Defense minister says MKs Zoabi, Odeh and Ghattas should not be citizens of Israel as part of future peace deal.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Monday that any future peace agreement with the Palestinians should not see some current Israeli Arab MKs as citizens of Israel.
Writing on his Facebook page, Liberman suggested that a new push for peace was on the horizon and warned against repeating what he said were the mistakes of the past.
“On the threshold of a new attempt to start up diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, we must learn the lessons of the past, and the first lesson is: every attempt to solve the Palestinian issue on a land-for-peace basis is destined to fail.”
Liberman said that “the only way to a sustainable agreement is through land and population swaps as part of a larger regional peace deal.”
The defense minister suggested that Israel’s Arab population should be part of a Palestinian state if a two-state solution were to be agreed upon.
“It cannot be that a hegemonic Palestinian state will be established, without a single Jew – 100% Palestinian, and Israel will be a bi-national state with 22% Palestinians,” he stated.
“There is no reason that Sheikh Raed Salah, Ayman Odeh, Bassel Ghattas or Haneen Zoabi will continue to be citizens of Israel,” he added, referencing the leader of the Islamic Movement’s Northern Branch as well as three Joint List MKs.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post