20090918_issue 86

Likud Deputy Minister Calls To Strip Arabs Of Citizenship BY SAMUEL SOKOL Ayoub Kara, deputy minister for development of the Negev, has called for Arabs who exhibit what he perceives as disloyalty to the state to be stripped of their citizenship and to be given over to the Palestinian Authority. Deputy Minister Kara is the most prominent representative of Israel’s Druze minority and was among the “Likud rebels” who fought against Ariel Sharon’s 2005 expulsion plan. Israel’s Druze community provides a high proportion of soldiers and policemen to the security services. During the 2005 expulsion from Gush Katif and Northern Samaria, Kara fought to make sure that Druze soldiers were not used to expel Jews from their homes. In an interview in his Knesset office, Kara stated that the situation “could not continue that people have much rights, human rights and everything [from Israel]

86

September 18, 2009

and [have the] feeling that they are not Israeli. There is nothing happening in all the world like this situation.” Kara, who retired from the Israeli army with the rank of major, explained “I am thinking that people that [do] not serve [in] the army, they could not [be in] a parliament that…serves the interests of this state. The big problem for Israel is the Arabian [sic] that is between the border of Israel and they [are] more [fundamentalist] than the Palestinians.” In response to questions regarding recent statements of support for Israel’s enemies by Arab members of Knesset, Kara stated that Israeli-Arabs act with “double behavior.” If asked, he contended, IsraeliArabs would say that they prefer not to live under an Arab regime but that they do not act in consonance with such an attitude. In 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, Israeli-Arab MK Abbas Zachour stated that “We are proud of Hamas and all those who help it.” Balad party parliamen-

5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES

tarian Hanin Zoabi, explaining her support for an Iranian nuclear weapons program, stated “I believe that [Israel] would respect its use of power if she’s afraid from others. The fact that she is not afraid from Arab countries, the fact that she is not afraid from a potential declaration of our Arab world to declare war against Israel, makes Israel more violent.” Zoabi was a signatory to the Haifa Declaration, a document which called for the end of the Jewish nature of the state of Israel. The deputy minister explained that he believes that most Israeli-Arabs are not like MK Zoabi and expressed his hopes for the future of Israel’s Arab population. One solution to Israeli-Arab rejectionism, Kara posited, could be that of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Kara said that if one wishes to maintain Israeli nationality than one must “support this country.” Kara suggested that there is a legislative solution. Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party maintain that Israelis should be required to swear a loyalty oath and to perform military or alternative service to retain their citizenship. According to the

MK Ayoub Kara. party’s Anglo spokesman, Danny Hershtal, Yisrael Beiteinu would like to see chareidi organizations such as ZAKA classed as equivalents to national service. Lieberman is an extremely controversial figure in Israeli politics and has been called a “racist” and a “Kahanist” for his views. Kara, as opposed to proponents of population transfer such as Benny Elon, suggested that instead of transferring people who, in his words, “[do] not need to be here,” the Israeli government could make slight adjustments to the existing border between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. “Not transfer, but…a new border.” Such a move would involve placing Arabs who oppose the Jewish and democratic nature of Israel under the authority of the PA and stripping them of Israeli citizenship. Kara continued by saying that people who “need to be Palestinian [identify themselves as Palestinian]” should be under the control of the Palestinian Authority, should not be able to be elected to official positions in Israel or have any rights as Israeli citizens. “They are thinking that to be Palestinian is better” he explained. He theorized that the Israel/PA border could be moved slightly to include the town of Um-Al-Fahm, the headquarters of Israel’s Northern Islamic Movement, an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and a hotbed of radical Islamism. Responding to the question of whether such a move would be interpreted by the Palestinian Authority as an Israeli concession, Kara replied that he was referring only to territory that was contiguous, or nearly so, with the PA. Regarding his constituency, Kara stated that in a democratic regime “all the citizens [are] the same,” and that “it’s important that people, exactly non-Jewish to feel that they support…this country. There are much non-Jewish here that need support from the state and the…regime here did not give them enough push for that” referring to the discrimination faced by Israel’s Druze minority. “We must give power for the people that support the state…the Druze, and Bedouins…and other non-Jewish… I think this is in interests of Israel.” Kara indicated that many non-Jews who serve feel upset because those who are “not Jewish and [do] not serve the country, they have privileges more than those who serve in the army.” Regarding the Netanyahu administration Kara said “Now we have a good government. I am sure that…there will be a new law about this [loyalty]…and all the citizens of Israel wait for the government to do something…for this Lieberman finds himself popular.” ❖