Israeli minister: It is not nice to be an Arab in Israel

Israel Welfare and Social Services Minister Meir Cohen admitted yesterday that a rising wave of racism against Arab citizens of Israel is sweeping society saying: “Unfortunately, it is not nice to be an Arab in Israel these days”.

The minister’s remarks followed a large incitement campaign organised by a radical right wing organisation against an Arab Israeli who married a Jew. The Organisation for Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land (LEHAVA) supported by the Israeli police and the judiciary protested against the marriage of Mahmoud Mansour, a Muslim Arab from the city of Jaffa to Morel Malcha, a Jewish Israeli also from the city of Jaffa who converted to Islam.

The young couple were scheduled to celebrate their union at a function hall in the city of Rishon LeZion near Tel Aviv on Sunday however LEHAVA threatened to protest against the couple’s union outside the venue. By allowing the organisation to arrange a demonstration Israeli police forced the groom to go to court to seek an order banning the protest.

The Rishon LeZion Magistrate’s Court discussed the petition and said the protestors could rally at a distance of 200 metres from the event itself which obstructed the guests’ access to the wedding. Later, the groom was forced to hire a private security company at a cost of thousands of dollars to ensure the security of the wedding.

In response, several progressive Jewish organisations and human rights organisations arranged a counter demonstration at the hall entrance to welcome the wedding and denouncing the racist incitement campaign against the couple.

Cohen said during a meeting yesterday with Arab heads of municipal councils in the south: “There’s been unnecessary stridency among us, which has no place in our society. Beginning with the murder of the teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir, that goes against all of our Jewish values, as well as the harsh verbal violence we came across on social media and on other platforms,” adding that “recently it has become not nice to be an Arab in Israel.”