Interior Ministry seeks to pull funds from Arab city after mayor called Israel ‘enemy’

Interior Ministry Director-General Israel Uzan said Monday that he would seek to withdraw state funding from the municipality of Arraba, an Arab city in the Lower Galilee, after the city’s mayor appeared to refer to the State of Israel as an “enemy.”

“These are grave statements, inciting and contemptible, which are inappropriate for an elected official operating under the laws of the State of Israel and its symbols and flag,” Uzan wrote in a letter to Arraba Mayor Ahmad Nassar.

“I intend to examine all of the Interior Ministry’s activities in relation to the Arraba municipality, and to recommend that the interior minister look into delaying or stopping the budget funds and support provided by the Interior Ministry and the State of Israel until the matter is clarified publicly and clearly,” Uzan wrote.

Nassar delivered remarks at a ceremony on Saturday commemorating the October 2000 riots in northern Israel, on the eve of the Second Intifada, in which police killed 13 Arab Israelis.

“Today we are dispersed, fragmented… and in dire straits. Whether we’re talking about Gaza or [inside Israel], because we have gotten to a place where we understand exactly how despicable, how barbaric our enemy is,” Nassar said, in Arabic-language comments that were highlighted Sunday by the right-wing Channel 14 outlet.

“We are continuing on the same path of struggle, and of guarding our continued presence here, even if things have calmed down in one way or another here or there,” he said, speaking at the gravesite of several of those killed by police in 2000.

The comments drew immediate backlash from far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who said in a statement: “A mayor in Israel who speaks about the State of Israel as an ‘enemy’ and encourages the continuation of ‘the struggle’ is a terror supporter, and is not fit to serve as a public official in the State of Israel.”