Diane Buttu on life in Israel as an Arab

The settlers have been making it clear that they want to go after us.  The general environment is one in which we’re always made to feel as though we’re the next target.  And to be honest, we are the next target. 

[She said after the Hamas attacks, hate speech towards Palestinians reached new levels.]  You hear statements like ‘people are human animals and they should be finished off. 

[Buttu said that as a Palestinian in Israel, she feels like she is by default considered a threat.]  The only way that I’m not part of the human animal group is if I denounce (terrorism) first.  I have to prove my humanity to them… but I never ask Jewish people to denounce the settlers’ violence, to denounce those attacks.  I never ask them to prove that they are not settlers. 

]Buttu said that the restrictions on the movements of permanent residents are just one example of discrimination — adding that even those who hold citizenship can be targeted.] 

There are all these laws that either directly or indirectly discriminate against Palestinians who hold Israeli citizenship, including laws that prevent me and others from moving into certain towns.  [referring to an Israeli law that allows villages and towns in certain regions to operate “admission committees”]  They have the power to bar people from moving in if they are deemed to be “not suitable” to the community’s “social-cultural fabric.” 

[The law was expanded this year and now applies to settlements of 700 households, up from 400 previously. Adalah, an NGO that focuses on the rights of the Arab minority in Israel, said the expanded version of the law covers 41% of all localities and 80% of the state’s territory.] 

As a Palestinian living in this country, your whole existence is either carving out a safe space where you live and work in an area that you know, where you’re safe, where you can speak Arabic, where your political views are known and where you don’t have to measure your words, or you totally assimilate to the other side.  Anywhere in between is the space of total discomfort.  But even when you totally assimilate, there’s still a question mark.

~ Diane Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer who lives in Haifa and has previously served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian side in peace negotiations, "The war has forced Israel’s Arab citizens to explain that no, they are not Hamas," CNN, October 21, 2023