The already delicate and fragile fabric of relations between Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens was and still is being tested, especially after the events of October 7. Shir elMalih, who was stuck Tuesday night in Tel Aviv's long traffic jams, used the time available to her to have a conversation with the Arab driver who drove her to her desired location. As we drove, she asked him what he thought about the horrific massacre perpetrated by the Hamas terror organization, as well as the hostility and fear he encounters these days from Israel's Jewish citizens.
Shir Almalich pregnant, photo: Shai Franco
"A small part of an hour-and-a-half conversation in Tel Aviv's traffic jams," Almalich wrote, referring to the documentation of the exchange between the two. "What do you think about what happened here on October 7?" asked Shear. "This is something that Islam does not accept," he replied. "I don't know anyone who doesn't love the State of Israel and doesn't want the State of Israel to be preserved and who wants to live somewhere other than the country. Such people (I mean people who think differently) are hot-headed."
The next question she chose to ask Almalich sought to know how it feels from the perspective of an Arab citizen during these tense times between the Jewish and Arab publics. "Have you recently had trips cancelled out of fear?" she was curious. "Yes, it hurts me when I see this, because as an Israeli, an Israeli Arab, I'm not from Hamas," he said.
Adele Bespalov: "There won't be an Arab child in our kindergarten" // Credit: Shai Franco (archive)
This is not the first time that Almalich has come to the defense of the Arab public in Israel. Earlier this month, when we published here the recording in which reality TV refugee Adele Bespalov is heard talking about the problems she sees integrating Arab children into her son's kindergarten, Almalich spoke out against the remarks. "I understand the situation and the fear, and on the other hand it is important to emphasize that not all Israeli Arabs are terrorists," she wrote in her response to Adele. "My children's amazing doctor is an Arab. We are the ones who complain about racism and anti-Semitism, and we must not do that to the other side. Not all of them are Hamas."
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