Palestinian and Israeli Identity: A Debate on Citizenship and Belonging

We are Palestinian Arab citizens of the state.

The problem is, there's simply an expectation that we just be Zionists, to forget all the— our entire history, our entire identity.

But tell me, Samekh, why did you just say, right?

Palestinian Arabs. Why didn't you also say Israelis?

You see? Because—why didn't you also say Israelis?

I, I think part of what we're— If we really want to talk about things courageously, right?

I'm not saying I'm a Zionist or a Jew. I'm saying I'm an Israeli.

Why didn't you just say, "We as Israelis"?

The values of this country, everything represented by its symbols, just don't speak to me, don't speak for me, they don't speak to me, they don't respect me, they don't respect my history, don't respect my story.

You don't, you don't—your government offices too— Do you identify as Israeli?

I identify as a Palestinian Arab, a citizen of the State of Israel. Okay.

When you say "Israeli-ness," it simply erases me, erases the— Why?

Because I— why? Again, when explaining what a Palestinian citizen of Israel is, I also have to explain that my grandfather is one of the only two hundred thousand who stayed.

At least seven hundred and fifty thousand were expelled from here.

It's a historical story I don't want to forget.

I didn't say forget it. But the Israeli identity I—I—I know wants to erase me.

But this is the Israeli identity that we— that I'm also trying to fight for, And really, there's a question here: who will control this thing called Israeli?

Will it be the right wing, constantly asking you to condemn things?

Or, say, people on the other side saying, listen, the layer that ultimately unites us isn't the layer, not the religious one, okay? Not the ethnic one, and so on, but this thing called Israeli.