As we have come to expect, unfortunately, the Middle East has been anything but peaceful of late. In Lebanon, Arabs have been fighting Arabs, in Gaza, Hamas and Fatah have announced yet another shaky cease-fire, and of course, the struggle between the Israelis and Palestinians is never-ending. Invariably, these are the conflicts that grab the headlines. But, few realise there's another dimension to the struggle between Arab and Jew, this one within Israel itself. Surprisingly, one in five Israelis are Arabs, descendents of the Palestinians who did not flee with the founding of Israel back in 1948. That 20% of the population says it's discriminated against by the Jewish state. To see this internal conflict for herself, Dateline reporter Sophie McNeil travelled to Israel.
Video
REPORTER: Sophie McNeil
It was in the 90th minute of Israel's World Cup qualifying match against Ireland, and Abbas Suan was about to score for his country.
COMMENTATOR: Suan! What a fantastic goal!
In this moment of glory, this Israeli-Arab thought his struggle for acceptance would finally be over. A devout Muslim, Suan has no problem embracing Jewish culture.
ABBAS SUAN, ISRAELI FOOTBALLER, (Translation): Have a great Bar Mitzvah. Grow up and be successful in life, be well, look after yourself.
But like most of this Jewish state's 1.5 million Arab citizens, Suan has a mixed sense of identity.
ABBAS SUAN: I am a Palestinian because I have a lot of brothers and cousins in the Arab countries, and I am an Israeli because I live here and don't go out from my land. That's it. I have to do the rules in this country.
As an Arab player in a predominantly Jewish league, Suan often finds himself on the receiving end of racist taunts.
ABBAS SUAN, (Translation): One is that Abbas Suan has cancer, another one is "Death to Arabs." Everything. Anything you want.
And even when Suan played a local match after scoring his goal against Ireland, supporters of the opposing team turned up with a sign that said, "Abbas Suan you don't represent us." He got the message.
ABBAS SUAN: We don't want you in the national team and you don't belong to the Israel community and to the Israel country.
Suan says he's often singled out as a potential security threat when he travels in and out of the country representing Israel.
ABBAS SUAN, (Translation): The guard standing at the airport gate, when he opens the passport and if he can’t tell you’re a footballer because he is not into sport he see you are an Arab, he stops you. It doesn’t matter why, who, how..If you are an Arab they will ask where you are from, where you are going, what you work as who's your mother, who's your father and many, many questions, pointless questions.
Relations between Jews and Arabs inside Israel are at a turning point. On the one hand there is a Muslim Arab Cabinet Minister - Ghaleb Majadele - for the first time in the country's history. But the cabinet also includes Avigdor Lieberman, who has called for many Arab citizens to be 'transferred' out of Israel. The new Sports, Science and Culture Minster is being welcomed by Jewish families at a local judo championship. Ghaleb Majadele, who comes from the Labour Party, hopes his appointment is more than just symbolic.
GHALEB MAJADELE, MUSLIM ARAB CABINET MINISTER, (Translation): We Arabs see it as a step in the right direction towards equality for the Arab minority in Israel.
But even Majadele admits the Israeli Government of which he's a part discriminates against Arab citizens.
GHALEB MAJADELE, (Translation): For example, 50% of Arab citizens live below the poverty line. The overwhelming majority of Arab villages have very high unemployment rates. These issues are related to the budgets, which in turn are linked with the behaviour of the government and its dealings with Arab citizens.
REPORTER: What do you think having an Arab-Israeli Minister in the Cabinet?
MAN: I think it's very strange because they can talk very well but who knows what they think.
Majadele's appointment has been criticised by some Israeli Jews.
AVIGDOR LIBERMAN, CABINET MINISTER, Translation): I'm talking now. You sit down and shut up.
And condemned by right-wing Cabinet Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
AVIGDOR LIBERMAN (Translation): On Independence Day, how come no Arab MP raised an Israeli flag? On Independence Day, why is it that no Arab MP raises the Israeli flag?
Lieberman recently called for Majadele's resignation when the Arab Minister admitted he refuses to sing Israel's national's anthem.
