- I spent a month in Israel talking to Arab-Israeli leaders during one of the tensest summers in years – and they described dire poverty, increasing tensions, and laws they see as “outright racism.”
- Chief among the Arab leaders I met with was Ayman Odeh, leader of the Israeli parliament’s third-largest bloc.
- He has been likened to Martin Luther King Jr. by those sympathetic to his cause and a terrorist by Israel’s ultranationalist defence minister.
- Arabs, who make up 21% of Israel’s population, suffer a litany of issues, from rampant crime and poverty to health, which Arab leaders say comes from decades of neglect from the Israeli government.
The soldier stepped forward and looked down the hill. Fingering his assault rifle, he called to me, first in Hebrew, then, upon seeing my confusion, in English.
I was walking up a narrow path at the edge of Sacher Park, the largest public park in Jerusalem and one that borders both the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, and the Supreme Court. Tall willowy cypresses stood sentinel on one side of the path, a cascading metal fence on the other.
When I reached the point where the path met the Knesset service road, the soldier, athletic and younger than me, pointed at my camera. “What were you talking a photo of?”
Read the full article by Harrison Jacobs at Business Insider Australia.