Attorney Rada Jabar was having a hard time hiding his emotions. As he went over events in the Arab sector during the past few days, he was caught up in the sense of desperation over the emerging crisis between Jews and Arabs. “I would dare say that we are reaching the lowest point ever in the relationship between Jewish society and Arab society,” he told Al-Monitor. As head of the Arab Center for a Safe Society, based in the city of Taibe, he has been following the outburst of rage that erupted in the Arab sector after it learned that young Jews were behind the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a young Palestinian from Shuafat.
When Jabar left his home that day, he encountered hundreds of young Arabs from his town converging on the main highway with sticks and rocks. Images raced through his mind of similar scenes from the riots of October 2000, immediately after the second intifada erupted. Some 13 Arab demonstrators were killed in those riots, which are still considered the lowest point in the relationship between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
“I honestly thought it was a legitimate protest at first,” said Jabar, describing what he saw firsthand that morning. Within moments, hundreds of police officers surrounded the demonstrators and began arresting them en masse, so Jabar returned home and shut himself up there until the trouble was over. But this time, the fury refused to pass. He learned that the protest in Taibe had taken off and spread throughout the Arab sector. Hundreds of young people left their towns and villages to block the country’s main arteries and throw rocks at passing cars. The unrest was not limited to the towns and villages of the north, and reached the south as well. In the Bedouin villages of the Negev, hundreds of young people blocked roads and burned tires.
The most serious event of all occurred near the town of Qalansawe, in the center of Israel. Young Arabs stopped a car and demanded that its passengers get out. “Are you Jewish?” one of the young people asked. The passengers answered that they were, and were promptly beaten by the Arab protesters.
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