This morning (Friday), the Jerusalem Center for Public and State Affairs published an in-depth analysis of the May 2021 riots - the violent riots of groups from the Arab sector in Israel during Operation Wall Guard - and describes them as widespread.
Brigadier General (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser emphasized in the analysis that the northern faction of the Islamic Movement, the Bnei Kfar movement affiliated with the Popular Front and the Balad party, played a key role in preparing the mental infrastructure that led to the riots and incitement during the incidents.
Cooperwasser, who previously served as head of the research division at the Israel Defense Forces, believes that most of the participants in the riots identify with these movements. The ideological and casting practical content for the decision to outlaw the northern faction and also address the delegitimization bodies to Israel.
Burning of a community center in Lod during the "Guard of the Walls" operation last year // Photo: Documentation of fire and rescue operations
Pinchas Inbari, an Orientalist and researcher at the center, focused on the issue of the Bedouin public that made headlines recently in the riots in the Negev.
According to Inbari, "the Arab periphery made a double comparison, to their situation vis-à-vis the Jews and their situation vis-à-vis the Arab middle class, and in the events of May 2021 it expressed the 'Second Palestine' protest against both Jewish society and 'First Palestine'."
In his study, Inbari presents the difficult gaps that the Bedouin experience in the context of the various development programs, "which did not reach the sector and caused great crime and poverty, which lead the Bedouin to return to Bedouin law, tribalism and unwillingness to integrate in Israel."
The riots in Sheikh Jarrah during the "Guard of the Walls" // Photo: Reuters,
Journalist Nadav Shragai (who writes for "Israel Today") focuses on the nationalist dimension of disturbances, and emphasizes that "dealing with 'return' and 'the Nakba', not only as a heritage-consciousness-theoretical matter but as a practical hope, was behind the difficult events in May 2021. "Sometimes only as a background and 'scenery', and sometimes even as a cause and as a direct generator."
In this context, the researcher quotes many leaders from Arab society, including Sheikh Kamal Khatib, deputy head of the northern faction of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
Khatib is quoted as saying that "even if (the Jews - N.S.) thought that the old men died and the young people forgot - the old people died only after they taught their sons that this was Palestine, and left them a key, a Kushan, a taboo and love of the homeland."
Shragai also emphasizes the preoccupation of various organizations in the Arab sector with the issue of the "right of return," while cooperating with radical left-wing organizations, a preoccupation that has formed the background for riots.
Among other things, it is mentioned that NGO Monitor mapped 21 organizations a decade ago that support bringing millions of Palestinians to the borders of the State of Israel.
"Increase the presence of the police in Jerusalem"
Mizrahi and researcher Yoni Ben Menachem presents the common denominator between the events of October 2000 and May 2021, in the context of "Al-Aqsa in Danger" and how Hamas and Fatah are trying to incite Israeli Arabs and harness them to the national struggle. 2021 was the socio-economic situation and tensions on the Temple Mount and in East Jerusalem, when Hamas was the one that fueled the riots in May 2021 compared to the Palestinian Authority in October 2000.
The researcher recommends increasing the police presence in East Jerusalem in general and in the Old City in particular, in order to prevent friction between Jews and Arabs in order to maintain calm, which will reflect on the situation in other parts of the country.
According to him, joining RAAM in the coalition, the five-year plan to deal with the problems of the Arab sector and the plan to fight crime create positive potential, but the full implementation of the plans must be ensured and dialogue between the Jewish sector and the Arab sector encouraged at all levels.
The researcher further stressed that the majority of the Arab public is law-abiding and opposed to violence, but nevertheless recommends increasing the police presence in Arab localities and mixed cities, treating Arab and Jewish extremists who violated the law in violent incidents in May 2021 thoroughly and specifically and tightening punishment for "hate crimes".
Chairman of the Prime Minister MK Mansour Abbas (Archive) // Photo: Alex Kolomoisky,
A document from the research center describes how most of the RAAM members refrained from participating in the arson and how the party's chairman, MK Mansour Abbas, even explicitly opposed the violence. An article reviewing the worldview of Abbas, who joined the Bennett government after the May events.
Dahuh-Halevi explains that in fact the RAAM is conducted under a step-by-step strategy, based on an Islamic conception. In this context, Abbas advocates political integration in the current period only, in light of positions he has expressed in recent years hostile to the Zionist movement.
Among other things, Dahuh-Halevi noted that in 2016, Abbas shared a statement from the Islamic Movement describing Zionism as a "racist and fascist" movement.
In another case that year, Abbas said the Palestinians "have one enemy" when it comes to Israel.
The investigator notes that although Abbas said in an interview at the Globes conference last year that Israel would remain a Jewish state, another senior member of the movement dismissed the remarks, saying that "this does not express his will."
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