Lamis al-Zar says she can barely sleep at night since she and four other members of her Israeli Bedouin family were violently attacked by radical Jewish immigrants, sparking outrage across the country.
On August 9, the 22-year-old lost her way with her young daughter, two sisters and a niece while travelling from the Bedouin town of Rahat in southern Israel to Nablus, a large Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank.
The women say that when they asked a man for directions, he inadvertently carried out what Israeli police later described as an “aggravated assault” – raising concerns about escalating violence and prompting an outpouring of support for the family.
The man they met sent them on the wrong route, then stopped their car as they tried to turn it around, leading to a dozen attackers attacking the vehicle, throwing stones and brandishing weapons.
Lamis, a teacher’s assistant at the kindergarten, was sure she was going to die. She told AFP how a man threatened her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Elaf with the “barrel” of his gun.
His sister Raghda al-Jar, an assistant at a dentist’s office, said the attackers broke the car’s windows and fired tear gas at its occupants.
“I said … that we are Israeli citizens,” Raghda said, but when one of the men learned she was calling the police, he threw a stone at her and shouted: “You won’t get out of here alive!”
Despite being outnumbered, the group managed to escape and was eventually rescued by Israeli police and soldiers.
Police said they had “mistakenly” entered Giv’at Ronen, an outpost of the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha, south of Nablus.
Religious nationalist
The region is run by the so-called Hill Youth, religious nationalists who dream of settling all of the Biblical Land of Israel, and who sometimes clash with Israeli security forces.
Israel’s Bedouins are descendants of Muslim shepherds who once roamed freely in the desert far beyond the country’s current borders.
Like other Arab minorities in Israel, they often complain of discrimination.
Rahat, where the al-Zar family lives, is one of the areas with the largest number of Bedouins.
During the interview with AFP, which took place at the home of their father Adnan al-Zar, Lamis and Raghda described their injuries: Lamis has fractured fingers and a backache, and Raghda has a head injury and her left leg is also in plaster.
Two days after the attack, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Adnan al-Zar to tell him he was “shocked” by the violence and his office stated that “all citizens of Israel deserve equal and civilized treatment”.
Truck driver Adnan al-Zar, 59, who like his daughters switches between Hebrew and Arabic with ease, told AFP that such initiatives “make us feel good”, though he fears the crime, like other acts of violence, will go unpunished.
Police have so far announced the arrest of five suspects, four of whom are still in custody while the fifth is under house arrest.
Chorus of support
The attack against al-Jaraas came against a backdrop of escalating violence in the West Bank.
Israeli settlements in the area are illegal under international law, and the United Nations considers them an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.
But settlements have grown under all governments since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, whether left-wing or right-wing, and they have increased significantly since the formation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s current government in December 2022.
Netanyahu has appointed several right-wing ministers who support annexing the entire West Bank, an agenda he has pursued even more aggressively since war broke out between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7.
Still, the violence against Al-Jaws has shaken Israel, and drawn condemnation from countless people.
Center-right opposition MP Matan Kahana visited al-Zar’s home in a show of solidarity, saying he was “reassured that the vast majority of Israeli people condemn this act”.
Rabbi Benny Lau, who is known as a moderate Orthodox figure, posted a photo of his meeting with Adnan al-Zar on Facebook, along with a message emphasizing “the aspirations of millions of people … who want to live together.”
Television personality Amit Sahgal, known for his right-wing views, condemned the remarks of a right-wing MP whom he accused of colluding with “supporters of terrorism” by attempting to shift the blame for the August 9 attack onto the victims.
Ordinary Israeli people have also expressed their views.
Noa Epstein Tenenhaus, 41, recently made the hour-and-a-half trip with her husband and four children to present young Elaf with a toy.
“I cried” when I learned about the attack, she told AFP.
“I imagined I was in Lamis’ position in the car and I was being attacked by these demons.”
“If we don’t stand up against blind hatred, we will all eventually be killed,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)