‘We don’t want the kids to be afraid of each other’: the Jews and Arabs uniting to heal rifts of war (2024)

Just after 3 o’clock, the children start running towards the Arab-Jewish community centre. The activities are about to begin – though this is not the reason for their haste. Moments before, sirens wailed across Tel Aviv and Jaffa, warning of another rocket attack. Some cry out in fear as the metal shutters of the centre rattle down.

Ten minutes later, after two loud booms signal that the rockets launched from Gaza have been destroyed in the air, the children file out of the malodorous basem*nt of the centre and head for gym class, music lessons and a crafts session organised by an NGO that is trying to improve relations between Israel’s Jewish and Arab populations.

Even the most enthusiastic of Standing Together’s activists and leaders admit that, after 11 weeks of war, the moment is inauspicious for such initiatives.

“These are extreme times. People are still processing the Hamas attack and the war in Gaza. People are in survival mode and thinking in black and white,” said Nadav Shofet, Standing Together’s lead community organiser in Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

One slender reason for hope is sharp rise in volunteers since the war began, members of the NGO say. Since the Hamas attacks in southern Israel in October, which killed 1,200 people, mainly civilians, thousands have joined the organisation.

During the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, which has so far killed about 18,000 people, mostly women and children, and destroyed swaths of the territory, more have come forward to work with the group.

“People are looking for a solution … It might seem crazy now but it’s clear the only way out is peace,” said Shofet.

Outside the community centre, overlooking a sweep of beach and the Mediterranean, the municipal authorities have hung a banner bearing the slogan: “Together, all Jaffa’s residents will get through this”.

Inside, a menorah for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah stands alongside a Christmas tree. The combination of rain and rockets means about only six children have turned up for the crafts session organised by Standing Together.

Orit Tammuz, a 65-year-old Jewish former dancer, had brought her granddaughter Amani. “For me, all this is a natural thing. Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Jews, in our family we don’t make a difference. There is no victory if this is not a country for all of us,” she said.

Palestinian citizens of Israel comprise 21% of the population, often living in cities where they are a majority. Jaffa, with its mixed community, has attracted many young Jewish families in recent years, many with progressive views who feel out of step with the rightwards trend of Israeli society in general. This has led to sharp increases in property prices, which have forced out often poorer Arab residents.

Tammuz admitted that neither Jaffa nor the crafts class was very representative of Israel, particularly at the moment. “Here, this is like being in a small bubble but we hope it will become bigger, or I don’t see any solution,” she said.

Other activities run by Standing Together include food distributions to families experiencing economic hardship, renovating public bomb shelters and a series of well-attended rallies. The organisation, founded in 2016, has also set up an unarmed joint Arab-Jewish “civil guard” to protect all communities and alert police in the event of violence.

The goal of many efforts was simply to bring members of different communities together, said Amir Badran, an organiser in Jaffa for Standing Together and a local politician and lawyer.

This includes the popular children’s craft sessions, held every week for two months. “Although people are in big distress, they would still prefer to get together … We don’t want the kids to be afraid of each other and hate each other. Here, they get to know each other and the parents get to meet,” Badran said.

Quite how difficult finding the common ground that Standing Together seeks is clear to almost everyone in Israel. The government is the most rightwing in the country’s history, including politicians accused of “inflammatory rhetoric” before the current conflict.

Though there have been no major outbreaks of violence, relations between the Jewish majority and citizens who are Arab, many of whom now identify as Palestinian citizens of Israel, are tense.

“At times of war people become more radical, and [the right] is using this war to incite against Palestinian citizens,” said Rula Daood, Standing Together’s co-director.

“Whether you are a regular, public or political figure, if you say anything that isn’t a call for revenge or wiping out Gaza, you are seen as part of the enemy now. Writing ‘May God have mercy on Gaza, children in Gaza’ – that’s enough to get you targeted.”

Since the attacks on 7 October, a series of prominent Arab Israelis have been arrested. In October, the singer Dalal Abu Amneh was arrested briefly after posting “there is no victor but Allah” alongside a Palestinian flag on Facebook. Some of the community’s most prominent political leaders were held after planning an anti-war protest.

Standing Together has set up a hotline “to give people a place, Palestinian or Jews, to turn to” if they are being harassed. A recent poll found nearly 60% of Arab Israelis were afraid of being harassed and 10% had personal experience of harassment.

Daood said: “This is a real setback in Israeli society, especially Jewish society. The pain people are living in and the terror they have had since 7 October … It has basically blinded people and people are beginning to lose their own humanity.

“We have had so many bad moments, maybe this is the most traumatic, but we have been able to rise up after each and every incident before. We are trying to show there is still another path and another way.”

Among the people watching the children making finger puppets and posters in Jaffa was Vera Deek, an Arab Christian former teacher.

“We believe in coexistence … that’s why I brought my daughter here. But [the problem] is not with the children,” Deek said. “It’s very difficult to be here, trying to live a normal life, when so many people have died or are still dying.”

Many Arab citizens of Israel have lost friends and relatives in Gaza but also in the attacks on 7 October. Some of the first deaths reported were four people who died when a rocket fired from Gaza hit a Bedouin village in the Negev desert.

Arab Israelis responding to the ground offensive, including paramedics, were also killed by Hamas. The Negev’s Bedouin tribes were some of the first to organise volunteer teams to search for missing Israelis.

As she spoke, Deek jumped at the sounds of a construction site – similar to the booms of the anti-rocket batteries in action only a few minutes before – then explained that she was worried about her son, who was playing football in a nearby park.

“Arabs and Jews must live together,” Deek said. “Ordinary people are not the problem.”