From the Liveblog of
Monday, March 18, 2013
Arab MK: New gov’t won’t take ‘a single step’ to peace
Ibrahim Tzartzur (United Arab List) says the entire Arab world is ready to make peace with Israel tomorrow, if Israel only accepts all relevant UN resolutions since 1948.
He urges Israel to release all pre-Oslo Accord prisoners, some of whom are extremely ill, he says.
Mohammad Barakeh (Hadash) attacks the likely spending on settlements, and the lack of allocations for “the periphery” and the Arab community. It’s a dangerous government, he says.
He vows a parliamentary and public struggle against looming budget cuts.
He says Yesh Atid, for all its rhetoric about seeking peace, has no positions of power in government from which to advance the peace process. “No peace will emerge” from “the fraud” of promises about peace progress. “I don’t trust this government to take a single step forward” with the Palestinians, Barake says.
He also asks “how dare you ask the Arabs” of Israel to take a greater share of the burden — via some form of national service. “What, to take a share in the occupation?” he protests. “A hundred years won’t suffice to correct the injustices done” to local Arabs, he says.
Balad’s Jamal Zahalka follows, accusing Lapid of “racism” for refusing to sit in opposition with those Lapid called the “Zoabis” — a reference to Hanin Zoabi, the Balad MK who sailed on the ill-fated Mavi Marmara to Gaza in 2010.
The Times of Israel Community.