JERUSALEM

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday spoke out against anti-Arab discrimination, asserting that there was "no discrimination" in Israeli society.

"We must not generalize about an entire people because of a small and violent minority," Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

"The vast majority of Israel's Arab citizens are law-abiding," he stressed, while adding: "Whoever breaks the law – we will take determined and vigorous action against him."

Arab citizens account for roughly 20 percent of Israel's population of about 8 million, according to official Israeli figures.

On Wednesday, Ashkelon mayor Itamar Shimoni banned Arab construction workers from plying their trade at the city's kindergartens.

The move followed an attack earlier this week by two Palestinians on a West Jerusalem synagogue that left five Israelis dead.

Regarding a draft nationality law to be submitted to the Israeli cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said: "I will ensure full equality before the law for every citizen – regardless of religion, race or gender – while maintaining Israel's identity as the national state of the Jewish People."

Tension has run high in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in recent months following Israel's 51-day military onslaught on the Gaza Strip in which over 2,160 Palestinians were killed.

Moreover, increasingly frequent intrusions by Jewish settlers and Israeli officials into East Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound – along with fresh restrictions on Muslim worshippers at the site – have angered Palestinians and often led to clashes.

Tensions mounted further when Israel temporarily closed the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in late October following the injury of an extremist rabbi who was shot by a Palestinian man in West Jerusalem.

Since then, six Israelis, including two security personnel, have been killed – and several others injured – in a spate of attacks by Palestinians both inside Israel and in the occupied territories.

englishnews@aa.com.tr

www.aa.com.tr/en