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A DIARY OF A PALESTINIAN LIVING IN ISRAEL  
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Diana Buttu
May 7, 2024
Zeteo
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_ From top-charting songs to dating apps, genocide fever has taken
over Israel. _

Palestinian citizens of Israel march with anti-war banners and
Palestinian flags during a rally calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and
marking the 48th anniversary of Land Day in the town of Deir Hanna,
Israel, on March 30, 2024., Marcus Yam for the LA Times via Getty
Images

 

“I’m sure you heard the news,” read the WhatsApp message.
“They have taken Nadera,” it said, referring to Israel’s arrest
of Palestinian professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian
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Nadera was arrested for “incitement” after she (correctly) labeled
Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide. I had, of course, heard the
news because I, like millions of other Palestinians, have been glued
to my phone for the past seven months, seeing image after image, video
after video, of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians
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unrelenting attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.

Nadera is a well-known professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
But despite being a professor, she is, in the eyes of Israel, a threat
– not for anything that she has done, but simply for being. Nadera,
like me, is one of the 2 million Palestinians
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hold Israeli citizenship – non-Jews who live in the apartheid state
of Israel (Nadera is also a U.S. citizen, in case Joe Biden cares).

People often ask what it is like to be a Palestinian living in Israel.
Here’s what it’s like: We are the remnants and reminders of
the 1948 Nakba
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people whose nation was destroyed, communities razed, and whose
families remain scattered around the world to make way for Jewish
immigrants to take over our country and homes. We are the “enemy
from within” for whom laws are enacted to enshrine our subservient
status while at the same time being told we should be grateful for
being “allowed” to live in our homeland.

As Palestinians in Israel, we must maneuver a system of Jewish
supremacy and open racism every day, while living with the very people
who perpetrated the Nakba or support it. Israeli politicians have made
it clear that we are only here because David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s
first prime minister and who spearheaded the Nakba, did not, they say,
“finish the job
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in 1948, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. 

I’ve lived in Haifa since 2010 after spending my childhood in
Canada and later living in Gaza City and Nazareth, as well as
Ramallah, where I served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian
negotiating team in the early 2000s. Though I have lived here for
many years, not a day goes by when I do not hear anti-Palestinian
racist statements from Israeli politicians and ordinary citizens. My
well-intending Jewish Israeli friends urge me to brush it off –
“You know how Israelis are,” they say, apparently in an attempt to
convince themselves these comments are aberrations and not what
Palestinians live through daily in Israeli society. But they are not
aberrations; racism and threats are commonplace, pervasive, and
longstanding.

GENOCIDE FEVER

Since Oct. 7, genocide
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has been in full swing. For seven months, Israeli politicians and
pundits have spewed genocidal statements on Israeli television and
social media on a daily basis. Israel’s far-right heritage minister,
a man who early in the war called nuking Gaza
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option, recently said
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Israel “must find ways [to deal with] Gazans that are more painful
than death.” But these are not just statements. They are matched by
deeds. 

Israel’s violence has become so commonplace that Israeli soldiers
openly brag about killing, wounding, maiming, and torturing
Palestinians on social media. Israeli soldiers, who have learned there
are no repercussions for their actions, film themselves dedicating
the blowing up of Gaza
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children, proposing marriage against the backdrop of Palestinian
homes and buildings reduced to rubble, writing “save the date”
notices on bombed houses, and gleefully playing with the lingerie of
Palestinian women
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Killing Palestinians earns Israelis bragging rights, and dating apps
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filled with pictures of men brandishing weapons and showing themselves
in combat in Gaza.

But it’s not just Israeli politicians and soldiers. Some of
the top-charting songs
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with over 20 million views on YouTube) call for Gaza to be erased and
for Palestine’s celebrity supporters, such as Bella Hadid and Dua
Lipa
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to be killed. Israeli comedian Hen Mizrahi
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about Palestinians being killed by food airdrops in Gaza. These
airdrops are only necessary because Israel is deliberately starving
Palestinians
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the besieged enclave. Mizrahi later doubled down
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national TV, repeating the same line uttered by former Israeli
President Chaim Herzog: “There are no innocents in Gaza.”

dianabuttu [[link removed]]
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A post shared by @dianabuttu [[link removed]]
It doesn’t stop there. At every turn, a sign can be found promoting
Israel’s attacks. Signs in English quoting Nikki Haley’s call
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“finish them” are plastered on storefronts and displayed in
apartment windows. Images morphing Adolf Hitler with Hamas leaders can
be found on highway overhangs.

But the most popular slogan these days, “Together We Will Win,” is
everywhere – on billboards, commercial websites, and business cards.
It was even stamped on eggs
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eggs – alongside the expiration date, of course.

partnersintorah [[link removed]]
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A post shared by @partnersintorah
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“YOUR NEIGHBOR WILL JUST REPORT YOU TO THE POLICE”

My Israeli neighbor has a “Together We Will Win” bumper sticker on
her car.

“What does ‘win’ mean?” I recently asked her. 

“You don’t know what win means?” She replied.

“Not really. I am asking what ‘win’ looks like. So far, more
than 35,000 Palestinians killed, including 15,000 kids....”

She shrugged and unabashedly answered, “This is the price.” 

Her response is typical: A recent opinion poll
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that the vast majority of Jewish Israelis – 94% – believe the
Israeli military has used “adequate or too little force” in Gaza.
About 88% of Jewish Israelis believe the number of Palestinians killed
or wounded in Gaza is justified. These are astonishing figures given
the apocalyptic scale of death and destruction that Israel has meted
out on Gaza and its people. 

A friend warned me not to say anything to my neighbor. “Don’t
express dissent,” she told me. “Your neighbor will just report you
to the police.” My friend is right to worry. Alongside the genocidal
frenzy, Israel has taken measures to crush any domestic dissent,
including banning protests, passing a law to shut down Al Jazeera
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and going after those who dare speak out against genocide, including
professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian.

Since Oct. 7, hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel
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been arrested for “incitement” and “supporting terrorism” as
expressions of solidarity with Gaza are characterized, speaking out
against Israeli state crimes, and, in some cases, for writing Quranic
verses. Students – ratted out by fellow classmates – have been
disciplined by their colleges or universities for “liking” social
media posts, while those who openly advocate genocide remain free to
do so. Armed militia groups patrol Israel’s streets and social media
posts and report Palestinians, including doctors and professors, to
police. 

Palestinian neuroscientist and folk singer Dalal Abu Amneh received
death threats
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posting “There is no victor but God" with a Palestinian flag emoji
on social media after Oct. 7. After reporting the threats to the
police, _she_ was arrested – not those who threatened her.
Following Abu Amneh’s release, her neighbors staged a months-long
protest outside her home, with some calling for her expulsion and
threatening her with death and rape. The mayor of her town ran his
re-election campaign by showing up to the protests, threatening to
expel her, and even changing the name of her street to “Israel
Defense Forces Street.” That, of course, is permissible, but
denouncing genocide is not. 

The reason for the crackdown on Palestinians in Israel is clear: Keep
us afraid so we do not dare to speak out. And while the carnage
continues in the occupied territories and our families, friends, and
nation are battered, we are expected to stay quiet, even as our
Israeli neighbors and colleagues treat genocide as entertainment. 

_Look out for my ‘Diary from a Palestinian in Israel’ every month.
If you aren’t already signed up to receive my newsletter, subscribe
now [[link removed]] and be sure to select it._

 
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* Israel; Palestinian in Israel;
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