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In a different context and time, it was said that “the greatest inequality is the equal treatment of unequals.” Watching the Home Front Command’s public safety videos urging citizens to follow protection regulations, that statement feels painfully relevant today.
The instructions — asking the public to “remain in proximity to protected spaces” or to “stay in protected spaces until receiving official clearance” — are delivered in a tone, language, and visual framing that reflect a mainstream Israeli urban reality. Yet for large segments of Arab society, that reality simply does not exist.
Emergency messaging that assumes universal access to protected spaces — and that does not reflect the lived experience of structurally underserved communities — risks reinforcing not safety, but distance.
Nearly 46 percent of Arab citizens in Israel lack access to a protected space. In 60 percent of Arab municipalities, there are no public shelters at all. Approximately 30 percent of state Arab schools lack adequate protection, compared to 11 percent of Hebrew-speaking and religious Jewish state schools.
In the unrecognized Bedouin villages of the Negev, the situation is even more acute. Around 100,000 residents live........