What Life Is Like for a Palestinian in Israel as It Attacks Iran
Every time a warning siren goes off in Israel, I cannot help but think of my friends in Gaza, where there are no sirens, no shelters, no hospitals, no food, and no water.
“Diana, are you and your family ok?” This was the first text message I received from a friend after missiles landed in Haifa following Israel’s illegal attack on Iran. Many friends from around the world have since messaged and called, but it was that first message – from a friend in Gaza – that has stayed with me these past few days.
Yes, we are fine, physically. I live in Haifa, where the amenities that are provided to Jewish Israelis are available to me: we hear the warning sirens; we get warnings on our phones; I have a bomb shelter in my apartment (it was built after 1990, so by law, it must have one); there are public bomb shelters throughout many parts of Haifa; we have electricity, food, water, phones, and internet.
Before any of Israel’s apologists chime in to show that this is “proof” that there is no apartheid in the country, it needs to be said that Israel has failed to build public shelters or safe schools in the vast majority of Palestinian cities and towns. Out of 71 Palestinian towns examined in 2018, only 11 had public shelters (29 shelters in total). It has not gotten better since. Palestinians often reported being ousted from or harassed in these shelters. This week, as a missile hit a family home in the Palestinian town of Tamra, killing four members of the same Palestinian family, Jewish Israeli residents of the neighboring Mitzpe Aviv were seen cheering as the missile hit Tamra, with some cheering, “May your village burn!” – a common chant uttered by Israelis towards Palestinians. (Among the first sentences I learned in Hebrew!) In Tamra, a town of 37,000 Palestinians, there are no public shelters, while Mitzpe Aviv, with its 1,100 residents (including some who cheered for the missile), has 13 shelters.
But while we are physically fine, and while we see, for the first time, that Israelis are now getting a very small glimpse into the horror that they have meted out in Gaza, no Palestinian is “fine.” For 20 months, Israel has been carrying out genocide, with performative hand-wringing by the West but not much else. The international system as we know it has been shredded to pieces – as have Palestinian children’s bodies – by Israeli bombs and Western indifference.
Don’t Take Your Eyes Off Gaza
With each siren, I cannot help but think of my friends in Gaza who, in the midst of genocide, are being starved, forced out of their houses and tents time and again, and, in the case of my friend, 11 times, while watching Israeli bombs tear apart the limbs of children, crush buildings, flatten cities, destroy the medical and education systems in Gaza.