AVIGDOR LIBERMAN (Translation): How come no Arab MP sings the national anthem? I ask myself.. do we indeed serve the same parliament? These are obvious questions. Of course.
GHALEB MAJADELE (Translation): It's Lieberman who has a problem, not us. He joined the coalition government to work with us, by our principles.
ABBAS SUAN: I don't hate any man in my life just one man - this Lieberman. He don't believe that Arabs have to be here in Israel.
Like Sports Minister Ghaleb Majadele, Suan refuses to sing the national anthem because it's about the Jewish people's desire to return to its homeland.
JEWISH ANTHEM (Translation):
As long as deep in the heart, the soul of a Jew yearns...
Suan is one of two Arab players on the national side who are silent while the anthem is played.
ABBAS SUAN (Translation): I was with the national team I didn't sing it, none of us do, because it has parts that are not for Arabs. I don’t sing it and I am not willing to unless… I don’t know..No, I don't. I don't know it.
To Abbas, the national anthem is just one more reminder that the country he so proudly represents was not intended to include him. Many Israeli Arabs feel this way. In the village of Arab el-Naim 1,200 Israeli Arabs live in tin shacks with no access to running water. Faheem lives here with his wife and five sons.
FAHEEM (Translation): I'm expecting that when you broadcast this film the Israeli Government will tell you, "They're not living here, they're living close to the Palestinian border." But we are in the heart of Israel, in Galilee. We are in Upper Galilee. We're in Israel.
Despite his anger at his situation, Faheem flies the Israeli flag in the hope it will protect his family's home from demolition.
FAHEEM (Translation): I put this flag on the caravan where my son lives so that the authorities or the governing body wouldn't remove it. They come and tell me to remove the flag but with it there, they can't do anything.
Faheem spent 14 years in the Israeli army. He doesn't understand why he gets treated so differently from his Jewish neighbours in this community just 500m away.
FAHEEM (Translation): It's a hard feeling, very hard. When I see my neighbour enjoying all his rights, his children, his household, even his lifestyle, I'm ashamed to say this, but even their dog has its own room, water and everything. Our children don't have this. We don't have this.
It's rare to find Jews and Arabs living side by side in Israel. And according to the Arab Association for Human Rights, Arab towns receive around 50% less funding compared to Jewish towns. A study done this year found that 60% of Israelis avoid entering Arab towns or cities. A different report released last year found that 63% of Israelis would refuse to live in the same apartment building as an Arab. Ibrahim Dwery has been designing buildings in Nazareth for over 20 years but there is one house that he hasn't been allowed to build.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): This is the house that was supposed to be built in Suralim.
Seven years ago, Ibrahim and his wife went to buy some land just outside Nazareth. Everything was going well until the real estate agent overheard the couple speaking Arabic.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): She asked me "Are you an Arab or a Jew?" I said "I'm an Israeli." She said "I'm asking if you're an Arab or a Jew." I told her "I'm an Arab Israeli. I have an Israeli ID card and an Israeli passport. I vote in the parliament and everything." She said, "It's not good enough, we don't sell to Arabs."
He says the local community was concerned he might build a mosque.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): I laughed and said, "Firstly, I'm not religious. I'm not the religious type. Secondly, I'm Christian, not Muslim. I won't be wanting a mosque or a church."
93% of the community voted against selling the land to him.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): I was astonished by their response. I started to look at what could be wrong with me. In the end, I realised that that was the only reason - they don't want an Arab living amongst them. There is no other reason.
But after seven years of court battles, this year Ibrahim finally won the right to buy the land. He wants to forget about the past and make friends in his new neighbourhood.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): I've never spoken to them. I think we can be the best neighbours in the future.
But Ibrahim's Jewish neighbours told me they were not looking forward to his move.
MAN (Translation): He has to think twice if he wants to come and live here, because he is coming to live here and no-one, in my opinion, will say hello to him. It's not because of racism, it's just because they don't want to live with Arabs, and mean people from other nations. It's not only Arabs. Such as criminals and other elements.
REPORTER Do you want to be welcomed into Israeli society? Do you want to be made to feel like you belong?
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): Of course, of course. I'd love just to be like the others. To be all of us citizens in the first degrees.
