Arab society in Israel, mostly its Muslims, is up in arms amid the growing protest waves washing over the Arab-Muslim world against France and French President Emmanuel Macron. "We will fight Islamic extremism," and "won't give up our right" to satire, Macron said in commemoration of French teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded by an Islamist extremist earlier this month after showing his students cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics class on freedom of expression.
The situation is particularly combustible because this week over one billion Muslims mark the birth of the symbol of Islam, the Prophet Mohammad. Across the Arab world, people are voicing their outrage, threatening to boycott French goods, and are demanding an apology for offending their religious sensibilities.
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This outcry has spread to Israel in recent days. Arab municipalities declared public protests against the French president, whose photograph was pasted onto dumpsters, and published a list of French goods to boycott – although despite the heated tones, there's been little response to the boycott initiatives.
Clear and loud voices against the horrific murder – which does not and never will be a reflection of Islam – weren't prominent, regretfully, at the local demonstrations. More prevalent, instead, were conspiracy theories that the West is at war with Islam and the Palestinian people. On social media, it's easy to find baseless accusations against Macron, who is portrayed as the operative arm of global Zionism. Arab-Christian Israelis are also being targeted for failing to show solidarity with the Muslims and for not condemning the French president or his purported support for disrespecting Islam and religious sensibilities.
Underneath the top layer of these protests, however, which supposedly are an expression of anger and frustration over religious offenses, lies another layer: The Joint Arab List is also the focus of harsh criticism. Yes, some members of the faction have issued their own personal messages of condemnation, but the Joint List itself, as a political party, hasn't adopted any clear-cut stance against France or the debasement of religious symbols.
In this regard, it seems the current protests are yet another example of the discord between parts of the Arab public and the Joint List, which points to the sizeable rift between the Arabs' political leadership and street – particularly in light of the divisions among the faction's members themselves. It comes on the heels of recent criticism leveled by some Joint List lawmakers – mainly from the Hadash Party – who voted in favor of a law banning conversion therapy and supported the establishment of Israel's first support hotline for gay and lesbian Arabs.
Irrespective of the criticism of the Joint List, and it's certainly fair to argue many of the claims about it, it appears the Arab public, with an emphasis on the Muslim sector, is telling the Joint List that it doesn't view the faction as a faithful representative of its values. Many in Arab Israeli society, specifically the vast majority of its Muslims, are expressing growing frustration over their representatives on the national political level, whose positions and activities in the Knesset are increasingly reflecting leftist, secular-liberal policies that shun their basic values. The current protestations against France, which are in some part aimed at the Joint List, must also be understood in this context and could certainly impact the makeup of the faction down the road.
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