The death of the Arab Israeli dream
In an interview with Al-Monitor, Knesset member Issawi Frej of Meretz accused the government of creating an atmosphere permitting the targeting and persecution of Arabs and for ignoring the problem of violence in Arab Israeli communities.
“I was in Rome a week ago. My daughter calls me up at about noon and says, ‘I’m on my way back from school, and there’s shooting on the street.’ Probably some criminal chasing another criminal. I find myself helpless. I tell her, ‘Run and hide in one of the houses.’ Another time, my little son, 7 years old, told me he was in the car with his mother and saw someone shooting ‘at God in the sky.’ I didn’t understand. My wife told me that the driver of the car in front of them at an intersection had stuck his arm out of the car, holding a gun, and started shooting upward. This all happens in the State of Israel, 10 minutes from Tel Aviv, and life goes on. This is the routine in Kfar Qasim, an Arab town in the center of Israel.”
Meretz Knesset member Issawi Frej is the person recounting this story from the State of Israel's “backyard.” Frej, an Arab, was born in Kfar Qasim in 1963 and has lived there since, as have his elderly parents. He got married in Kfar Qasim and raised seven kids there.