But even under the law, not all Israeli citizens are created equal. Hassan is an Israeli citizen but his wife, Hanan, comes from the West Bank town of Jenin.
HASSAN (Translation): Here it was 2000, we had our wedding ceremony.
Under a new law, Hassan is not allowed have his wife come and live with him in Israel. The law denies Israeli citizenship or residency to spouses who are from the Palestinian territories.
HASSAN (Translation): They said if she can't get citizenship, then you go and live with her in Jenin. But I can't leave my house, my parents, we've been here since before 1948, I can’t live in Jenin.
So Hanan has been living here illegally with her husband and two children, trying to avoid any contact with the authorities. They didn't want me to reveal where they live.
HANAN (Translation): If policemen come, I’ll be in trouble, I can’t stay here.. I don't go out much. I'm scared to leave the house.
She's terrified the family will be split up. Israeli authorities say the Citizenship Law is for security purposes and that it stops potential suicide bombers from using marriage to get inside Israel. Some believe the law has an ulterior motive.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA, BALAD PARTY MP: This law is a racist law.
Dr Jamal Zehalka is a member of the Israeli Parliament for the Arab nationalist party Balad. He believes the citizenship law is an attempt to keep a lid on Israel's Arab population.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA: They are afraid of the raise the percent of Arabs inside Israel. We are now only 18% of the citizens of the state but they say that, "If we allow them to marry and women and men from the West Bank come and marry Arab citizens of the state of Israel, the number of Arabs will be high and this is danger for the state of Israel." We have to feel pity on the state of Israel because it is in danger - not to marry, not to get a love between each other.
Another law that Balad regards as racist is the so-called right of return, which gives Jews around the world an automatic right to Israeli citizenship, encouraging Jewish immigration.
DR DANIEL GORDIS, AUTHOR: It's important to recognise that from the perspective of Israeli Jews there seems to be a demographic time bomb here.
Commentator Daniel Gordis admits that Jewish Israelis from across the political spectrum are concerned about the high birthrate of Arab citizens.
DR DANIEL GORDIS: Those people who want to safeguard both the democratic and the Jewish nature of the state need for there to be a significant Jewish majority. The minute that that distinction between the numbers of Israeli Jews and the number of Israeli Arabs begins to diminish, then you either have to give up on the Jewish nature of the state or the democratic nature of the state.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA: You know, I think it's a fatal mistake for Jewish people to make the connection between the existence of the state of Israel and discrimination. That's to say if Israel is not discriminating against Arabs, it will not exist.
The Balad party wants to change the Israeli flag, the national anthem and 22 laws that it says discriminate against Arabs.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA: Zionism name means "Jewish state", and that's giving privileges to a part of the citizens of the state - the Jewish people - and discriminating the Palestinians who are the indigenous people of this land.
ZEVULUN ORLEV (Translation): We have no other land, we have no other state, no other place in the world.
Zevulun Orlev from the National Religious Party says this is a new battle for Israel's right to exist.
ZEVULUN ORLEV (Translation): The state cannot accept that within it exists a fifth column. And a state cannot accept that 20% of its population, in fact, would want to destroy their country.
The Israeli authorities clearly see the spread of Balad's ideas as a threat and have tried to ban the party from running in elections.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA (Translation): The Israeli state decided to enter or inaugurate a new era in dealing with Arab citizens.
Earlier this year the Israeli domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, described the Israeli Arab community as a "strategic threat" to the Jewish state. In an extraordinary move, Shin Bet wrote the following letter to the Balad party newspaper
MAN READS: "Within its responsibilities, Shin Bet is required to thwart any subversive activity by elements who are seeking to undermine the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, even if their activity is done through democratic means, and this is the principle of defensive democracy."
The message put Balad on notice - "Challenge the Jewish identity of Israel and we will come after you."
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA (Translation): Making such statements, you’re identifying a danger, that means you intend to take steps to deal with that danger.
Then the authorities did crack down. As the Israeli media reported, their target was the highly controversial Balad party leader, Azmi Bishara.
HEBREW NEWS (Translation): He's the most extreme Arab MP ever to serve in the Knesset. In his 11 years there he never hid his aim to abolish Israel as a Jewish state.
