On Aug. 31, the eve of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent holiday greetings through social media to Israel’s Druze population, which practices a monotheist Abrahamic religion based on teachings of major Muslim figures and therefore observes some Islamic holy days: “This festival, in which members of the Druze community visit their friends and relatives, pray for peace and brotherhood, and extend a helping hand to one another, reminds me of our own Jewish holidays. This is not surprising, as we share the same values. The Druze and Jews both sanctify life, are proud of their unique heritage and religion, and both are brave warriors who protect their country, the State of Israel.”

Knesset member Ahmad Tibi, from the predominantly Arab Joint List, responded immediately, tweeting, “Netanyahu forgot that there are Muslim Israelis and that the Eid is also a major holiday for the Muslims. Bibi, you are making mistakes in droves.” Tibi's last sentence alludes to the prime minister’s unfortunate warning to right-wing voters on election day in 2015 that Israeli Arabs were “coming out in droves to the polls.”

According to 2016 census data, some 130,900 Druze live in Israel, constituting 1.6% of the country's population, while the Muslim Arab community of more than 1.5 million makes up some 17.7% of it. The Feast of the Sacrifice is just as holy and important to the latter, but Netanyahu left them out of his holiday wishes, only deigning to rectify his oversight several hours later, after protests and furious reactions erupted on social media. “The holiday is a good opportunity to remember that there are also similarities between us,” he wrote in his revised greetings, this time to all Israeli Muslims.

“It took Netanyahu four hours to discover the existence of a million people,” said Samah Salima of Sikkuy, an organization devoted to Arab-Jewish equality. “That is the nature of his attitude toward his Muslim citizens. He exploits a holiday in order to humiliate and divide, as he often does. This was clearly no naive oversight. And the results of what he directs from above and the attitude toward Israeli Arabs, we see on the ground every day. We see it in nationalist legislation or in a minister of justice who says human rights are less important than Zionism.”