Israel Matzav

Israel's fifth column supports a combination of 'negotiations' and 'resistance'

If any of you have any doubt that much of the 'Israeli-Arab' population is anything other than a fifth column within the state of Israel, perhaps reading their own words will dispel those doubts.

The Balad party is an 'Israeli-Arab' party in the Knesset. Its longtime leader - Azmi Bishara - fled the country ahead of an indictment for helping Hezbullah during the Second Lebanon War. Another Knesset member from the party, Hanin Zoabi, has been in the news lately because she lost many of her Knesset privileges after participating in the Gaza flotilla as a passenger aboard the Mavi Marmara.

This is a summary followed by a transcript of speeches by the Balad party at an Arafat memorial rally in November. I'll give you the summary and then you can read the entire thing here. And then, in the spirit of 'we report, you decide,' you can all decide whether 'Israeli-Arabs' are a fifth column you would want in your midst.

On November 12, 2010, the National Democratic Assembly (aka Balad), an Arab party in the Israeli Knesset, held a "National Principles" rally in Umm Al-Fahm, marking the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death for the first time since his death six years ago. The rally was widely covered by Israeli Arab websites, including the site of the Umm Al-Fahm municipality, which posted pictures and videos of the event.

The speakers at the rally glorified Arafat as the uncontested leader of the Palestinian revolution, who never gave up on his principles and wisely combined negotiations with resistance. They blamed Israel for his death and called for an international investigation into its circumstances. The speakers also accused the Palestinian Authority and its head, Mahmoud Abbas, of mishandling the Palestinians' affairs, urging them to stop the security coordination with Israel and to defend the Palestinian nation's rights. One speaker even called the very existence of the Palestinian Authority into question, saying it had failed in its mission.

Speakers stressed that the Israeli Arabs, as an integral part of the Palestinian people and as the strategic reserves of the Palestinian enterprise, would continue to struggle against the Zionist hegemony and to fight the racism it directed against them.

Ayman Suleiman, deputy mayor of Umm Al-Fahm and a member of the Islamic Movement, said that the residents of his town were delighted to host the Balad rally in honor of "the heroic leader, the shahid Yasser Arafat." He called it "a rally of resistance... that plays a direct role in strengthening our collective identity and our rights in this country and over this country, as its original natives."

It should be noted that the establishment of Balad was motivated by its founders' opposition to the Oslo Accords, and that it supports the solution of Israel as a single, bi-national state. [1]

It should also be noted that Umm Al-Fahm is considered a stronghold of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, headed by Sheikh Raed Salah, who is currently serving a sentence of several month's imprisonment in Israel.

The following are excerpts of some speeches held at the rally, as given on the website of the Umm Al-Fahm municipality: [2]

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Azmi Bishara, Balad, Hanin Zoabi, Israeli Arabs are a fifth column

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:24 PM