In Lydd, Palestinians fear tinderbox of Israel’s war, threat of expulsion

Since October 7, Palestinians in Lydd have been living under constant fear of state violence and Israeli extremists.

Lydd, Israel – One week after Israel began bombing Gaza last October, Ghassan Mounayer received a call from the Israeli police.

An officer warned him not to write any critical Facebook posts about the war or call for demonstrations in Lydd [Lod in Hebrew], where Palestinian citizens of Israel like Mounayer live alongside Jewish Israelis.

“They said, ‘We’re watching your Facebook’, and not to write anything ‘Satanic’,”  said Mounayer, who is a human rights activist. “I said, ‘Do you have any examples of posts like this?’ He said, ‘Don’t be smart. You are being watched’.”

Since Israel launched its war on Gaza following Hamas’s deadly attack on October 7, tensions in mixed Palestinian and Israeli cities have approached boiling point. But few places are as tense as Lydd, a city run by far-right Mayor Yair Revivo and where relations between Palestinians and Israeli Jews have been fraught for years.

Palestinian activists say they fear for their lives, living in the shadow of the Israeli authorities and heavily armed Jewish Israeli citizens, many of whom belong to supremacist movements. They are warning that the city could “explode” into conflict and lead to the persecution and even expulsion of Palestinian residents.