RAMALLAH, January 29 (JMCC) - Relationships between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews were never easy, defying the nationalist divide that splits
Israel from the Palestinians.
However, as nationalism - and some say racism - increases in Israel, these couples are finding it more difficult to navigate a common life,
reports al-Jazeera.
Rona, a young professional Jewish woman in her early thirties who asked to be identified by a pseudonym, has kept her relationship with a Palestinian man a secret from most of her relatives for almost four years.
While her parents know and have met Rona's boyfriend, Rona says that she is at a point where she is actively lying to the rest of her family.
I don't know how to articulate how they'd react, Rona says. I think that my aunt and uncle know that there is someone ... and they definitely know that he's Arab. But it's more about my grandmother and her sisters and the older generation. It's like if [I] were to bring home a mass murderer.
She laughs nervously and continues.
It just doesn't happen. It's like: 'Bring home somebody who is a total loser, but don't bring home an Arab.'