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Arab citizens of Israel accuse Israeli lawmakers of racial incitement

August 15, 2014 at 2:14 pm

The Arab Higher Committee in Israel demanded the Israeli prosecution investigate Israeli lawmakers most notably Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on charges of racial incitement amounting to incitement to murder Arab citizens.

President of the Committee, Mohamed Zidan sent a letter yesterday to Israel’s Attorney General Judea Feinstein and the Attorney General for Special Matter Shai Nitzan demanding they take urgent and effective judicial steps against the wave of violence and incitement, discrimination and racism faced by the Arab masses.

In the letter sent through the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Adalah, Zidan demanded Lieberman be investigated over remarks he posted on his Facebook account demanding those who participated in demonstrations against the aggression on Gaza and the West Bank be treated as “vandals”.

Lieberman also called for a boycott of Arab shops and businesses for joining a general strike organised against the aggression on the Gaza Strip.

Zidan demanded MK Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home Party be investigated after she quoted an inflammatory article on her Facebook account, saying the article was still “valid today”.

The article read: “All the Palestinian people are our enemies and nothing about that is shocking. In war, the enemy is usually an entire nation, including the elderly, women, villages and cities, property and infrastructure, and everyone who supports them morally and respects them is a fighter in the ranks of the enemy and should be killed.”

Zidan said in his letter: “The Israeli police’s violent practices against Arab demonstrators who protested the war have been demonstrated against leaders of the Arab masses, including members of the Knesset who enjoy immunity. The police attacked MK Mohammed Baraka in Nazareth as well as MK Jamal Zahalka and MK Hanin Zoabi who was handcuffed during a demonstration in Haifa.”

The letter said: “The attacks and manifestations of racism and discrimination against Arab citizens has especially emerged against workers and university students, where thousands of workers have been expelled from their jobs, which is totally incompatible with labour laws, for expressing their legitimate political views through social networking sites. University students were also subjected to punitive measures by institutions of higher education.”

Meanwhile, Israeli public radio reported yesterday that the police investigated 150 Arab workers from Israel and the West Bank who worked in construction projects in the city of Ashdod near the Gaza Strip, after their Jewish employers “complained” against them claiming they shouted with joy while missiles fell on Ashdod and other cities from Gaza.

Prosecutions against Israeli Arab political activists continue as dozens of them languish in Israeli jails because of their involvement in solidarity activities with the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.