Arab MKs pan ‘terrible murder’ of Israeli teens, Palestinians

Israeli-Arab MKs of the Raam-Taal political party denounce both the deaths of the three Israeli teenagers and the IDF’s Palestinian casualties during the course of Operation Brother’s Keeper.

The Knesset members also call for the immediate reinstatement of the peace talks, appeal to Israel to release the fourth round of Palestinian prisoners, and condemn the calls within the government for military retaliation in response to the killing.

“We will continue to condemn every act of violence against innocent civilians from both nations, the Palestinian and Israeli,” the four MKs write in a joint statement. “Including the terrible murder of the three Jewish youths and the terrible murder of Palestinian children and youths shot by IDF soldiers… We understand the deep pain of the mothers of the slain youths, but no one should ignore and pain and agony of the Palestinian mother who lost her son as well.”

The restoration of peace talks, along with the freeing of Palestinian prisoners Israel had pledged to release prior to the suspension of negotiations in April, is the solution to the present crisis, they maintain.

“The time has come to understand that immediate peace negotiations can be the impetus to turn the tragedy of the two nations into a peace that will ensure the well-being of the young generations of Israelis and Palestinians.”

The statement also refers to unnamed ministers who have issued calls for an escalation, saying that they are “dancing on the blood of the victims and must be restrained.”

Israeli-Arab MK Hanin Zoabi of the Balad party writes on Facebook: “We don’t want murder, this is not our purpose, these are not our methods. But the responsibility for this heinous act lies with the terror of the occupation.”

She describes the present political climate as the “revenge of the oppressor who hasn’t been used to the disturbance of its peace. They demolish houses, while they sit in air-conditioned rooms discussing the best way to execute revenge. The occupation community with its reporters and analysts, its political officials, MKs, are discussing, analyzing, and exhausting themselves trying to figure out how we are going to avenge them.”

Zoabi came under fire earlier this month for saying the kidnappers were “not terrorists,” but rather “people who do not see any way of changing their situation and they have to resort to these measures until Israel sobers up.”

— Marissa Newman