- Joined
- Jul 13, 2007
- Messages
- 63,466
Equal rights row flares over Arab-Jewish divide in Israel election
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A remark by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel is a state for Jews alone has heated up an election row over equal rights that has drawn in the president and even the Israeli who plays Wonder Woman over alleged prejudice against Israeli Arabs.
Ahmad Tibi, a veteran lawmaker in Israel’s parliament, said on Army Radio on Tuesday that election day is the only time when “Jewish and Arab voters have an equal voice” and Arab citizens should vote against what he termed persistent prejudice.
Urging the country’s 20 percent Arab minority, which traditionally has voted for Arab political parties, to head to the ballot box on April 9, Tibi said they face “prejudice and wide gaps” with Jewish Israelis all other times of the year.
Netanyahu’s attitude toward Israeli Arabs, many of whom also regard themselves as Palestinians, has emerged as a hot topic in the closely contested race.
President Reuven Rivlin, in comments widely seen in Israel as criticism directed at the right-wing Netanyahu, tweeted on Monday that there has been “an unacceptable discourse toward Israel’s Arab citizens” during the campaign.
“In the State of Israel - absolute equal rights for all its citizens,” Rivlin, whose post is largely ceremonial, wrote on Twitter, in Hebrew and Arabic.
He made the comments after Netanyahu said “Israel is not a state of all its citizens”, referring to a contentious law passed last year that declared Israel the “nation-state” of Jewish people alone - a phrase used by Netanyahu almost word for word in an Instagram post.
Israel’s Arab citizens and other critics of the legislation condemned it as racist. Netanyahu said the “nation-state” definition does not mean equal rights are not afforded to Arabs.
...
More: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ewish-divide-in-israel-election-idUSKBN1QT2E8