Palestinians who stayed behind arouse the suspicion of all

Letter from Ramle:BUTHAYNA DIBIT, a tall Palestinian Israeli, a high crown of dark curls on her head, parks at the edge of the old city of Ramle, writes Michael Jansen.

"Our city was founded in 716 by Suleiman bin Abdel Malek. The character of the place dates from this time," she says. Once the capital of an Ottoman district of Palestine, Ramle is now one of Israel's mixed Arab-Jewish towns, all five rundown and deprived.

Gesturing toward a rank of crumbling flats where laundry hangs limp from balconies, Buthayna, a Czech-trained architect, remarks, "These were built for us but poor Jewish families moved in." She turns away from a swathe of sandy land cleared by the authorities and points to her family home, a plaque bearing the name "Dibit" on the door. Israel's creation in 1948 produced a naqba, or catastrophe, for Palestinians, transforming 750,000 of 1.3 million into refugees. Buthayna continues: "Ramle had 20,000 inhabitants, all Palestinians." Today its population is 70,000, 20 per cent Palestinian - 14 per cent Muslim, six per cent Christian - and the rest Jewish.

Buthayna's grandparents were among 1,000 Palestinians dwelling in Ramle who remained after Israel expelled most of the community in mid-July 1948. "My grandfather said he preferred to die in Ramle than leave."

Those who fled their homes and lands were stripped of their valuables by Israeli troops and forced to walk to Jordanian army lines near Jerusalem.

Most Palestinians living in neighbouring Lydda and Jaffa were also expelled and 44,000 buildings were confiscated, half given to Jewish immigrants and the rest demolished, including historic buildings.

"In Lydda only 5 per cent of the old city remains, in Ramle 10 per cent and in Jaffa 3,250 buildings have been demolished," she observes. "The Israelis are systematically destroying houses to deny Palestinians their rights and to carry out the Judaisation of these cities by erasing their Arab character. This is a cultural naqba.

"The story has not yet ended because Israel is following a policy of neglecting and destroying [Palestinian] Israeli communities. Israel issues hundreds of eviction and demolition orders. Seventy per cent of Israel's Palestinians are living in an illegal situation although they are citizens of the state. This means Palestinians have an illegal existence. There are 500 demolition and evacuation orders in Ramle."

In 2006 and 2007, 823 and 759 Palestinian homes were demolished in Israel as compared with 264 and 208 in the occupied West Bank and 83 and 78 in East Jerusalem.

"After 1948, remaining [urban] families were confined to the old city which Israelis called the ghetto. Bedouin had their own ghetto. These places are still called ghettoes. Jewish immigrants were settled in new neighbourhoods. There were no mixed neighbourhoods. The Jews who came were poor, living on the periphery, like the Palestinians, and were also neglected."

She leads the way down a dusty alleyway into a pedestrianised area with cobbled streets lined with shops and homes. "You see there has been some effort to preserve some parts of the old city. But," she points toward an ugly modern facade flanked by two old buildings,"look at this Jewish wedding hall."

Further along the road, she pauses. "This was my father's restaurant. It was the first opened in Ramle after the naqba. Would you like some lunch?"

I decline because I must be back in Jerusalem by three. She waves to a man sheltering from the sharp sun in the doorway and leads me down a side street.

"Drugs, hunger and crime became major problems in recent years. In Lydda, Jewish residents demanded walls between the two communities. They thought, 'If I don't see my neighbour, he does not exist.' Some of the walls were also used for land-grab, like in the West Bank. Although both Palestinians and Jews here still live on the margins, Jews can go away if they have money. We have fewer options. We are demanding a Palestinian third option [the other two being to endure in silence or to emigrate]. We want to live as Arabs . . . Our culture must be respected and we must be able to mix normally [with Jews].

"They build cultural centres for new immigrants, but not for us. We also need centres where Jews and Arabs can mix."

She leads the way into a parking lot surrounded by collapsing stone walls and arches which had once been handsome stone-built homes and shops. "This was the Armenian quarter. The mayor bulldozed the parking part to please a friend. People with influence can do anything."

In a tiny courtyard stands an olive tree, its hollow trunk of fine brown wire twisted and knotted to follow the lumps and swirls of the bark of a living tree, its silvery-green leaves and fruit perfectly fashioned from weathered copper.

She rings the bell on the blank black door of the artist's studio. "Let's see if my cousin is here."

Nihad Dibit, a small man with a big smile, extends a hand blackened by metal dust, a cut above his right eye inflicted by a leaf from the tree, ordered to commemorate the life of an Israeli Jewish intellectual. Buthayna pauses by a squat, ancient minaret near the large Franciscan church.

"Napoleon came to Ramle and he slept in a house nearby. When he was awakened by the call to prayer early in the morning, he had the muezzin shot."

Back in her Herzl Street office at the New Israel Fund-Shatil Mixed Cities Project, Buthayna offers coffee and biscuits in the boardroom.

"Today we [Palestinian Israelis] face two problems. We must end the situation of the occupation which we share with residents of Gaza and the West Bank. Then we must secure our civil rights and recognition as citizens of Israel.

"We have citizenship but we are treated as enemies of the state and in the Arab world we are treated as collaborators. We live a segregated existence, there is no co-existence."