Current Affairs

Thousands of column inches have been written about the war in Gaza, but underneath these columns is a darker murkier argument that is coming to play in both Israel and the West. It is the argument of censorship and how this censorship has played out in the West, as well as within academia, the arts and realising opposing arguments. Twenty one percent of Israel is made up of Palestinian Israelis, or in the parlance of the Israeli authority – Arab Israelis. The consequences for social cohesion have proven disastrous as Arab Israeli’s are finding themselves in a maelstrom of arguments that have intensified. Some have been fired as doctors, academics and even a banker, and the hard edge of Israeli rule has left the Palestinian Israeli population terrified.

At least twenty one percent of Palestinian Israeli’s identify as Arab, most are descended from the Palestinians who were displaced from their villages and moved into cities like Haifa, Jaffa, or other communities that survived the murders, displacements or expulsions after the declaration of Israel’s independence. Many have argued that within Israeli social order, Arab Israelis are second class citizens and the war in Gaza has accentuated that sentiment. On the first day of the war twenty one Bedouin were killed, two taken hostage, they lost their homes and there is very little infrastructure to help the Bedouin get through the crisis: meaning there are no bomb shelters or water resources to help the Bedouin through the worst of the crises. According to Suha Salman Moussa, speaking at a Carnegie event, the Bedouin were not only victims of the Hamas attack but were refused treatment for their wounded, when ambulances refused to come to their aid.

A Palestinian Israeli lawyer on human rights was invited to write a piece for the Harvard review. In early November Rubiah Eghbariah submitted a piece, which was then edited, copy-edited, fact-checked and approved for publication by the editors. Unfortunately, on the 18^th November, the board of the Harvard Law Review voted against publishing the piece, even though it would have been a historically significant piece as it would have been the first piece written by a Palestinian scholar for the Harvard Law Review. It has been argued that none of the editorial staff wanted to be associated with the piece as there is a core who expose and dox those that have taken a stance on a piece that would or could prove controversial to the Israeli states arguments.

In Israel there is a shrinking space for the freedom of expression and those that challenge the censorship imposed by the state find themselves outcasts. Four hundred and fifty people have been arrested, this has included students, lecturers and journalists. There have been one hundred and sixteen detained and a further ninety six charged under the terrorism law, but incidents have happened to Palestinian Israelis for just attending college. In Netanya, a town in the centre of Israel, where Israeli Palestinian students have a largely good relationship with the local community; the students were accused of throwing an egg, but this was denied by the students. However, a largely right wing crowd congregated and began demonstrating outside the college. Police were called and the Palestinian Israelis were trapped in the campus building with the crowd trying to breach the doors. Chants of “death to the Arabs”, was the calling cry of the crowd and according to Middle East eye, the Dean promised the crowd that the students would be expelled.

PalFest a festival of literature in London was de-platformed. The festival showcases the latest literary pieces by Palestinian writers and poets and was meant to showcase their work at the Royal Geographic Society building. Writers including names such as Tamin al Barghouti, Rashid Khalidi, Soweto Kinch, Julie Christie and Esther Freud were booked. The Royal Geographic Society said in a statement that the decision “was in no way a refection of the event organisers, speakers or attendees, or a comment on the content of the event.” Fifty sites were contacted to hold the event, but the main argument was that the event could not be held safely in London under the present conditions. Eventually the organisers of PalFest found a venue which would take the literary event, but there were many questions that were left unanswered as to whether events like this could be held safely. There have been further cancellations, such as PalMusic, which was meant to be held at Southwark Cathedral, but on the eve of the event, the venue called off the event siting that “the safety of the audience, musicians and cathedral staff,” was of paramount importance. Further cancellations have included the British writer Suhaiymah Manzoor ~Khan, who found that the DEI wanted the talk to include an argument against antisemitism. She felt that this was bizarre as it “assumed […]that a talk about Islamophobia needs to be offset by a talk about antisemitism, which gives the impression that a talk about Islamaphobia is itself antisemetic.”  

Yael Berd, an activist, speaking at a Carnegie event argued that the attack by Hamas on the 7^th October, deeply affected the Israelis. People, she says are “careful and fearful. Even questions are structured in such a way that they conform to government pressure. […] Academic spaces are coming under pressure by the Minister of Education who wants over-site.” She argues that what is happening on the ground is underscored by authoritarianism by the Netanyahu government and this is placing pressure on Israelis to conform to a singular argument, whether right or wrong.

Three Palestinian doctors in Israel penned a letter arguing that they were subjected to “racism, militarism and hypocrisy.” in their medical field, where they say their colleagues have been cheering the death of civilians in Gaza. According to NPR another case involves Abou Shadeh, who is in the midst of a labour dispute. In the human resources letter detailing her dismissal, they argued that “they support the freedom of expression, but that during wartime, more sensitivity is expected from employees.” Sawn Zaheer, a human rights lawyer from Israel argues that “this is all absurd. We are not talking about feelings that are hurt, we are talking about a massive wave of political persecution against Arab citizens inside Israel.”

There have been questions of identity throughout the history of Israel, for the Palestinians the Nakba was a disaster, which upended the lives of 500,000 Palestinians when the state of Israel was formed. But there is a language today of fear of the unknown and though Israelis themselves face arguments relating to self censorship, the advent of a cruel argument that places the Israeli Palestinians at the bottom of an argument though they have lived in the country peacefully for the past seventy years. The censorship of Palestinian voices internationally is very troubling and the reason for these arguments are determined by an instilled fear of public criticism. Until there is a landscape that accepts different voices and the right to arguments that contend with the status quo, there will not be a way to find a peaceful outcome to the present crisis in Gaza. And in punishment of the whole voice of the Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel will continue to suffer the terrorism that was written large on the 7^th October.