Palestinians face violence on the streets of Israel as racist attacks spread

Zidan Agbaria, a Palestinian man from Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, explained how his son, Mahmoud, was attacked in Tel Aviv.

He said last week his son had arrived in Tel Aviv for construction work and was speaking Arabic on his phone, while "two men who identified themselves as police officers started beating him after they saw that he was Arab".

"They didn’t leave him until they thought he was dead," Agbaria told Middle East Eye.

According to Agbaria, an Israeli woman who was present at the scene called the police, and the two attackers were arrested.

The attackers told the police officers: "Why aren’t you arresting the terrorist?"

Mahmoud was taken to hospital with severe injuries. Almost two weeks after the attack, he remains at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and has undergone several operations, according to his father.

"It will take him a long time before he can return to work - at least three months. He can only eat liquid food and he has head injuries," his father said.

Agbaria spoke about the fear of his son returning to work in Tel Aviv, a city generally considered a liberal stronghold in Israel.

"I won’t let him go to work there alone," he said.

"He saw death with his own eyes. He came to work, not to die."

Since 22 November, there have been at least 10 attacks on Palestinians by Israelis Jews inside Israel, as racist sentiment continues to spread across the country, enflamed by far-right politicians and media. Four attacks were recorded in Jerusalem, two in Tel Aviv, and one each in Jaffa, Netanya, Afula and Kiryat Ata.

'We don’t want this to happen to Jews, so it shouldn’t happen to Arabs either'

- Zidan Agbaria

During these incidents, bus drivers, construction workers, security guards, sanitation workers and passers-by were attacked by Jewish men, with only a few subsequently arrested.

According to a report in Haaretz, the two suspects in the Agbaria attack were released this week to house arrest.

David Deri and Rudi Abzmil reportedly assaulted Agbaria because they “felt threatened by him”.

A Tel Aviv court decided not to extend their detention, and police released them under restrictive conditions.

"It’s very hard for us, we can’t understand this," said Agbaria.

"I didn’t believe they would release them - we feel there is no justice. The law doesn’t help us, neither the police or the judge helped."

"We don’t want this to happen to Jews, so it shouldn’t happen to Arabs either."

Attacks on bus drivers

Last week, the workers’ union representing drivers at the Israeli bus company Superbus announced a labour dispute - a step that would allow them to strike - saying that in November alone 11 attacks against company drivers were recorded, many of them targeting Palestinian drivers.

"Indifference to violence against workers will not be met with silence," said Micha Vaknin, chair of the Koach LaOvdim union. "This dodging of responsibility is costing us in blood."

As MEE recently reported, many of the racist attacks in Israel have targeted Arab bus drivers, particularly in Jerusalem. However, racist attacks have also been recorded in other cities across Israel.

Last Saturday, a 30-year-old Palestinian woman in the ninth month of her pregnancy was attacked by three Jewish men while driving with her family in the Palestinian city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv.

Hanan Khamil told the Israeli outlet Ynet on Sunday that "I felt that my family’s lives were in danger, just because we are Arab Muslims".

Khamil said one of the attackers spat at her daughter, who was inside the vehicle. The attackers then shouted, “stinking Arab” and other insults, before spraying them with pepper spray.

"I was truly afraid for our lives," Khamil added. She was taken to hospital after the attack.

Earlier this week, police arrested the three suspects involved in the attack, and on Wednesday a court extended their detention.

According to Israeli media, the three are "hilltop youth" - a term used to describe far-right settlers who routinely terrorise Palestinians in the occupied West Bank - who are subject to restraining orders from the West Bank.

Earlier this month, Khalil al-Rashak, a Palestinian sanitation worker employed by the Jerusalem municipality, was attacked by two young Jewish men while working in the city.

The pair caused al-Rashak serious injuries, and he was evacuated to hospital with broken teeth and ribs.

Before attacking al-Rashak, the two young men, who have since been arrested, assaulted a Palestinian bus driver elsewhere in the city.

Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian Knesset member from the Ta’al party, who visited al-Rashak at his home in Anata in occupied East Jerusalem, wrote in Haaretz that Israel was experiencing "a widespread and systematic phenomenon of racist and nationalist violence against Arab citizens".

The violence inside Israel "is closely linked, ideologically and practically, to Jewish terror against Palestinians in the occupied territories - it is the same ideology, the same perpetrators, and the same system that turns a blind eye."

The attackers, Tibi wrote, are "storm trooper units of the Israeli fascist right".

Police and court involvement

Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said the police, the State Attorney’s Office, and the courts were effectively giving an ongoing green light to violence against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

"Just a few months ago, we saw how Israeli Jewish rioters attacked Knesset member Ayman Odeh," they said in a statement, referring to an attack against the Palestinian leader of the Hadash party during a speech in the city of Ness Ziona last July.

"Despite videos submitted to the authorities, affidavits, inciting publications, and forensic opinions, all of which showed that those responsible for serious acts of violence could be identified, no indictments were filed against the rioters."

'An Arab won't check me': Israeli police beat Palestinian security guard at football match

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Adalah added that "In the case of the late Mousa Hassouna, who was killed by Jewish civilians in Lod in 2021," referring to a Palestinian citizen of Israel who was killed by Israeli Jews during the outbreak of violence in Israel in May 2021, "the State Attorney’s Office and the courts stood by and allowed the case to be closed."

"In a reality in which senior government officials continue to incite against Arab citizens, and Minister [Itamar] Ben Gvir continues to arm Jewish civilians, the result is the effective sanctioning of the killing of Palestinian citizens of Israel."

Sometimes the police are the perpetrators of violence against Palestinians.

Last Monday, Qais Haddad, a 21-year-old Palestinian resident of Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem, said he was beaten by 13 police officers at Teddy Stadium during a football match between Beitar Jerusalem and Hapoel Jerusalem.

Haddad, who was working as a security guard on the evening of the match, testified to Haaretz that he was severely beaten, resulting in serious injuries.

Haddad said that three police officers in civilian clothing took him to a secluded area in the stadium and beat him there after he tried to check their tickets.

"One of them grabbed me by the head, took me to the officers who were standing on the side and told them, ‘I’m police'."

"I thought to myself, ‘Maybe they came to help me,’ but then about 13 police officers started beating me all over my body," he told Haaretz.

According to Haddad, as police officers punched him, they said: “Take this, you Arab son of a bitch."