Discrimination persists as Iranian missiles target Israel, leaving Palestinian Israeli citizens locked out of safety. Al Jazeera reports (June 17, 2025)
Tel Aviv – As Iranian missiles rained down on Israel during the latest escalation in Middle Eastern tensions, Palestinian citizens of Israel found themselves facing a double threat: incoming projectiles from above and locked shelter doors from their own neighbors.
The crisis unfolded during the weekend of June 15-17, when Iran launched a massive missile barrage against Israeli targets in retaliation for Israel’s “Operation Rising Lion” attacks on Iranian infrastructure. While sirens wailed across the country and residents scrambled for cover, reports emerged of Palestinian Israeli citizens being systematically excluded from bomb shelters by fellow Israelis. This is, simply put, Apartheid in Israel.
A Mother’s Nightmare in Acre
Samar al-Rashed, a 29-year-old single mother living in a predominantly Jewish apartment complex near Acre, experienced this discrimination firsthand Friday night. As warning sirens pierced the air, she grabbed her five-year-old daughter Jihan and rushed toward their building’s shelter.
“I didn’t have time to pack anything,” al-Rashed recalled in an interview with Al Jazeera. “Just water, our phones, and my daughter’s hand in mine.”
Despite speaking fluent Hebrew, al-Rashed found herself blocked at the shelter entrance by an Israeli resident who had heard her speaking Arabic to comfort her frightened daughter. The man’s response was blunt and devastating: “Not for you.”
The incident left al-Rashed and her daughter exposed to the missile barrage, forcing them to return to their apartment where they watched distant explosions light up the night sky. The psychological impact proved as traumatic as the physical danger.
Systemic Discrimination Exposed
This exclusion represents more than isolated incidents of prejudice. According to Adalah-The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, over 65 laws directly or indirectly discriminate against Palestinian Israeli citizens, despite their holding Israeli citizenship.
The discrimination becomes particularly acute during times of conflict. Palestinian citizens of Israel, who comprise roughly 21% of the population at two million people, face heightened scrutiny, restricted movement, and denial of basic services during wartime.
Mohammed Dabdoob, a 33-year-old mobile phone repair shop owner in Haifa, encountered similar discrimination Saturday evening. When he rushed to a public shelter beneath a building behind his shop, he found the door locked despite knowing the access code.
“I tried the code. It didn’t work. I banged on the door, called on those inside to open – in Hebrew – and waited. No one opened,” Dabdoob told reporters. Moments later, a missile exploded nearby, shattering glass across the street while he remained locked out.
Infrastructure Inequality
The exclusion extends beyond individual acts of discrimination to systemic infrastructure inequality. A 2022 report by Israel’s State Comptroller revealed that more than 70% of homes in Palestinian communities lack properly coded safe rooms or spaces, compared to just 25% of Jewish homes.
Palestinian municipalities typically receive less funding for civil defense, and older buildings often lack required reinforcements. Even in mixed cities like Lydd (Lod), where Jewish and Palestinian residents live side by side, the disparities remain pronounced.
Yara Srour, a 22-year-old nursing student at Hebrew University, lives in the neglected al-Mahatta neighborhood of Lydd. Her family’s three-story building, built four decades ago, lacks official permits and a shelter. When they attempted to flee to safer areas of the city with proper shelters, they were turned away.
“We went to the new part of Lydd where there are proper shelters,” Srour explained. “Yet, they wouldn’t let us in. Jews from poorer areas were also turned away. It was only for the ‘new residents’ — those in the modern buildings, mostly middle-class Jewish families.”
Political Rhetoric vs. Ground Reality
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated after the attacks that “Iran’s missiles target all of Israel – Jews and Arabs alike,” the experiences of Palestinian citizens tell a different story.
The 2018 Nation-State Law, which defines Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people,” has institutionalized disparities that critics argue amount to apartheid-like conditions. During conflicts, Palestinian citizens face increased surveillance, arrest for social media posts, and verbal abuse in mixed communities.
The current crisis has forced many Palestinian families to make impossible choices. Al-Rashed has since moved with her daughter to her parents’ home in Daburiyya, a village in the Lower Galilee, where they can access a reinforced room. With alerts continuing every few hours, she’s considering fleeing to Jordan.
“I wanted to protect Jihan. She doesn’t know this world yet. But I also didn’t want to leave my land,” al-Rashed reflected. “That’s the dilemma for us – survive, or stay and suffer.”
The weekend’s attacks resulted in casualties, including four women from the same family killed when their villa in Tamra was struck. The incident highlighted the vulnerability of Palestinian communities, who face danger from both incoming missiles and exclusion from protective infrastructure.
For Palestinian Israeli citizens like Dabdoob, the message from
the state and their neighbors is contradictory: “The state expects
our loyalty in war, but when it’s time to protect us, we’re invisible.”
As the Iran-Israel conflict continues to escalate, these incidents reveal the deep fractures within Israeli society and raise questions about the meaning of citizenship when safety becomes conditional on ethnicity and religion.