Israel's most prominent activist for Arab citizens' rights, Bishara was accused by the security services of aiding Hezbollah during last year's war with Lebanon.
HEBREW NEWS (Translation): Assisting the enemy in wartime, contact with a foreign agent, providing information to the enemy, and money laundering and financing terror.
Bishara has been provoking the authorities for years with his visits to enemy states like Syria and Lebanon. But when he expressed solidarity with Hezbollah after last year's war, he outraged Jewish Israelis.
DR DANIEL GORDIS: That's an elected member of my parliament? It's really pretty simple what Israelis have against Azmi Bishara. I think it would be very difficult to describe the level of betrayal that Israelis felt.
On 26 April, while Bishara was out of the country, Israeli police raided his Jerusalem home. Outside, his lawyers accused them of fabricating a case against Bishara, and said there was no chance of a fair trial.
BISHARA'S LAWYER: Of course, of course not. The last thing that we have faith of is this.
These Arab students from the Hebrew University are on their way to a rally in support of Azmi Bishara. But campus security won't let them display the Palestinian flag.
BOY IN BUS (Translation): It’s the flag of the Palestinian state, our nation. They consider the flag to be that of an enemy country. The university security guards would come, take it downand cause a lot of trouble for the people who but it up.
These young Arabs are all Israeli citizens but it's clear where their allegiance lies.
BOY IN BUS (Translation): May we die and Palestine live!
Israel's Arab citizens feel as though they're under attack and they're now rallying around their leader.
RALLY (Translation): With our soul and our blood we sacrifice for you, Azmi!
They believe the authorities are taking revenge on Bishara for his stance during the war - a stance which most of them supported.
MAN (Translation): We salute the Palestinians, the salute the Lebanese resistance. We salute the Iraqi resistance and we salute the Syrian stand.
Zevulun Orlev believes such public sympathy for Israel's enemies justifies a crackdown on Arab political activity.
ZEVULUN ORLEV (Translation): There is danger here, a threat of mutiny or rebellion which can be not only verbal but can also be violent.
On April 22, Azmi Bishara resigned from the parliament saying he wanted to fight to clear his name. Since then he's been travelling around the Middle East, knowing that if he returns to his wife and children he will face immediate arrest. I find him in Jordan's capital, Amman.
REPORTER: They accuse you of having been in contact with Hezbollah intelligence officers during the war? What is your response to that?
AZMI BISHARA, FORMER BALAD MP: That's total nonsense. I mean, I have friends in Lebanon who are journalists and writers and intellectuals, and I talk to them on the phone. But what do people talk about at time of war? Of war - what happened, what happened yesterday. Most of the things they considered passing information to the enemy were things published in the media.
One of the allegations against Bishara is that he informed Hezbollah of Israel's intention to kill its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
AZMI BISHARA: Well, yes, they needed me to tell them that. But I think if they have sense of humour, they will laugh and they will think this is an example that if the charges are of this sort, then they are fabricated.
REPORTER: Can you understand when Israelis are so angry seeing you in Beirut after the war, and hearing you now saying you were against Israel in this war, and you're a member of their parliament. Can you understand why?
AZMI BISHARA: No, I can't. And I don't want. And I think they should be happy that I do only this. They should be very, very pleased that the only thing we can do is pay a visit and make declarations from there. I think they should be happy. I mean, not all minorities in the world are so quiet like we are. No, I don't understand. I understand why the Lebanese are angry at the Israelis. I don't understand that the aggressor is angry.
REPORTER: Hezbollah is Israel's sworn enemy. And you went there and you praised them in Beirut. Didn't you expect that this would happen?
AZMI BISHARA: I'm ready to have responsibility for the things that I did. For example, saying the people have the right to resist occupation. For example, the fact that I visited an enemy country, I broke the law, I know. By visiting an enemy country I broke the law. Let them charge me for visiting an enemy country. That's fine with me. But it's not that. They are bringing me to court for things that I did not do, and for that I'm not ready.
Bishara has still not returned to Israel where he could face life imprisonment if found guilty. For as long as Israel remains a Jewish state, its Arab citizens will forever feel as if they don't belong. And for Abbas Suan, the daily struggle for equality continues.
