"Not For You": Palestinians In Israel Face Exclusion From Bomb Shelters (image-x/AdityaMandagie)
Roughly 21% of Israel’s population—nearly two million Palestinian citizens—live in cities, towns, and villages within the country’s internationally recognised borders. Long subjected to systemic discrimination in housing, education, employment, and state services, the Palestinian citizens in Israel once again faced neglect when Iranian missiles struck the region.
When the strikes rained down on Israel, many residents scrambled for cover as the sirens wailed across the country. And just like the others, all Palestinians too went to seek shelter in the bunkers. But the doors were slammed shut in their faces—and this time, it was not by the force of the blasts or by enemies, but by their own neighbours.
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During the worst nights of the Iran-Israel conflict to date, the Palestinian citizens were excluded from these life-saving infrastructures. According to an incident narrated by Al Jazeera in their report, it revealed the deep fault lines of Israeli society. A mother of a five-year-old named Samar, after hearing the sirens, grabbed her daughter’s hand and rushed towards a nearby bunker.
To calm her daughter down, the 29-year-old spoke in Arabic, encouraging her to take rushed steps towards the shelter, and along with them, the neighbours climbed down the stairs too. Hearing her speak in Arabic, an Israeli resident blocked her at the doorway of the shelter and said, “Not for you.”
“I was stunned,” she said. “I speak Hebrew fluently. I tried to explain. But he looked at me with contempt and blocked the entry.”
She had to climb back to her flat and occasionally collided with the ground when the Iranian missiles lit up the sky.
Despite holding an Israeli citizenship, they are often treated as second-class citizens, and their loyalty is routinely questioned in public discourse.
When Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated after the attacks that “Iran’s missiles target all of Israel – Jews and Arabs alike,” the reality seemed very different on the ground.
According to Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, more than 65 laws directly or indirectly discriminate against Palestinian citizens. The law passed in 2018 cements their disparity by defining Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people,” a move critics say institutionalised apartheid.
And during times of conflict, the discrimination against them intensifies. Some of them even get arrested over social media posts, while others face verbal abuse and denial of access to shelters.
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As shelters are meant to be equally used by all citizens as part of public safety measures, the picture seems very different. According to a 2022 report by Israel’s State Comptroller quoted by the newspaper Haaretz, more than 70 per cent of Palestinian homes do not contain safe rooms, compared to 25 per cent of Jewish homes.
