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| By Israel Insider staff November 18, 2007 |
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| FM Tzipi Livni expounds at a media conference with her French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner |
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Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni added fuel to the explosive issue of Israel's Jewish identity and made Arab officials apoplectic when she said that a future Palestinian state would provide a solution to Palestinians worldwide -- including Israeli Arabs -- in their struggle for national expression. Livni was responding to an announcement made Sunday by the [Israeli] Arab Higher Monitoring Committee regarding its decision to draft a document expressing its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and to the visit by an Israeli Arab Knesset Member to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas urging him to hold firm on his rejection of Israel as a Jewish State.
The foreign minister, speaking in a press conference with French foreign minister Bernard Kouchnet [see video], said that the national demands of Israeli Arabs should end the moment a Palestinian state is established, implying that those who wanted a state of their own would need to live in the Palestinian State. Livni also stressed that Israel is a democracy, adding that elected members of Knesset must accept it as such. "The Arab MKs cannot have their cake and eat it too," she said, suggesting that primary loyalty to the Palestinian state was not acceptable for a member of Israel's parliament.
The foreign minister said: "it must be clear to everyone that the State of Israel is a national homeland for the Jewish people." She said: "Those supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state as a national solution to the Palestinians cannot have it both ways -- to demand the establishment of such a state, and at the same time act from within against the existence of the Jewish nation state," she declared.
According to Livni, "Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and every person elected to the Knesset must accept the basic principles upon which the State of Israel was founded."
She also said: "So it's not about asking the Palestinians something which relates to the identity of the State of Israel but the understanding that the goal of the process is to be according to this region of two states for two peoples because at the end of the day, the conflict is a conflict between two nations. The conflict is between the two peoples. The fact that Israel needs to defend itself and the fact that Israel is fighting for its existence since it was established is not because Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East but because Israel was created as a Jewish State according to the United Nations resolution."
"In 1947, before the State of Israel was established, the world decided to create a Jewish State. The Arab world rejected it then. By the way, the Palestinians could have celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of a Palestinian state. They could have celebrated, by the way, the seventh anniversary of the Palestinian state if they had accepted us as something that was on the table at Camp David seven years ago."
The first Arab minister fumed. Culture, Sports and Science Minister Ghaleb Majadele said, "The roots of the Israeli Arab citizens of Israel were planted before the state was established. They are residents of this country with rights; their residency and citizenship are not open for negotiation."
Hadash party Chairman Mohammad Barakeh, who initiated Saturday's debate at the Higher Monitoring Committee, said: "The government's insolence has hit a new high. Livni went back to her origins in the unenlightened circles of the extreme right." He added that "the Palestinian Arabs in Israel live in their homeland. They did not immigrate. It is the state that immigrated."
MK Ahmad Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) said that Livni has shown her "extreme face," adding that she is preparing the ground for the expulsion of Arab citizens from Israek. "The Arabs were here before Livni and will be here after her," he said. Tibi claimed that the Foreign Minister was preparing for the expulsion of Israeli Arabs.
Livni was asked specifically about the actions of Tibi, who went to Abbas and implored him to hold firm on the refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. She answered: "I believe that by doing so, Ahmad Tibi and some of his friends are working against something that they fought for in the future [perhaps she means in the past-editor] because if they represented here in Israel what is called the Palestinian cause and the nondeclaration of the Palestinian state, then clearly the creation of the Palestinian state is the answer to the national situation of the Palestinians. By saying today that, on one hand, they demand a Palestinian state in order to give an answer to the national aspiration of the Palestinians but simultaneously they are talking in terms of national aspirations inside Israel, this is going to make a huge problem in the way of two problems: to find an end to conflict and the end of all claims. And I believe that the stance against the nature of the existence of the State of Israel is -- this is part of our -- it's not a constitution but our basic laws, and this is something that I said also before to some representatives of the Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. They are equal rights citizens but the creation of the Palestinian state gives them the national answer. As individuals, they can live in Israel and be equal rights citizens because Israel is a democracy, but simultaneously they cannot ask for the declaration of a Palestinian state while working against the nature of the State of Israel as home unto the Jewish people."
However, Arab parties and Knesset members have objected to this definition: the Hadash party that raised the issue are reject the state's definition as Jewish in the context of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Other parties, such as Balad, believe the committee must express a principled disapproval of such a definition.
The stances may represent a breach of Israeli law, which stipulates that no party can participate in the elections if it rejects the democratic and Jewish nature of the State of Israel.
Livni was also assailed by left-wing Israeli Jews. MK Ophir Paz-Pines (Labor) compared the foreign minister to Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, who has stated in the past that he supports population swaps with a future Palestinian state.
"The statement sounds like something that came out of the mouth of Avigdor Lieberman, and does not befit her." Paz-Pines said. "Israel is the home of the Jewish people, but we mustn't forget that it is also the home and country of non-Jewish citizens. The Palestinian state will serve as a solution to the [Palestinian] refugee problem, but not for Arab-Israelis," Paz-Pines continued.
But right wing Knesset Members objected to the Foreign Minister's continuing support for a Palestinian state. MK Arye Eldad (National Union-NRP) said that the Palestinians already have a state in Jordan, whose population is 70 percent Palestinian.
According to Eldad, "Tzipi Livni wants to give another country to the Palestinians and she thinks that Arab-Israelis will be satisfied with it. Whoever gives up Judea and Samaria will not be able to stop [and will give up] the Galilee and the Negev [as well]." |
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