ABBAS SUAN (Translation): It's not a state just for the Jews, it should be for all Israeli citizens. An Israeli could be an Arab, it could be from Argentina, it could be from anywhere. Who ever has the Israeli papers is an Israeli.
Video
REPORTER: Sophie McNeil
It was in the 90th minute of Israel's World Cup qualifying match against Ireland, and Abbas Suan was about to score for his country.
COMMENTATOR: Suan! What a fantastic goal!
In this moment of glory, this Israeli-Arab thought his struggle for acceptance would finally be over. A devout Muslim, Suan has no problem embracing Jewish culture.
ABBAS SUAN, ISRAELI FOOTBALLER, (Translation): Have a great Bar Mitzvah. Grow up and be successful in life, be well, look after yourself.
But like most of this Jewish state's 1.5 million Arab citizens, Suan has a mixed sense of identity.
ABBAS SUAN: I am a Palestinian because I have a lot of brothers and cousins in the Arab countries, and I am an Israeli because I live here and don't go out from my land. That's it. I have to do the rules in this country.
As an Arab player in a predominantly Jewish league, Suan often finds himself on the receiving end of racist taunts.
ABBAS SUAN, (Translation): One is that Abbas Suan has cancer, another one is "Death to Arabs." Everything. Anything you want.
And even when Suan played a local match after scoring his goal against Ireland, supporters of the opposing team turned up with a sign that said, "Abbas Suan you don't represent us." He got the message.
ABBAS SUAN: We don't want you in the national team and you don't belong to the Israel community and to the Israel country.
Suan says he's often singled out as a potential security threat when he travels in and out of the country representing Israel.
ABBAS SUAN, (Translation): The guard standing at the airport gate, when he opens the passport and if he can’t tell you’re a footballer because he is not into sport he see you are an Arab, he stops you. It doesn’t matter why, who, how..If you are an Arab they will ask where you are from, where you are going, what you work as who's your mother, who's your father and many, many questions, pointless questions.
Relations between Jews and Arabs inside Israel are at a turning point. On the one hand there is a Muslim Arab Cabinet Minister - Ghaleb Majadele - for the first time in the country's history. But the cabinet also includes Avigdor Lieberman, who has called for many Arab citizens to be 'transferred' out of Israel. The new Sports, Science and Culture Minster is being welcomed by Jewish families at a local judo championship. Ghaleb Majadele, who comes from the Labour Party, hopes his appointment is more than just symbolic.
GHALEB MAJADELE, MUSLIM ARAB CABINET MINISTER, (Translation): We Arabs see it as a step in the right direction towards equality for the Arab minority in Israel.
But even Majadele admits the Israeli Government of which he's a part discriminates against Arab citizens.
GHALEB MAJADELE, (Translation): For example, 50% of Arab citizens live below the poverty line. The overwhelming majority of Arab villages have very high unemployment rates. These issues are related to the budgets, which in turn are linked with the behaviour of the government and its dealings with Arab citizens.
REPORTER: What do you think having an Arab-Israeli Minister in the Cabinet?
MAN: I think it's very strange because they can talk very well but who knows what they think.
Majadele's appointment has been criticised by some Israeli Jews.
AVIGDOR LIBERMAN, CABINET MINISTER, Translation): I'm talking now. You sit down and shut up.
And condemned by right-wing Cabinet Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
AVIGDOR LIBERMAN (Translation): On Independence Day, how come no Arab MP raised an Israeli flag? On Independence Day, why is it that no Arab MP raises the Israeli flag?
Lieberman recently called for Majadele's resignation when the Arab Minister admitted he refuses to sing Israel's national's anthem.
AVIGDOR LIBERMAN (Translation): How come no Arab MP sings the national anthem? I ask myself.. do we indeed serve the same parliament? These are obvious questions. Of course.
GHALEB MAJADELE (Translation): It's Lieberman who has a problem, not us. He joined the coalition government to work with us, by our principles.
ABBAS SUAN: I don't hate any man in my life just one man - this Lieberman. He don't believe that Arabs have to be here in Israel.
