An Arab-Jewish committee for mutual understanding in Israel was formed here today, pledging to combat the “increasing phenomena of racism” in Israel.
Committee organizers said the committee plans a Jewish-Arab rally in Nazareth this Saturday, which they said had been decided on mainly in response to recent clashes between Jews and Arabs in upper Nazareth, the Jewish section of Nazareth, after Jews there raised objections to plans of Arabs to settle in that section.
Speaking at a press conference here, the organizers put on Jews major blame for “racist phenomena against Arab citizens.” One of the organizers said “the large number of such phenomena turns on many red lights, which necessitate appropriate reaction.”
Dr. Bassam Touma of Nazareth noted a number of statements by Jews in support of the committee’s complaint. He mentioned statements such as that of former IDF commanding officers comparing Arabs to “drugged cockroaches;” one by former Gen. Avigdor Ben Gal that the Arabs were “a cancerous growth in the heart of the nation;” and what Touma said was a reported plan by Res. Gen. Aharon Yariv for “thinning out of the Arab population in time of emergency.”
Touma said the “climax” was the activity against Arab residents in upper Nazareth. He said that “as an Israeli, I am ashamed that, in a democratic state, I cannot live in Karmiel or (upper) Nazareth.”
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