In Haifa, the large so-called “mixed” Jewish-Arab city in northern Israel, mechanic Easa Fayed is what we call a loudmouth. His sharp political commentary is read and heard by more than 250,000 subscribers across multiple social networks. On October 13, this bearded man, who left school early and read widely – he quotes the founder of the Hebrew state, David Ben-Gurion, at every turn – was arrested at his home by several dozen masked police officers. He spent four days in jail before being released without charge. He is banned from speaking online for a month.
Easa Fayed, in his car repair shop in Haifa (Israel), October 23, 2023. LUCIEN LUNG/RIVA PRESS POUR “LE MONDE”
“We will continue to support our people despite their policies,” Mr. Fayed said a day earlier in solidarity with Gazans who have been subjected to bombardment by the Israeli army since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. The police interpreted this as incitement to unrest. It closely monitors Israel’s minority of Palestinian citizens, who make up around 20% of the Jewish state’s population.
Since the Hamas attack, two demonstrations in Haifa and the Arab city of Umm Al-Fahm have been roughly dispersed. The country’s Commissioner General, Kobi Shabtaï, urged everyone to choose a side: “Whoever wants to be a citizen of Israel, Ahlan wa sahlan.” [bienvenue]. Anyone who wants to identify with Gaza can do so too – I will put them on the buses going there right now. » The Minister of National Security, the Jewish racist Itamar Ben Gvir, for his part distributed rifles to civilians in front of cameras.
Calls to set fires
According to data presented to the Knesset last week, Israelis have submitted around 41,000 applications for weapons permits since the start of the war. The country’s Palestinians fear that one of these weapons could end up being turned against one of their own, long viewed by the right as a “fifth column.”
A post published on October 15, 2023 in a Telegram group titled “Nazi Hunter 2023” calls for targeting Easa Fayed (right in photo), mentioning his arrest and address, which we have been obscured for security reasons. LUCIEN LUNG/RIVA PRESS FOR “THE WORLD”
After his release, Easa Fayed discovered that the credit card terminal in his garage had been blocked by his bank, which threatened to close his personal account. The Haifa Sanitary Authority fined him twice for smoking in his office. He lost all of his clients who had until then tolerated his sympathy for Balad, a small Arab party that rejected the duality of the “Jewish and democratic” Israeli state. Young people came to hang out in his garage at night under the surveillance cameras. One spray-painted the word “Hamas” on a wall. Another pulled a bottle out of his sweatpants – gasoline, Mr. Fayed believes. He fled at the first bark from the garage guards, a German shepherd and a red-eyed Rottweiler.
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