Troubling events are taking place within Arab society, and they are slowly permeating mixed cities in Israel. This is happening during the holy month of Ramadan when every Muslim is commanded to refrain from any violent act, but it is precisely Ramadan that is becoming more violent and deadly in Arab society every year.
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This time, an appalling phenomenon of attacking Jews has been thrown into the mix, and these attacks are captured on video and is shared on social media, where these clips usually go viral.
This violence – between families in Jerusalem, and between demonstrators and police in Jaffa, Ramla, and Lod – reflects ongoing tensions between the cities' residents and local institutions.
In Jaffa, for example, the unrest has to do with the Arab residents struggle against what they perceive – rightly or wrongly – as the forced introduction of Jewish residents to areas in the city traditionally housing its Arab population in an attempt by extremists to demonstrate a Jewish presence, seize property and push aside the local population.
For decades, the Arab residents of mixed cities have suffered from discrimination. The state and local authorities have failed to make the necessary effort to address their issues, and thus the residents became a burden on welfare offices and public housing providers. On the other hand, these communities, for the most part, have failed to produce effective leadership to represent them vis-à-vis local and state authorities.
The violence erupting now is not just a local problem. Beyond bodily harm, it is inflicting significant damage to the delicate fabric of relations between Jews and Arabs in those cities, and this deterioration impacts how they function, especially in urban centers that provide services and trade to nearby localities, as is the case in Acre, Jaffa, Ramla and Lod.
This violence must not be allowed to become the norm. As obscene and dangerous as it is, it does not reflect the fabric of the normal Jewish-Arab relationships. Local leadership has an important role to play here: Arab public figures should condemn the violence and act to eradicate it, and Jewish public figures should show understanding for the frustration that drives such incidents.
The priority should be to protect and preserve coexistence and good neighborly relations as if they were an endangered protected flower, and the influence extremist elements on both sides have should be curbed.
The mayors of mixed cities, many of whom have shown greater commitment in recent years to reducing disparities, need to step in to maintain everyday reality, which may not be sensational enough to make headlines, but is much more prevalent.
This reality, in which Jews and Arabs cooperate in local government and in the public sphere, shows that mixed cities are Israel's most beautiful mosaic and it should serve as an inspiration to Israeli society as a whole.
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