Like Sports Minister Ghaleb Majadele, Suan refuses to sing the national anthem because it's about the Jewish people's desire to return to its homeland.
JEWISH ANTHEM (Translation):
As long as deep in the heart, the soul of a Jew yearns...
Suan is one of two Arab players on the national side who are silent while the anthem is played.
ABBAS SUAN (Translation): I was with the national team I didn't sing it, none of us do, because it has parts that are not for Arabs. I don’t sing it and I am not willing to unless… I don’t know..No, I don't. I don't know it.
To Abbas, the national anthem is just one more reminder that the country he so proudly represents was not intended to include him. Many Israeli Arabs feel this way. In the village of Arab el-Naim 1,200 Israeli Arabs live in tin shacks with no access to running water. Faheem lives here with his wife and five sons.
FAHEEM (Translation): I'm expecting that when you broadcast this film the Israeli Government will tell you, "They're not living here, they're living close to the Palestinian border." But we are in the heart of Israel, in Galilee. We are in Upper Galilee. We're in Israel.
Despite his anger at his situation, Faheem flies the Israeli flag in the hope it will protect his family's home from demolition.
FAHEEM (Translation): I put this flag on the caravan where my son lives so that the authorities or the governing body wouldn't remove it. They come and tell me to remove the flag but with it there, they can't do anything.
Faheem spent 14 years in the Israeli army. He doesn't understand why he gets treated so differently from his Jewish neighbours in this community just 500m away.
FAHEEM (Translation): It's a hard feeling, very hard. When I see my neighbour enjoying all his rights, his children, his household, even his lifestyle, I'm ashamed to say this, but even their dog has its own room, water and everything. Our children don't have this. We don't have this.
It's rare to find Jews and Arabs living side by side in Israel. And according to the Arab Association for Human Rights, Arab towns receive around 50% less funding compared to Jewish towns. A study done this year found that 60% of Israelis avoid entering Arab towns or cities. A different report released last year found that 63% of Israelis would refuse to live in the same apartment building as an Arab. Ibrahim Dwery has been designing buildings in Nazareth for over 20 years but there is one house that he hasn't been allowed to build.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): This is the house that was supposed to be built in Suralim.
Seven years ago, Ibrahim and his wife went to buy some land just outside Nazareth. Everything was going well until the real estate agent overheard the couple speaking Arabic.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): She asked me "Are you an Arab or a Jew?" I said "I'm an Israeli." She said "I'm asking if you're an Arab or a Jew." I told her "I'm an Arab Israeli. I have an Israeli ID card and an Israeli passport. I vote in the parliament and everything." She said, "It's not good enough, we don't sell to Arabs."
He says the local community was concerned he might build a mosque.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): I laughed and said, "Firstly, I'm not religious. I'm not the religious type. Secondly, I'm Christian, not Muslim. I won't be wanting a mosque or a church."
93% of the community voted against selling the land to him.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): I was astonished by their response. I started to look at what could be wrong with me. In the end, I realised that that was the only reason - they don't want an Arab living amongst them. There is no other reason.
But after seven years of court battles, this year Ibrahim finally won the right to buy the land. He wants to forget about the past and make friends in his new neighbourhood.
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): I've never spoken to them. I think we can be the best neighbours in the future.
But Ibrahim's Jewish neighbours told me they were not looking forward to his move.
MAN (Translation): He has to think twice if he wants to come and live here, because he is coming to live here and no-one, in my opinion, will say hello to him. It's not because of racism, it's just because they don't want to live with Arabs, and mean people from other nations. It's not only Arabs. Such as criminals and other elements.
REPORTER Do you want to be welcomed into Israeli society? Do you want to be made to feel like you belong?
IBRAHIM DWERY (Translation): Of course, of course. I'd love just to be like the others. To be all of us citizens in the first degrees.
But even under the law, not all Israeli citizens are created equal. Hassan is an Israeli citizen but his wife, Hanan, comes from the West Bank town of Jenin.
HASSAN (Translation): Here it was 2000, we had our wedding ceremony.
Under a new law, Hassan is not allowed have his wife come and live with him in Israel. The law denies Israeli citizenship or residency to spouses who are from the Palestinian territories.
