No Israeli streets to be named after Arafat: Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday a street in an Arab-Israeli town cannot be named after the iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Netanyahu was reacting to complaints by former Israeli soldiers about the name of a road in the northern town of Jatt that was named after the Palestinian leader.

Netanyahu said at his weekly cabinet meeting:

We cannot allow streets in the State of Israel to be named after Yasser Arafat and Haj Amin al-Husseini and others

“We will make the arrangements, including new legislation if need be, so that this does not happen here,” he said.

On Saturday, Netanyahu said he will seek to remove the street sign bearing Arafat’s name in the northern town.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) on Sunday sent a letter to the Jatt Regional Council ordering them to remove within 48 hours. Last week, wounded IDF combat soldier Liran Baruch discovered the street after Waze showed it on a map of the region.

The late Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader remains a hated figure for many Israelis despite being widely popular among Palestinians and having been jointly-awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize alongside then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for signing the Oslo peace accords.