May’s brutal attacks on Palestinian citizens of Israel, by civilian mobs backed by the Israeli police, were unprecedented but not surprising. They reveal Israel’s double standards towards citizenship in the country.
Israel has never perceived the ‘48 Palestinians’, the name used colloquially for Palestinian citizens of Israel, as being fully equal to its Jewish citizens. In fact, the 48 Palestinians do not even have the same rights as those guaranteed by Israel to Jewish people who are not citizens.
Between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, Israel is the de facto governing power. Laws, policies and practices to maintain Jewish-Israeli control over demography, land and political power, have long guided governments.
