As Israel prepares to celebrate its 60th anniversary, the Arabs who make up 20 percent of its citizens will not be celebrating. They are far less well off and feeling increasingly unwanted. Arab residents of Shefaram watched as an Israeli flag was carried in the streets in an anniversary celebration.
The city of Umm El Fahem is one of the largest Arab cities in Israel. Many Israeli Arabs, some original inhabitants and their descendants of villages emptied in 1948, live in packed towns and villages, often next to the old villages. They are barred from resettling them while Jewish communities around them are urged to expand.
Israeli Arab women in the fields of a kibbutz in Galilee. The anxious and recriminating talk on both sides may give a false impression of constant tension. There is Jewish-Arab coexistence in many places
Israeli courts have barred Arabs from returning to the village of Iqrit, but a former resident rang the bells of the church, which still stands.
clipped from: www.nytimes.com 