HASSAN (Translation): They said if she can't get citizenship, then you go and live with her in Jenin. But I can't leave my house, my parents, we've been here since before 1948, I can’t live in Jenin.
So Hanan has been living here illegally with her husband and two children, trying to avoid any contact with the authorities. They didn't want me to reveal where they live.
HANAN (Translation): If policemen come, I’ll be in trouble, I can’t stay here.. I don't go out much. I'm scared to leave the house.
She's terrified the family will be split up. Israeli authorities say the Citizenship Law is for security purposes and that it stops potential suicide bombers from using marriage to get inside Israel. Some believe the law has an ulterior motive.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA, BALAD PARTY MP: This law is a racist law.
Dr Jamal Zehalka is a member of the Israeli Parliament for the Arab nationalist party Balad. He believes the citizenship law is an attempt to keep a lid on Israel's Arab population.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA: They are afraid of the raise the percent of Arabs inside Israel. We are now only 18% of the citizens of the state but they say that, "If we allow them to marry and women and men from the West Bank come and marry Arab citizens of the state of Israel, the number of Arabs will be high and this is danger for the state of Israel." We have to feel pity on the state of Israel because it is in danger - not to marry, not to get a love between each other.
Another law that Balad regards as racist is the so-called right of return, which gives Jews around the world an automatic right to Israeli citizenship, encouraging Jewish immigration.
DR DANIEL GORDIS, AUTHOR: It's important to recognise that from the perspective of Israeli Jews there seems to be a demographic time bomb here.
Commentator Daniel Gordis admits that Jewish Israelis from across the political spectrum are concerned about the high birthrate of Arab citizens.
DR DANIEL GORDIS: Those people who want to safeguard both the democratic and the Jewish nature of the state need for there to be a significant Jewish majority. The minute that that distinction between the numbers of Israeli Jews and the number of Israeli Arabs begins to diminish, then you either have to give up on the Jewish nature of the state or the democratic nature of the state.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA: You know, I think it's a fatal mistake for Jewish people to make the connection between the existence of the state of Israel and discrimination. That's to say if Israel is not discriminating against Arabs, it will not exist.
The Balad party wants to change the Israeli flag, the national anthem and 22 laws that it says discriminate against Arabs.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA: Zionism name means "Jewish state", and that's giving privileges to a part of the citizens of the state - the Jewish people - and discriminating the Palestinians who are the indigenous people of this land.
ZEVULUN ORLEV (Translation): We have no other land, we have no other state, no other place in the world.
Zevulun Orlev from the National Religious Party says this is a new battle for Israel's right to exist.
ZEVULUN ORLEV (Translation): The state cannot accept that within it exists a fifth column. And a state cannot accept that 20% of its population, in fact, would want to destroy their country.
The Israeli authorities clearly see the spread of Balad's ideas as a threat and have tried to ban the party from running in elections.
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA (Translation): The Israeli state decided to enter or inaugurate a new era in dealing with Arab citizens.
Earlier this year the Israeli domestic intelligence service, Shin Bet, described the Israeli Arab community as a "strategic threat" to the Jewish state. In an extraordinary move, Shin Bet wrote the following letter to the Balad party newspaper
MAN READS: "Within its responsibilities, Shin Bet is required to thwart any subversive activity by elements who are seeking to undermine the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, even if their activity is done through democratic means, and this is the principle of defensive democracy."
The message put Balad on notice - "Challenge the Jewish identity of Israel and we will come after you."
DR JAMAL ZEHALKA (Translation): Making such statements, you’re identifying a danger, that means you intend to take steps to deal with that danger.
Then the authorities did crack down. As the Israeli media reported, their target was the highly controversial Balad party leader, Azmi Bishara.
HEBREW NEWS (Translation): He's the most extreme Arab MP ever to serve in the Knesset. In his 11 years there he never hid his aim to abolish Israel as a Jewish state.
Israel's most prominent activist for Arab citizens' rights, Bishara was accused by the security services of aiding Hezbollah during last year's war with Lebanon.
HEBREW NEWS (Translation): Assisting the enemy in wartime, contact with a foreign agent, providing information to the enemy, and money laundering and financing terror.
