„I’m the son of a Palestinian Arab Muslim who was born in Gaza and came to Israel for political asylum. He married my Israeli Arab mother, and I was born in Tel Aviv. A few years later, we moved to my village, a racist hateful village. When they found out that my father helped the IDF, they started a war on us. Why? Because my father decided to be a patriot of his own country. (…) I grew up alone, nobody wanted to talk to me and I still remember what they called me in the second grade – they called me the traitor, the son of the traitor. So we lived with this hatred from the entire village. By the time I was in the 9th grade, I started to think that it was not true what they were saying, how they promote hatred against our country and against the Jewish people, how they spread things I knew were lies based on the evidence that was all around me. From here I started to stand against their thoughts and I joined the Likud youth, inspired by my father. So they started to hate me more and more and they did terrible things to me. They threatened me, they hit me, they beat me… my friends and many loved ones turned their backs on me (…)
Not only my class, not only my teachers, not only my school, but all of my village – no one is talking to me. I am persona non grata. I regularly get threats. I get threats from people in my village and they say they will put two bullets in my head If I’m not gonna stop. I also get threats from Gaza, and from Ramallah, and from my mother’s family Yeah, can you believe this?? I got threats from my mother’s family!!! Why? Because I love my country and refuse to give up. I refuse to give into the incorrect dogma in my community that is enforced under threat of death.“
(Mahdi Satri: „I’m A Zionist Israeli Arab“)
