JERUSALEM
Tensions flared in the Israeli Knesset Wednesday after the deputy interior minister said "terrorists cannot sit here," referring to Arab MPs.
The comments were sparked by a Knesset discussion about a bill prepared by the United Arab List’s Ayda Tuma Suleiman and the Meretz Party’s Zehava Gal-On, which would allow “Palestinians married to Israelis to take Israeli citizenship.”
Israeli Deputy Interior Minister Yaron Mazuz opposed the bill, telling Arab MPs that: “We are doing you a favor by letting you to sit here.”
“Each of you must give back their Israeli ID cards,” he said.
Jewish members of the Mertz Party and Arab members of the United Arab List walked toward the podium waving their identity cards.
Suleiman, an Arab MP, said that he was a native to these lands: “My father was born in these lands before Israel was established. Nobody is doing me a favor by giving an ID card."
The Israeli prime minister intervened in the situation said that everybody, Jewish or otherwise, had the right to and be elected. But, Netanyahu added “all citizens are forced to respect the law.”
Mazuz said that the first person whose identity card should be taken away was United Arab List MP, Hanin Zoabi.
After the discussion, the Knesset did not approve the bill.
Around 2 million of Israel’s 8.5 million population are Arabs that remained in the country after Israel was established in 1948.
