palestinians feel like “racist police” are not protecting them, further contributing to “the feeling of being constantly unsafe.”
Limited choice for Palestinians
The Palestinian community in Tel Aviv-Jaffa is estimated to number around 20,000 people, representing 0.4 percent of the city’s total population of nearly five million.
Other areas such as Haifa and Galilee have larger Palestinian populations, and in Nazareth, almost all of the 80,000 people who live there are Arabs.
In Jerusalem, where people are sometimes counted in censuses in Israel and the West Bank and population estimates vary, the picture is more complex.
Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital and includes all of the city’s residents in its censuses, although this territorial claim is not recognized by the United Nations and is disputed by the Palestinians, who view East Jerusalem as the future capital of their independent state.
Many Palestinians living in Jerusalem do not have Israeli citizenship, but instead have permanent residency, meaning they may be subject to restrictions on their freedom of movement during times of unrest or even loss of residency status.
Adalah, an organization that advocates for the rights of Arab minorities in Israel, told Agence France Presse that community members who expressed sympathy for Gaza’s citizens have been unfairly punished.
In October 2023, Israeli Police Chief Kobi Shabtai banned Palestinian protests and said in an Israeli Police social media video that he would personally participate in the transfer of Palestinians who “identify with Gaza” to the Gaza Strip.
Between October 7 and March 27, Israeli police arrested 401 people, the majority of whom were Arabs, for speech-related offenses that it said amounted to “incitement to terrorism,” Adalah figures show.
The crackdown on freedom of expression has created a situation where Palestinian citizens… can neither protest nor express their opinions freely.
Adalah Legal Center for the Rights of Arab Minorities in Israel
Abed says the crackdown on protests is an example of how the Israeli state is working to “marginalize the Palestinian people.”
‘Wartime politics doesn’t really mean anything – you can’t really organise, you can’t demonstrate. And when you demonstrate, you understand that you’re putting yourself in a very dangerous position, and you understand that. our political representation is hollow and our citizenship is hollow.”
Inequality in Israel
Data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics shows that many Arabs have lower levels of education, are more likely to work in construction, manufacturing and agriculture, and earn less money than Jewish Israelis.
In 2019, the average monthly income for Jewish households was $US4,652 ($6,735) and $US3,048 ($4,413) for Arab households – a difference of $US1,604 ($2,322).
The main earner in Jewish households completed an average of 14.4 years of schooling, compared to an average of 11.7 years for Arab households.
Monday will mark one year since Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people according to Israeli figures.
It’s also been a year According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 41,600 Palestinians were killed and the enclave plunged into a humanitarian crisis.
Israel’s economy has weakened significantly, leading to an increase in homelessness, unemployment and crime, making life even more stressful for Abed and his family.
But they plan to stay in Jaffa and “remain resilient.”
“I see how Arabs and brown people in general are treated in the West. We face racism here and are in dangerous positions, but at least it is our home,” he says.
“At least we’re indigenous to this country. It’s better than going through (prolonged suffering) in a place where you’re literally a stranger.”
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