Email |  Print | RSS | Comment |  

 Email |  Print

Sun, May 15, 2011 | Prime Minister’s Office

PM Netanyahu says in Sunday's cabinet meeting: "There is no place for incitement, violence and rage"

PM Netanyahu on Nakba Day: ‘There is no place for incitement, violence and rage’

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in Sunday’s cabinet meeting there should not be “incitement, violence and rage” on day the Israeli democracy was established. He also criticized those who commemorate Nakba Day.

Read PM Netanyahu’s remarks at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting below:

“The state was founded 63 years ago on the basis of the declaration of independence which promises equality of rights for all of our citizens regardless of religion, race and sex. We extended our hand in peace to our Arab neighbors and promised equality, progress and partnership to Israel’s Arab citizens. When one looks at the region today, Israeli Arabs are the only Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa that enjoy democratic rights, equality and civil rights.

We are concerned with the advancement of the sector. Today, for example, we will make an additional decision regarding the development and strengthening of the Bedouin communities in northern Israel. We are talking about a NIS 350 million plan. I remind you that one year ago we decided on an approximately NIS 800 million five-year plan for the development of the minorities sector. We also recently decided on an NIS 680 million plan to develop the Druze and Circassian sectors. Indeed, along with the plan that we will approve today for the Bedouin in northern Israel, we are talking about an overall investment of approximately NIS 2 billion in order to implement our policy of reducing the gaps between the various sectors of Israeli society.

I regret that there are extremists among Israeli Arabs and in neighboring countries who have turned the day on which the State of Israel was established, the day on which the Israeli democracy was established, into a day of incitement, violence and rage. There is no place for this, for denying the existence of the State of Israel. No to extremism and no to violence. The opposite is true.

Source: Prime Minister’s Office