Michele Chabin

Special for USA TODAY

WADI ARA, Israel – The downturn in Asem Jezmawi's restaurant business began in early July. That's when thousands of Israel's Arab citizens took to the streets to protest the killing of an Arab teenager by Jewish extremists to avenge the earlier deaths of three Jewish teens.

Jezmawi's eatery, in this predominantly Arab region of northern Israel, floundered even more during the seven-week war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that began July 8.

Speaking in fluent Hebrew, the Arab restaurateur pondered why most of his Jewish customers haven't returned since the fighting ended in late August.

"Maybe they're afraid for their safety, coming to an Arab town, or maybe someone put my restaurant under herem – a boycott – because we're Arabs," Jezmawi said.

His lament underscores how Jewish-Arab tensions that exist in Israel even during the best of times have soared in recent months and show few signs of abating.

"There has been a real deterioration in Arab-Jewish relations," says Thabet Abu Rass, the Arab co-director of the non-profit Abraham Fund Initiatives. It focuses on equality for Israel's 1.7 million Arab citizens, who make up about a fifth of the country's population.

"The problems didn't start suddenly three months ago, but the revenge killing of the Palestinian teen was a trigger for frustration for Arab Israelis," whose standards of living "remain low compared to the Jewish sector," Abu Rass says.

Israeli Arabs generally have a higher standard of living than Arabs elsewhere in the region, but they lag Israeli Jews economically and in education because of longstanding budget priorities and policies that favor citizens who serve in the army or perform National Service — almost all of them Jews.

The two sides also viewed the recent conflict very differently. When Israel retaliated for rocket attacks launched by Hamas militants who control Gaza, Jewish Israelis feared for the safety of their soldiers. Israeli Arabs, who are mostly exempt from military service, worried about the dangers their Palestinian brethren faced from Israeli strikes into Gaza.

Ninety-two percent of Israeli Jews said Israel's military campaign to destroy Hamas rockets and tunnels in Gaza was justified, compared with only 24% of Israeli Arabs, according to a July 29 poll by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University.

These diverging opinions spark mutual distrust, says Ron Gerlitz, the Jewish co-executive of Sikkuy – The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality.

"In many places in Israel, such as hospitals, Jews and Arabs work together," he says, noting that many co-workers made a conscious effort not to discuss the conflict. In other workplaces, Jews threatened to fire Arab workers who used social media to highlight Israeli "atrocities" in Gaza. A small number of Arabs lost their jobs over the issue, the Abraham Fund says.

During the weeks leading up to and during the fighting, several Arabs were physically attacked by Jews. Attacks against Arab property by far-right extremists have been going on for more than a year.

Gerlitz thinks the violence is a "backlash" against the strides Arabs have made in Israeli society. Despite socio-economic gaps, Israeli hospitals are full of Arab doctors, and half of all pharmacists are Arab.

"As Israel's democratic principles enable Arabs to increasingly integrate into Israeli society, Jewish extremists feel threatened. They want to feel superior to Arabs, and if their professor at university is an Arab, they can't," he says.

Ruthie Blum, a right-wing columnist for the newspaper Israel Hayom, calls vigilantism by Jews against Arabs "reprehensible, illegal and immoral."

She says there is a double standard: "The only difference between Jews doing it to Arabs and Arabs doing it to Jews is that Arab society condones it and Israeli society punishes and condemns it."

Blum says she finds it "mindboggling" that Arabs in Israel who are concerned for their brethren could support Hamas, which fired rockets at Israel from Palestinian population centers. Israel and the United States brand Hamas a terrorist group.

Abu Rass says concern for Palestinians outside Israel is natural, and not an endorsement of Hamas or any other party.

"We are Israeli citizens, but at the same time are part of the Palestinian people," Abu Rass says. "Two of my relatives were killed in Gaza. I strongly believe in Jewish-Arab coexistence, but I can't forget that my country – Israel – is waging a war against my people."

In his restaurant in Wadi Ara, where the aroma of meat sizzling on the grill is strong, Jezmawi says it's time for Jews and Arabs "to move beyond the war and focus on living together."

Follow Chabin on Twitter @michelechabin