JERUSALEM: In the office of one of Israel’s most recognizable Arab politicians, framed pictures show him posing with famous figures like Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat and Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In front of Ahmad Tibi’s desk is the Arabic slogan, “The more beautiful days are those we did not yet live,” which the parliamentarian says is a poignant reminder for his people as they face increased scrutiny after Hamas’s October 7 attack.
The attack resulted in the death of 1,195 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 37,765 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
This has put pressure on Israel’s Arab minority, who make up about 20 percent of the population and say they face escalating hate crimes and unjust police action.
“After October 7, hundreds of Arab citizens were hunted down, chased by the Israeli police for writing a post or a story empathizing with the children of Gaza or saying no to the war,” Tibi, the 65-year-old leader of an Arab-majority party, told AFP.
“It was, and still is, tough days for Palestinian citizens of Israel.”
Adalah, an organization advocating for Arab minority rights in Israel, said community members who expressed sympathy for Gazan civilians have been unfairly punished.
Between October 7 and March 27, Israeli police arrested 401 people, the majority Arabs, for speech-related offenses it says were tantamount to “incitement to terrorism,” its figures showed.
In the same period, there was a total of 667 suspects for speech-related offenses — with only 13 Jewish Israeli citizens compared with 590 Arabs.
“The crackdown on freedom of speech has created a situation in which Palestinian citizens... can neither protest nor freely voice their opinions,” it said in a report after October 7.
But Tibi says he and other Arab citizens of Israel were against the October 7 civilian deaths.
“We said here and everywhere that we are against targeting civilians... in the south of Israel — any child, any woman,” he said.
“Meanwhile, we are talking about more than 15,000 Palestinian children killed in Gaza.”
Yet in some schools Jewish students have called for the removal of Arab classmates who faced disciplinary procedures, even if some were acquitted.
At one central Israel dormitory protest following October 7, students shouted “Death to Arabs!” and tried to break down doors.
In November, right-wing Israelis protested against a Jerusalem shop employing Arabs.
But the lawmaker — who says he has lost 13 Gaza relatives to Israeli bombings — believes anti-Arab rhetoric is not getting the same reaction.
“All those on the Jewish side who called to deport Arab citizens, to kill all Arabs, to destroy all of Gaza... no one was arrested,” Tibi said.
Israel’s government points to Arab roles in courts, hospitals and parliament as a sign of their acceptance in society.
But in 2018 Israel angered Arabs by adopting a law defining the country as the “nation-state of the Jewish people,” and Tibi only sees inequality getting worse.
“After October 7, it was ethnocracy, only for Jews,” he said.
Tibi himself faced the ire of Jewish Israelis after October 7.
“I received not tens, but hundreds of threats by ordinary Israelis. When there is a war... everyone is considered to be a legitimate target.”
Asked if he fears being attacked, he replied: “No, but I am cautious.”
The one-time adviser to former Palestinian leader Arafat criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right ally National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir for the worsening treatment of Arabs.
“He’s a terrorist, according to the Israeli law,” he said of Ben Gvir, a settler convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization over his ties to a banned Jewish extremist group.
Ben Gvir has in turn called Tibi a terrorist and for his removal from parliament over his pro-Palestinian statements.
“The general atmosphere in Israel... it’s almost fascist,” said Tibi.
But, between dramatic hand gestures, Tibi says he still has hope Jews and Arabs can rebuild bridges.
“I am realistic, but I am optimistic always, because I am on the right side of history,” he said.
If the Gaza war ends, he says “democracy is the only way” to solve the crisis, with a Palestinian state that offers full rights.
“It is a natural right for Palestinians,” he said.
Switching to Arabic, Tibi had a combative message for his people and their opponents.
“We face attempts at intimidation. We have withstood in the past, and we will withstand this wave of fascism and racism,” he said.
“We were here, and we will remain here.”
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Israel’s top Arab MP says his people ‘hunted’ over Gaza support
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Israel’s top Arab MP says his people ‘hunted’ over Gaza support
- “After Oct. 7, hundreds of Arab citizens were hunted down, chased by the Israeli police for writing a post or a story empathizing with the children of Gaza or saying no to the war,” said Tibi
- Adalah, an organization advocating for Arab minority rights in Israel, said community members who expressed sympathy for Gazan civilians have been unfairly punished
Turkiye’s Kurdish party says Syria deal leaves Ankara ‘no excuses’ on peace process
ANKARA: Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party said on Monday that the Turkish government had no more “excuses” to delay a peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) now that a landmark integration deal was achieved in neighboring Syria.
On Sunday in Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed to come under the control of authorities in Damascus — a move that Ankara had long sought as integral to its own peace effort with the PKK. “For more than a year, the government has presented the SDF’s integration with Damascus as the biggest obstacle to the process,” Tuncer Bakirhan, co-leader of the DEM Party, told Reuters, in some of the party’s first public comments on the deal in Syria.
“The government will no longer have any excuses left. Now it is the government’s turn to take concrete steps.” Bakirhan cautioned President Tayyip Erdogan’s government against concluding that the rolling back Kurdish territorial gains in Syria negated the need for a peace process in Turkiye. “If the government calculates that ‘we have weakened the Kurds in Syria, so there is no longer a need for a process in Turkiye,’ it would be making a historic mistake,” he said in the interview.
Turkish officials said earlier on Monday that the Syrian integration deal, if implemented, could
advance the more than year-long process with the PKK, which is based in northern Iraq. Erdogan urged
swift integration of Kurdish fighters into Syria’s armed forces. Turkiye, the strongest foreign backer of Damascus, has since 2016 repeatedly sent forces into northern Syria to curb the gains of the SDF — which after the 2011–2024 civil war had controlled more than a quarter of Syria while fighting Islamic State with strong US backing.
The United States has built close ties with Damascus over the last year and was closely involved in mediation between it and the SDF toward the deal.
Bakirhan said progress required recognition of Kurdish rights on both sides of the border.
“What needs to be done is clear: Kurdish rights must be recognized in both Turkiye and Syria, democratic regimes must be established, and freedoms must be guaranteed,” he said.
On Sunday in Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) agreed to come under the control of authorities in Damascus — a move that Ankara had long sought as integral to its own peace effort with the PKK. “For more than a year, the government has presented the SDF’s integration with Damascus as the biggest obstacle to the process,” Tuncer Bakirhan, co-leader of the DEM Party, told Reuters, in some of the party’s first public comments on the deal in Syria.
“The government will no longer have any excuses left. Now it is the government’s turn to take concrete steps.” Bakirhan cautioned President Tayyip Erdogan’s government against concluding that the rolling back Kurdish territorial gains in Syria negated the need for a peace process in Turkiye. “If the government calculates that ‘we have weakened the Kurds in Syria, so there is no longer a need for a process in Turkiye,’ it would be making a historic mistake,” he said in the interview.
Turkish officials said earlier on Monday that the Syrian integration deal, if implemented, could
advance the more than year-long process with the PKK, which is based in northern Iraq. Erdogan urged
swift integration of Kurdish fighters into Syria’s armed forces. Turkiye, the strongest foreign backer of Damascus, has since 2016 repeatedly sent forces into northern Syria to curb the gains of the SDF — which after the 2011–2024 civil war had controlled more than a quarter of Syria while fighting Islamic State with strong US backing.
The United States has built close ties with Damascus over the last year and was closely involved in mediation between it and the SDF toward the deal.
Bakirhan said progress required recognition of Kurdish rights on both sides of the border.
“What needs to be done is clear: Kurdish rights must be recognized in both Turkiye and Syria, democratic regimes must be established, and freedoms must be guaranteed,” he said.
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