Knesset session discusses mounting wave of anti-Jewish violence in Israel
Members of Knesset and representatives of several Israeli organizations convened in the Knesset on Wednesday to discuss the “violence, incitement and racketeering by Arabs against Jews in the Negev, the Galilee, Jerusalem and the mixed cities,” during which they warned of a growing trend of nationalistic violence against the Jewish state.
The conference at the Knesset Photo by Shalev Shalom/TPS
Against the background of the growing wave of terrorist attacks, in Jerusalem in the Negev and the Galilee, and the growing violence in cities with a mixed Jewish-Arab population, the Knesset convened a session on the issue of Arab violence against Jews throughout the country.
The conference was held in response to a similar conference held at the Knesset last week to discuss alleged “settlers” violence against Arabs.
Findings of the growing violence were presented, as well as the police’s treatment of the perpetrators.
The civil society organizations of Regavim, the Movement for Governance and Democracy, Honenu, the Negev Rescue Committee, B’Tselem, My Israel, Im Tirzu, Ad Kan, the Families from Mixed Cities presented their data.
Journalists from a number of media outlets who covered the incidents of violence presented their personal stories about the coverage and life in the locations involved.
MK Bezalel Smotrich, chairman of the Religious Zionism party and one of the initiators of the event, stated that the violence by Israeli Arabs in recent months against Jews that “escalated in quantity and quality throughout the country can no longer be ignored.”
“The roots of this violence are nationalistic and the attempts to obscure it and look for other reasons are dangerous and will not allow terrorism and violence to be eradicated,” he warned.
He explained that “Israeli Arabs are dualists, citizens on the one hand and having an enemy national identity on the other. This reality is a democratic challenge and dealing with it lies in the plane of consciousness and the recognition of reality.”
“Unfortunately this government, which relies on anti-Zionist terrorists in the Islamic Movement [Ra’am party], breathes new life into the sails of violence and terrorism and is busy blurring and sweeping [the events] under the rug,” he said.
MK Shlomo Karhi, of the Likud party, said that “the one who put the Muslim Brotherhood as the actual leadership of the Israeli government is responsible for this situation,” meaning the Yemina party led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
“It is written [in the Talmud] that without the fear of the kingdom, man shall swallow each other alive. But there is no fear. There is no law or judge,” he noted.
He said the “police of have no motivation to make an effort to bring rioters to justice because the courts are bringing them back stronger and more heroic to the streets. This system needs root canal treatment.”
“The only answer to these riots, to the murder of the Jews by ‘our’ Arabs is in their language: Nakba [catastrophe in Arabic]. Anyone who incites against the State of Israel in mosques, who acts violently against Jews out of nationalist motives and against the State of Israel, should be sentenced and severely punished, as well as denied his citizenship,” he demanded.
TPS
