- Justice Minister Yosef Lapid on Thursday launched a verbal
assault on residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements, describing
their behavior as "barbaric," and accusing them of having "de
facto" control in Israel.
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- Lapid said that the settlers "in their heart of
hearts dream of the transfer of Palestinians to the [Eastern] banks of
the Jordan [river], a solution which is not only barbaric but also utterly
impossible."
-
- Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, a showcase conference
on Israeli security, Lapid said that, "Even though Israel is an exemplary
democracy, it is de facto controlled by a small minority of Yesha settlers
who represent a minority within the settlers themselves.
-
- "Their answer to the demographic problem is for
another million immigrants to arrive in the country, although no one knows
from where," he said.
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- Lapid also called for the peace process to be speeded
up, citing, among other reasons, the development of nuclear weapons by
Iran and Pakistan, as well as the demographic problem posed by the Palestinians.
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- Israeli Arabs under fire at conference
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- Speakers at the Herzliya Conference revisited Thursday
controversial comments made by Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the
day before, in which he said that the Israeli Arab population posed a demographic
threat to the country.
-
- Dr. Yitzhak Ravid, a senior researcher at Rafael, Israel's
Armament Development Authority, proposed during a short speech under the
heading "Learning from Iran and Egypt," that the state implement
a stringent policy of family planning in relation to its Muslim population,
claiming that "the delivery rooms in Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva
have turned into a factory for the production of a backward population."
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- But Brigadier General (res.) Uzi Dayan denied Thursday
that citizens of the state would ever pose a demographic threat, and warned
that the central problems were relations between Jews and Arabs and the
lack of social coherence.
-
- Netanyahu's remarks also came under fire Wednesday, with
left-wing Knesset members and a civil rights group offering up severely
criticism.
-
- "Netanyahu's demographic bomb is a stink bomb and
racism," MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash) said. "The day is not far when
Netanyahu and his flock will set up roadblocks at the entrance to Arab
villages in order to tie Arab women's tubes and spray them with spermicide."
-
- Netanyahu told the conference that he was not greatly
concerned by the demographic problem posed by Palestinians, and that Israel
would eventually relinquish control over lands that were home to most of
the Palestinians live. He said that he could not foresee a future in which
"any sane Israeli" could try to make Palestinians either Israeli
citizens or "enslaved subjects."
-
- Instead, the finance minister blamed Israeli Arabs for
tilting Israel's demographic balance, and said if the percentage of Arab
citizens rises above its current level of about 20 percent, Israel will
not be able to remain both Jewish and democratic.
-
- "If there is a demographic problem, and there is,
it is with the Israeli Arabs who will remain Israeli citizens," Netanyahu
said, adding that a good economy was necessary to attract Jewish immigrants.
-
- Of Israel's 6.6 million citizens, about 1.3 million are
Arabs. Another 3 million Arabs live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
-
- The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said it sent
a letter of complaint to Netanyahu about the remarks.
-
- "Comments like these fan the flames of hatred, racism
and discrimination that are the daily reality of Israeli Arab citizens
and undermine the basic trust that underpins a democratic society,"
the organization said in a statement.
-
- Arab Israelis complain authorities discriminate against
them in the distribution of state funds, particularly in local communities
and education. Unemployment and poverty figures are higher in the community
than among Jewish Israelis.
-
- Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert defended the
comments that some Knesset members decried as racist, saying Netanyahu
had pointed to an existing demographic problem but that the more important
problem lies "between the Jordan [River] and the [Mediterranean] Sea,"
Israel Radio reported Wednesday night.
-
- MK Azmi Bishara of Balad (National Democratic Alliance)
said that describing the original residents of the land as a demographic
problem would be considered racist in any country.
-
- "No people in the world like to hear that their
actual existence causes a demographic problem," Bishara told Army
Radio. "Even in undeveloped countries, this is thought of as racist."
-
- MK Makhoul Issam Makhoul (Hadash) called Netanyahu a
"racist danger to democracy."
-
- "A leader who considers 20 percent of the population
of Israel to be a demographic threat and treats them as an existential
problem is himself a racist danger to democracy, sanity and the rule of
law, and he should be disposed with immediately for the good of both peoples,"
he said.
-
- MK Talab a-Sana (United Arab List) asked: "How would
Netanyahu react if someone in the West or the U.S. said that the reproduction
rate of the Haredi Jews was a demographic problem? Netanyahu has double
standards."
-
- Yossi Sarid (Meretz) said Netanyahu set in motion an
irrevocable deterioration of relations between Israeli Jews and Israeli
Arabs.
-
- Sarid said it was amazing to see how "great leaders
are exposed as small bigots. The Palestinian problem in the territories
has not yet been solved, and already some insist on creating a new problem
with Israeli Arabs."
-
- According to Sarid, "Netanyahu at Herzliya poured
a fuel tanker on the bonfire of relations between Jewish and Arab citizens
in Israel, and a thousand firemen won't be able to put out a fire that
one light-hearted man ignited."
-
- Netanyahu warned that a Jewish majority was necessary
for Israel to remain both Jewish and democratic. "If their numbers
will reach 35-40 percent of the country, than the Jewish state will be
annulled," he said. He also said that if the Arabs remain at 20 percent
of the population but relations are tense and violent, this will also harm
the state's democratic fabric.
-
- The economy is the single most important factor that
will lead to Jews immigrating to Israel, he said. "I go mad when I
see that because of low taxation in Moscow, there is now a capital flow
there. If we want Jews to come here, we need a flourishing and dynamic
economy. If we want Israeli Arabs to integrate, we need a flourishing and
dynamic economy."
-
- He said it was necessary to improve education standards,
especially for Arab citizens. Netanyahu said that the separation fence
would also help to prevent a "demographic spillover" of Palestinians
from the territories.
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