Knesset Speaker Shlomo Hillel received a delegation of Arab merchants from Tulkarem at his office here today in what was seen as a direct rebuke to the Mayor of Netanya who snubbed the same delegation a week ago. He told his guests a dialogue with them was desireable and mandatory in the interests of peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs.
The delegation had gone to Netanya last Wednesday to offer condolences for the murder of a Netanya resident, Andre Aloush, while shopping in Tulkarem, in the West Bank, three weeks ago. The Mayor said he refused to see them because they came only a day after an Israeli soldier, Avraham Sorek, was stabbed to death in Hebron.
The secretary of the Tulkarem Chamber of Commerce told Hillel that the city’s leaders want to erase the bitter feelings engendered by the murder of Aloush. He said he was convinced the killer was not a resident of Tulkarem.
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