MK Tibi: “We Are The Natives Of This Land”

Sunday February 14, 2010 09:27 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Arab member of Knesset, Ahmad Tibi, slammed the statements of Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, who called for swapping areas inhibited by the Arab population in Israel with settlements. Tibi stated that the Arabs are the natives of the country and are not immigrants.

Ahmad Tibi - alwatanvoice.com

Tibi added that, unlike thousands of Jewish settlers, Arabs did not come to the country on planes, and did not immigrate to it.

“If they want to expel us, I tell them, the one of came last leaves first”, he said, “Should this be done, there will be fewer fascists in Israel”.

Tibi further stated that Ayalon and Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, should take some lessons on the fundamental values of civil rights and democracy, Israeli Ynet News reported.

The statements of Ayalon regarding expelling the Arabs by this “swap” were also rejected by the Israeli Minister of Minorities, Avishay Braverman, who said that such statements “do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government”.

Also, Mohammad Barakeh, Chairman of the Hadash Party in Israel, slammed the statements of Ayalon and said that both Ayalon and Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, fit as the leaders of the ultranationalist party in France.

Barakeh added that French Ultranationalist Party leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, “is very sick now and cannot continue his leadership to the fascists there”, and added that “maybe Lieberman and Ayalon can move there to replace him”.

He said that the Palestinians and the Arabs in this country are the natives and are not residing illegally in this land.

“We are not immigrants”, he added, “Most of this land was robbed from us through the years, we are not settlers like those who are stealing the Palestinian lands in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank”.

Lieberman, the head of “Israel Our Home” party, is a Russian immigrant and a “former” member of the terrorist Kach movement that was even outlawed by Israel itself.

When he served as Israel’s Minister of the so-called “Strategic Affairs”, Lieberman repeatedly called for expelling all Arabs and Palestinians from the country by expelling them to Jordan and other Arab states.

palestine | israeli politics | news report saed at imemc dot org