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.”
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
Trump expects Hamas decision in 24 hours on ‘final’ Gaza peace proposal
- Israel has earlier agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday it would probably be known in 24 hours whether the Palestinian militant group Hamas has agreed to accept what he has called a “final proposal” for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza.
The president also said he had spoken to Saudi Arabia about expanding the Abraham Accords, the deal on normalization of ties that his administration negotiated between Israel and some Gulf countries during his first term.
Trump said on Tuesday Israel had accepted the conditions needed to finalize a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas, during which the parties will work to end the war.
He was asked on Friday if Hamas had agreed to the latest ceasefire deal framework, and said: “We’ll see what happens, we are going to know over the next 24 hours.”
A source close to Hamas said on Thursday the Islamist group sought guarantees that the new US-backed ceasefire proposal would lead to the end of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Two Israeli officials said those details were still being worked out. Dozens of Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli strikes, according to Gaza authorities.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show.
Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s subsequent military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations.
A previous two month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18. Trump earlier this year proposed a US takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the UN and Palestinians as a proposal of “ethnic cleansing.”
Abraham Accords
Trump made the comments on the Abraham Accords when asked about US media reporting late on Thursday that he had met Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman at the White House.
“It’s one of the things we talked about,” Trump said. “I think a lot of people are going to be joining the Abraham accords,” he added, citing the predicted expansion to the damage faced by Iran from recent US and Israeli strikes.
Axios reported that after the meeting with Trump, the Saudi official spoke on the phone with Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of Iran’s General Staff of the Armed Forces.
Trump’s meeting with the Saudi official came ahead of a visit to Washington next week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Darfur civilians ‘face mass atrocities and ethnic violence’
- Medical charity warns of new threat from escalation in fighting in Sudan civil war
KHARTOUM: Civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan face mass atrocities and ethnic violence in the civil war between the regular army and its paramilitary rivals, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres warned on Thursday.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have sought to consolidate their power in Darfur since losing control of the capital Khartoum in March. Their predecessor, the Janjaweed militia, was accused of genocide in Darfur two decades ago.
The paramilitaries have intensified attacks on El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state which they have besieged since May 2024 in an effort to push the army out of its final stronghold in the region.
“People are not only caught in indiscriminate heavy fighting ... but also actively targeted by the Rapid Support Forces and their allies, notably on the basis of their ethnicity,” said Michel-Olivier Lacharite, Medecins Sans Frontieres’ head of emergencies. There were “threats of a full-blown assault,” on El-Fasher, which is home to hundreds of thousands of people largely cut off from food and water supplies and deprived of access to medical care, he said.
Egypt on alert as giant dam in Ethiopia completed
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia moved on Thursday to reassure Egypt about its water supply after completing work on a controversial giant $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile.
“To our neighbors downstream, our message is clear: the dam is not a threat, but a shared opportunity,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.
“The energy and development it will generate stand to uplift not just Ethiopia. We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water. Prosperity for one should mean prosperity for all.”
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is 1.8 km wide and 145 meters high, and is Africa's largest hydroelectric project. It can hold 74 billion cubic meters of water and generate more than 5,000 megawatts of power — more than double Ethiopia’s current output. It will begin full operations in September.
Egypt already suffers from severe water scarcity and sees the dam as an existential threat because the country relies on the Nile for 97 percent of its water. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Sudan’s leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan met last week and “stressed their rejection of any unilateral measures in the Blue Nile basin.” They were committed to safeguarding water security in the region, Sisi’s spokesman said.
Explosive drone intercepted near Irbil airport in northern Iraq, security statement says
- The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally,” the Irbil airport authority said
IRBIL, Iraq: An explosive drone was shot down near Irbil airport in northern Iraq on Thursday, the Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said in a statement.
There were no casualties reported, according to two security sources.
The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally and the airport was not affected by any damage,” the Irbil airport authority said in a statement.
The incident only caused a temporary delay in the landing of one aircraft, the statement added.
Jordanian and Vatican officials discuss promotion of Petra as destination for Christian pilgrims
- They say there is a strategic opportunity to integrate the UNESCO World Heritage Site into routes for Christian travelers
- Head of tourism authority says highlighting Petra’s significance to Christian heritage itineraries could enhance Jordan’s position on global religious tourism map
LONDON: Officials from Jordan and the Vatican met on Thursday to discuss ways in which they can cooperate to advance religious tourism, including the promotion of the ancient city of Petra as a destination for Christian pilgrims.
Fares Braizat, who chairs the board of commissioners of the Petra Development and Tourism Regional Authority, said that highlighting the significance of the UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of Christian heritage itineraries could enhance Jordan’s position on the global religious tourism map.
The country has a number of important Christian sites, the most significant of which is the location on the eastern bank of the Jordan River where Jesus is said to have been baptized by John the Baptist. Several popes have visited it, including Francis and John Paul II.
Archbishop Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, the Vatican’s ambassador to Jordan, confirmed the interest in collaborating with Jordanian authorities, and praised the nation’s stability and its rich historical and religious heritage.
Both officials acknowledged the strategic opportunity that exists to integrate Petra into pilgrimage routes for Christian travelers, the Jordan News Agency reported.
The Petra tourism authority recently lit up the Colosseum in Rome with the signature colors of the historic Jordanian site to celebrate a twinning agreement as part of a marketing strategy to attract European visitors, and to raise Petra’s profile globally as a premier cultural and spiritual tourism destination.
The Vatican itself is also a major tourism destination, for Christian pilgrims in particular. In 2025 it is expected to welcome between 30 and 35 million visitors during its latest Jubilee Year, a significant ecclesiastical event that takes place every 25 years.
