J Street slams Netanyahu’s ‘incitement against Arab-Israelis’

J Street slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “campaign of incitement against Arab-Israelis.”

In a statement, the dovish advocacy group says:

J Street is alarmed by the escalating campaign of incitement against Arab citizens of Israel that is now being carried out by Prime Minister Netanyahu and other right-wing Israeli politicians. The disgraceful, racist rhetoric of Netanyahu and his allies is endangering Arab-Israelis and fundamentally undermining Israel’s commitment to democracy.

As part of the ongoing effort to rally their right-wing base and win Israel’s upcoming election, Netanyahu and the Likud are stigmatizing Arab-Israeli participation in Israeli politics as fundamentally dangerous and illegitimate. They charge that their political opponents will enter into a governing coalition with or advance the interests of Arab-Israelis, as if Arab citizens have no right to influence the policies of an Israeli government.

The statement comes in the wake of Netanyahu’s online scuffle with actress Rotem Sela, who slammed Likud for its “Bibi or Tibi” campaign.

The organization adds: “The prime minister’s treatment of Arab-Israelis, along with his policies of creeping annexation in the West Bank and his partnership with the extreme Kahanist party referred to as ‘Israel’s KKK,’ fundamentally endanger Israel’s future as a democracy — and contradict the shared values at the heart of the US-Israel relationship.”

And it calls on American leaders to speak up when Netanyahu arrives in Washington, DC, later this month for the AIPAC Policy Conference.

With Netanyahu set to speak at the AIPAC conference in Washington, DC later this month, we urge US elected officials and pro-Israel leaders to denounce his destructive conduct and ideology. We stand with all those Israelis, regardless of religion or ethnicity, who continue to battle in defense of their country’s democratic institutions, rights and values.