Joint List MK condemns attack; deputy minister says not to blame Bedouin society

Joint List lawmaker Aida Touma-Suleiman condemns the terror attack in Beersheba, the first Arab Israeli parliamentarian to do so.

“I condemn the attack on innocent civilians in Beersheba. I send my prayers for the recovery of the wounded and condolences to the families of those killed,” Touma-Suleiman says.

Touma-Suleiman says the attack may lead to “racist incitement” against Bedouins living in Israel’s southern Negev desert.

“This is not the way of the Arab community generally, and in the Negev in particular, in its just struggle against ongoing dispossession and oppression,” she says.

Speaking to Army Radio, deputy defense minister Alon Schuster condemns the attack but also calls for security forces not to exacerbate tensions with the Bedouin community, including by exacting collective punishment.

“We can’t forget that for decades the state messed up badly by discriminating against the Bedouin community. This is when we need to be there,” he says.