Jews and Arabs Need To Decide To Coexist in Israel, Raam Leader Says
The leader of the United Arab List-Raam party responded to a statement by Matan Kahana, fellow government coalition member from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s right-wing Yamina Party. “If there was a button I could press that would take all the Arabs and put them on a train to Switzerland, I would. A button like that does not exist,” Kahana said on Tuesday, speaking to a boys religious school in the settlement of Efrat. The comments led to a backlash from both the left and the right, leading Kahana to clarify his statement in a post on social media. “Conversing with students yesterday, I referenced that both Jewish and Arab populations aren’t going anywhere,” he wrote. “As such, we must work to live in coexistence. Our coalition is a courageous step toward this goal. Within this larger discussion, a few of my statements were worded poorly.” Mansour Abbas responded to Kahana’s comments in an interview on Wednesday on Israel’s public broadcaster. Jews and Arabs in Israel need to decide to coexist rather than just live together because they have to, he said. “We need to change our way of thinking and live together in the Holy Land out of choice. I want everyone to reach the conclusion that we need to live together even if we had a button. What’s worrisome isn’t the buttons we don’t have but the buttons we do have — of violence and incitement — and that people are pushing them,” he said.
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