Bishara has been provoking the authorities for years with his visits to enemy states like Syria and Lebanon. But when he expressed solidarity with Hezbollah after last year's war, he outraged Jewish Israelis.
DR DANIEL GORDIS: That's an elected member of my parliament? It's really pretty simple what Israelis have against Azmi Bishara. I think it would be very difficult to describe the level of betrayal that Israelis felt.
On 26 April, while Bishara was out of the country, Israeli police raided his Jerusalem home. Outside, his lawyers accused them of fabricating a case against Bishara, and said there was no chance of a fair trial.
BISHARA'S LAWYER: Of course, of course not. The last thing that we have faith of is this.
These Arab students from the Hebrew University are on their way to a rally in support of Azmi Bishara. But campus security won't let them display the Palestinian flag.
BOY IN BUS (Translation): It’s the flag of the Palestinian state, our nation. They consider the flag to be that of an enemy country. The university security guards would come, take it downand cause a lot of trouble for the people who but it up.
These young Arabs are all Israeli citizens but it's clear where their allegiance lies.
BOY IN BUS (Translation): May we die and Palestine live!
Israel's Arab citizens feel as though they're under attack and they're now rallying around their leader.
RALLY (Translation): With our soul and our blood we sacrifice for you, Azmi!
They believe the authorities are taking revenge on Bishara for his stance during the war - a stance which most of them supported.
MAN (Translation): We salute the Palestinians, the salute the Lebanese resistance. We salute the Iraqi resistance and we salute the Syrian stand.
Zevulun Orlev believes such public sympathy for Israel's enemies justifies a crackdown on Arab political activity.
ZEVULUN ORLEV (Translation): There is danger here, a threat of mutiny or rebellion which can be not only verbal but can also be violent.
On April 22, Azmi Bishara resigned from the parliament saying he wanted to fight to clear his name. Since then he's been travelling around the Middle East, knowing that if he returns to his wife and children he will face immediate arrest. I find him in Jordan's capital, Amman.
REPORTER: They accuse you of having been in contact with Hezbollah intelligence officers during the war? What is your response to that?
AZMI BISHARA, FORMER BALAD MP: That's total nonsense. I mean, I have friends in Lebanon who are journalists and writers and intellectuals, and I talk to them on the phone. But what do people talk about at time of war? Of war - what happened, what happened yesterday. Most of the things they considered passing information to the enemy were things published in the media.
One of the allegations against Bishara is that he informed Hezbollah of Israel's intention to kill its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
AZMI BISHARA: Well, yes, they needed me to tell them that. But I think if they have sense of humour, they will laugh and they will think this is an example that if the charges are of this sort, then they are fabricated.
REPORTER: Can you understand when Israelis are so angry seeing you in Beirut after the war, and hearing you now saying you were against Israel in this war, and you're a member of their parliament. Can you understand why?
AZMI BISHARA: No, I can't. And I don't want. And I think they should be happy that I do only this. They should be very, very pleased that the only thing we can do is pay a visit and make declarations from there. I think they should be happy. I mean, not all minorities in the world are so quiet like we are. No, I don't understand. I understand why the Lebanese are angry at the Israelis. I don't understand that the aggressor is angry.
REPORTER: Hezbollah is Israel's sworn enemy. And you went there and you praised them in Beirut. Didn't you expect that this would happen?
AZMI BISHARA: I'm ready to have responsibility for the things that I did. For example, saying the people have the right to resist occupation. For example, the fact that I visited an enemy country, I broke the law, I know. By visiting an enemy country I broke the law. Let them charge me for visiting an enemy country. That's fine with me. But it's not that. They are bringing me to court for things that I did not do, and for that I'm not ready.
Bishara has still not returned to Israel where he could face life imprisonment if found guilty. For as long as Israel remains a Jewish state, its Arab citizens will forever feel as if they don't belong. And for Abbas Suan, the daily struggle for equality continues.
ABBAS SUAN (Translation): It's not a state just for the Jews, it should be for all Israeli citizens. An Israeli could be an Arab, it could be from Argentina, it could be from anywhere. Who ever has the Israeli papers is an Israeli.