Arab MK: ‘We want to topple the right’

Arab Knesset member Ahmed Tibi states frankly that the goal of the Arabs is to bring down the right-wing government.

By World Israel News Staff

“We want to topple the right, we say it openly,” MK Ahmed Tibi said at a Tel Aviv conference on Wednesday, Arutz7 reports.

Tibi, who leads the Arab Movement for Change (Ta’al), an Arab party in Israel and has served in the Knesset since 1999, made his remarks at the annual International Municipal Innovation Conference, or Muni-Expo 2019, currently running through Thursday this week.

Tibi said he would support Israel Resilience leader Benny Gantz, who formed a coalition with Yair Lapid to form the Blue and White Party, if Gantz promised to pursue “equal rights,” according to the Arutz7 report.

“But I still haven’t heard the words ‘equal rights for Arab citizens’ from Benny Gantz. I haven’t heard it,” he said.

Tibi criticized Lapid for saying he wouldn’t bring Arab parties into a future coalition government.

“I’ve also heard Yair Lapid say, ‘We won’t sit with the Arabs.’ Imagine in Belgium or France, Belgian or French politicians saying, ‘We won’t sit with the Jews.’ What would happen to him? I can understand him saying, ‘We won’t sit with the Hadash [party] or Ta’al or the United Arab List and Balad, but to say ‘the Arabs,’ that’s just awful. I call on Jewish politicians to think twice before they speak.”

According to Arutz7, Tibi, a former adviser to PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat, was asked why he should be permitted to serve in the Knesset when he argued that Baruch Marzel, a former aide to Rabbi Meir Kahane should not. Tibi replied by accusing Marzel and others of the Otzma Yehudit (or, “Jewish Strength”) party of believing in “Jewish racial supremacy.”

“What an outrageous comparison,” Tibi said in response to the question. “I don’t believe in racialism, and I think that a Jew who defends a racist who talks about Jewish racial supremacy should be ashamed of himself.

“You say all the time that the Arab MKs are doing everything they can to destroy Israel, but the person who guarantees to have Itamar Ben-Gvir [a member of Otzma Yehudit] appointed to the judicial nomination committee is doing that work [of destroying the state] not in our place but in his own.”

Benjamin NetanyahuBenny Gantz