Fears Israeli village will be cut off under Trump plan

Mohammed Mahameed lives in Umm al-Fahm, an Arab town in the heart of the triangle that Israelis have long associated with extremism because it is a bastion of political Islamists. But the 22-year-old plays soccer in a mostly Jewish league.

He says he gets along well with his teammates, most of whom are Jewish, and gets a warm reception when he plays in cities and towns across Israel.

"I received love there that I cannot describe, really," he said. "We didn't look at anything in a racist way."

The Trump plan, released last week, "contemplates the possibility" that an area known as the Arab Triangle, which abuts the West Bank and is home to more than 250,000 Arab citizens, could be added to a future Palestinian state if both sides agree.

The border would be redrawn, and no one would be uprooted from their homes.

Mahameed fears that Umm al-Fahm may one day be cut off from the rest of Israel by roadblocks and checkpoints, preventing residents from traveling for work or recreation.

He didn't vote in September but plans to next month.

Residents of the Arab Triangle have close ties to other Arab communities and own land and businesses in different parts of Israel. Many work in Jewish communities and send their children to Israeli universities.

The mayor of Umm al-Fahm, Samir Sobhi Mahamed, has relatives from Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, and from an area outside the coastal city of Haifa in northern Israel.

"I am Palestinian, of course," he said. "But I am connected to this area," and not the West Bank.

The proposal has infuriated many of Israel's Arab citizens, who view it as a form of forced transfer. They want no part in the Palestinian state envisioned by the Trump administration, which many compare to the scattered Bantustans set aside for black people by apartheid-era South Africa.

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has also adamantly rejected the plan, which would allow Israel to annex all of its settlements and large parts of the West Bank, leaving the Palestinians with limited autonomy in an archipelago of enclaves surrounded by Israel.

Inside Israel, outrage over the plan could once again mobilize Arab voters ahead of elections next month, potentially denying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu re-election and throwing the implementation of the Trump plan into greater doubt.

Israel's Arab citizens make up around 20% of the population. They can vote, but face widespread discrimination. They have close family ties to the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and many identify as Palestinians. But they are also deeply rooted in lands that are now part of Israel, and their political parties advocate reform, not partition.

Many Israelis nevertheless view Arab citizens with suspicion, seeing them as a fifth column sympathetic to the country's enemies.

But it raises questions of consent, as residents of the area have little if any power in the Israeli government and no connection to the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli media have cited unnamed officials as saying Netanyahu has no intention of implementing the idea and is focused on other parts of the plan. The prime minister's office declined to comment on the reports or the idea of transferring the Arab Triangle.

Israeli officials' reluctance to discuss the issue could reflect electoral calculations ahead of next month's elections — the third in less than a year after no one was able to form a majority coalition.

Netanyahu has inveighed against Arab citizens ahead of past elections in order to mobilize his right-wing base. Before September's vote he had proposed posting cameras at Arab voting stations, accusing his opponents of trying to "steal" the election.

Those tactics backfired when an Arab coalition emerged as the third largest bloc in parliament, contributing to Netanyahu's failure to form a government.

Arab voters had sat out many past elections because of squabbling among their leaders and apathy borne of marginalization. No Arab party has ever sat in an Israeli government, and none of Israel's main parties have invited them to do so.

Safa Aghbaria, who runs a flower shop in Umm al-Fahm with her husband, said the plan is a "crazy, unrealistic idea."

"We are Palestinians, but they don't have the right to transfer us to another authority," she said. "We are here in our land."