Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel at a Standstill

NOA LANDAU, SENIOR EDITOR, “HAARETZ”: Hi, Bianna. Listen, I have been a journalist in Israel for more than 15 years now. And I have never seen anything like what is happening right now on the ground. This is not only about the conflict or the war between Israel and Hamas and Gaza. This is also about what is happening within Israel between Jews and Arabs or Jews and Palestinians in Israel. This is something that I really think — I mean, I heard Aida’s voice. I think that also tells us a little bit about the situation also emotionally for many Jews and Arabs in the country right now. I have never seen so much violence and clashes between citizens. This is — and I know this sounds harsh, but this is a civil war between citizens.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: And Aida, I think she was trying to avoid that terminology and focus on the larger conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories and Gaza this past week. But, obviously, there is a lot of pent-up resentment and tension and unspoken anger amongst neighbors who just a few weeks ago were living and working side by side and sort of the pride of the world, in the sense of, look at the vaccination rate, the economy was doing better, and now we’re here. Can you help us explain where this all came from?

LANDAU: Well, of course, you can’t really separate between the Israeli- Palestinian conflict or the occupation and the situation that we’re now seeing within Israel. It’s, of course, connected. And part of the problem is that many politicians in Israel — and I think Israel as a state, they tried for many years to separate the two issues, calling Palestinians within Israel Israeli Arabs. Some would agree with that terminology. Some would not.