The father’s anger exposes the division in Israeli society

“I’m so angry,” says Kasu Abu al-Higger, 67.

On Saturday, four members of his family were killed when the Iranian missile hit its home in northern Israel, breaking the concrete building from above.

Witnesses say books, clothing, children’s toys and body parts were blown up.

The whole street plunged into the darkness when the rocket hit. Rescuers managed to find their bodies, following the blood trails.

The four victims were named the daughter of the Casem Monitor Hatib, 45 years old, his two granddaughters, Shada, 20 and Hara, 13, and their aunt, 41th Monal Hatib.

They managed to get to two heavily safe rooms in the house they shared, but the ballistic missile hit it directly.

They lived in Tamry, the Arab city in northern Israel.

A few minutes after death, a video appeared on the Internet. He showed that Iranian missiles passing through the sky. When they descend on Tamr, Hebrew can hear a voice that shouts, “in the village, in the village.”

“Let your village burn,” says a group of other people, singing, whooping cough and clapping.

“They sang about what happened to my family,” Kasem says gently, surrounded by relatives in the vigil.

The video showing that the Israelis sing a common anti -aerobic singing, which is often singing ultra -nationalist Jews – widely convicted in Israel, and President Isaac Duke called it “horrible and shameful.”

But there are more reasons that Kasem and the broad community in Tamr are angry with what happened.

Here – as in the case of many Arab communities in Israel – there are no shelters for public bombs for their 38,000 inhabitants.

For comparison, in the neighboring Jewish city city, Comiel, 55,000, has 126 public asylum.

Tamri residents have long raised anxiety about the inconsistency. Located in the north of Israel, approximately 10 km (6 miles) east of Haifa and 25 km (16 miles) south of the border with Lebanon, the city was vulnerable to rockets shot by the Iranian Lebanese Group of Hezbolla. In October 2024, a rocket released by the group was seriously injured by one woman.

In Israel, about a quarter of the population does not have access to proper asylum. But in non -European local authorities, almost half, according to a state controller of Israel for 2018, the most recent data.

“For many decades, Arab local authorities have received less state funding in various fields, including emergency readiness,” says Fat Piller of the Israeli Institute of Democracy, Analytical Center.

Where shelters exist, she says, “They are little, poorly supported and are often not suitable for a long stay.”

BBC appealed to the Israeli Ministry of Defense for comments.

Israeli Arabs – many of whom prefer to be called Palestinian citizens of Israel – make up a fifth of the country’s population. By law, they have equal rights with Jewish citizens, but they regularly complain about state discrimination and are interpreted as second -class citizens.

After the Persian Gulf of 1990-91, when Iraqi missiles hit Tel Aviv and Haifa, the Israeli government stated that all new residential buildings should contain an intensified safe room, or mamad is known.

But Arab communities often face strict planning restrictions, which leads to unregulated construction and construction of houses without them, activists say.

About 40% of Tamr houses have their own safe premises, local authorities say, leaving most residents who should run to neighbors’ homes. In many cases, it is impossible because of the short transformation period.

“The blanks are huge,” says Ilan Amit from the Arab-Jewish Center for Enlargement and Opportunities, Equality and Cooperation (AJEC), which works for the construction of shelters in Arab communities. “I live in Jerusalem. Each building has a shelter for bombs. There is a shelter for a public bomb.”

As the dark falls in Tamra, the residents’ phones are covered simultaneously with the screaming warning: “You have to stay near the protective territory.”

Soon sirens follow, and residents – fresh from the strike on Saturday – panic. Mothers collect their children, and people run down the street, screaming. Several families enter the safe room of one home. Some cry, some smile, others nervously twitch. One person closes his eyes and prays. The boom after the boom is heard over the head.

The shelter’s release was even more detected in the Arab Bedouin communities of Israel – many of which live in the villages of Negev, which the Israeli government is not recognized, so they have not built asylum.

The only victim of the April 2024 escalation in the hostilities between Israel and Iran was a young girl from one such community who suffered serious injuries and spent a year at the hospital after fragments from the Iranian missile.

Asylum deficiency is also a common issue in some poor Jewish Israeli communities in areas such as the South Tel -Vaviv.

A new poll conducted by the Hebrew University showed that 82.7% of Jewish Israeli support the attack on Iran – but 67.9% of Arab Israelis oppose it. Next, before that, 69.2% of the Arab Israeli reported the feelings of fear from the blows – 25.1% express despair.

“Arabic society feels neglected and abandoned,” Amit says. “There are huge gaps in education and employment. The shelters have huge gaps in the shelter.”

Adele Hatiba, a municipal official from Tamr, says: “In the days of this happened, you can feel anger.”

“We do not get basic needs,” Hatib says. “In most Arab communities, they do not have public centers and buildings for culture and activities.”

According to official Israeli statistics, in 2023, 42.4% of the Arab population lived below the point of poverty – more than twice the share of Israel.

In recent years, there have been attempts to close these gaps. In 2021, the previous Israeli government brought a five -year plan for the development of Arab society.

“We were at the center of a huge jump in the socio -economic development, narrowing the gaps in the field of education, higher education and employment,” says Amit.

But the current right -wing Israel’s right -wing coalition, the most violent in its history, slowly reduced the financing of this plan – redirected the money elsewhere.

Some of these cuts occurred when the government adjusted the budgets to fight the current war in Gaza, which began in response to a cross -border attack under the guidance of Hamas on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1200 people and 251 were taken hostage.

“You know that this government is just standing, holding the wheels of this five-year plan without allowing its wide parts to implement it,” Amit adds.

“Over the past year and a half, the Arab Society has been between a rock and a heavy place in the sense that, on the one hand, they suffer from the current government’s policies, and on the other hand, they see their siblings in Gaza and in the West Bank that suffer from the war,” he says.

According to the ruins of the family house Mohammed Osman, 16, the neighbor, says: “Everyone is angry and sad.”

Speaking of the shade, 20, he says, “She studied her whole life. She wanted to be the best. Her father is a lawyer and wanted to be like him. All these dreams just disappeared.

“They were the best picture of a happy family … If I imagine them, I imagine that their works I saw.”

On the vigil ahead of the funeral, dozens of members of the community gather, greeting each other with handshakes, sharing coffee and tea and quietly mourn.

“Bombs do not choose between Arabs and Jews,” Kasem says. “We must end this war. We must end it up now.”

Photos of Tom Benet