From Iron Dome to bomb shelters: How Israel's defence system is built to exclude its Palestinian citizens

Israel's entire defence system, from bomb shelters to the Iron Dome, operates on a discriminatory logic that values Jewish lives and devalues Palestinian ones.

Arab towns, especially in the Naqab (Negev), are routinely classified as "open areas" where Iron Dome is programmed to allow missiles to fall, or worse, detonate interceptors above them, showering civilians below with shrapnel.

While Jewish communities enjoy comprehensive networks of fixed and mobile shelters, Palestinian areas suffer a severe shortage of even the most basic safe spaces. In some towns, shelters simply do not exist. In others, a single shelter, often located in a school or nursery, is expected to serve thousands.

In October 2024, Hezbollah rockets struck the Arab town of Majd al-Krum, killing a 22-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman. Twenty-seven others were injured. There were no shelters in the area.

"This reflects the scale of deliberate marginalisation and neglect Arab towns suffer from," said the Arab Emergency Committee in a statement. The group highlighted a critical lack of bomb shelters, protective infrastructure, and emergency resources as a result of decades of government refusal to fund Arab communities.

A survey by Palestinian organisations in Israel found that 87 percent of the public shelters in Palestinian towns are inside schools, which are harder to access, while shelters in Jewish areas are inside parking lots and dedicated above-ground structures.

A report by the Israeli Democracy Institute confirmed that Palestinian citizens of Israel are not given equal protection compared with Jewish citizens.

"The lack of protective infrastructure forces Arab citizens to live in constant danger, violating their basic rights to life, physical wellbeing, and equality," wrote Lital Biller, the report's author.

A 2023 audit by the State Comptroller revealed that 60 percent of residents within nine kilometres of the northern border who lack proper protection are Palestinians.

As of 2018, only 11 out of 71 Palestinian towns surveyed had a single public shelter. Some had just one for the entire population of the town, sometimes up to 60,000 people.

In the south, the discrimination becomes more apparent. In Rahat, a town of 80,000 Palestinians near Gaza, there are no public shelters. Meanwhile, in nearby Ofakim, a Jewish town half the size, there are dozens.

An estimated 120,000 residents in 35 Arab towns across the country have no protection at all from missiles or Iron Dome debris.

The Iron Dome system itself reflects this racist logic. On the first day of Israel's war on Gaza in October 2023, the army claimed a Gaza rocket had fallen in an "open area". Hours later, photographs showed it had landed on a Palestinian vehicle in the Naqab.

This wasn’t a mistake but a mere consequence of how the system is programmed. Vast Palestinian areas, including dozens of unrecognised Bedouin villages, are pre-coded as "open zones" where no interception is triggered.

There are more than 40 such villages in the Naqab. Residents live in tents and tin structures, denied water, electricity, or healthcare, and face regular home demolitions. Since the war began, many have seen their homes destroyed either by incoming missiles or Iron Dome interceptors detonated above them.

Israel's defence ministry defines the Iron Dome as a system that decides, via radar and algorithm, whether a projectile will fall in a populated area or not. If the algorithm decides the missile is headed for an "open area", it is allowed to fall. But "open area" is often code for a Palestinian neighbourhood.

This is not collateral damage but a calculated outcome of a system designed to rank lives. It is a programmed, bureaucratised death trap, wrapped in the language of defence.

Ayman Odeh, former head of the Hadash-Ta'al alliance, spoke out after four Palestinian citizens were killed by an Iranian missile in Tamra.

"Again and again, Arab citizens are left exposed while the government speaks only of unity," he said. "When missiles fall on Arab homes, we see clearly who matters in this country and who doesn’t."