Israel’s president has delivered a sharp warning on declining Arab-Jewish relations on a visit to the scene of a massacre by Israeli police of 47 Arab villagers in 1956.
Reuven Rivlin – the first sitting Israeli president to visit Kafr Qasim on the day of town’s annual commemoration of the killings – acknowledged the massacre as a “terrible crime” and “murder of the innocents” for which the state of Israel had apologised.
Defying calls from rightwing supporters not to speak at the event, Rivlin – who a week ago called Israel a “sick society in need of treatment” - used the occasion to warn against those on both sides “who wish to sweep us into a maelstrom of destruction and pain”.
Although a member of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party, Rivlin has spoken out against increasing racism and violence in Israeli society since succeeding Shimon Peres as president in July.
Insisting that the state of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, he added: “However, the state of Israel will also always be the homeland of the Arab population, which numbers more than one and a half million … The Arab population is not a marginal group in Israeli society … Many of them experience not uncommon manifestations of racism and arrogance on the part of Jews.”
Referring to recent violence in Jerusalem – including the “murder of a new born baby by a terrorist, a resident of East Jerusalem” – he called on both sides to have the courage “to reach out a hand and stop the cycle of bloodshed”.
According to the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Friday, Rivlin had come under pressure from security officials and rightwing politicians not to attend the memorial.
Rivlin’s comments in Kafr Qasim are part of a continuing critique of Israel from the right. He denounced a recent arson attack on a mosque, and at an academic conference on tolerance questioned whether Jews and Arabs had abandoned the secret of dialogue.
With regard to Jews specifically, he said last week: “I’m not asking if they’ve forgotten how to be Jews, but if they’ve forgotten how to be decent human beings. Have they forgotten how to converse?”
Since taking up the largely ceremonial position, Rivlin – whose views on other issues are more conventionally right wing, including opposition to Palestinian statehood – has become a prominent critic of an increase in anti-Arab racism, saying “the tension between Jews and Arabs within the state of Israel has risen to record heights, and the relationship between all parties has reached a new low.”
Rivlin’s visit to Kafr Qasim came as tensions remained high in Jerusalem as clashes continued in the largely Palestinian east of the city and as Netanyahu ordered police reinforcements into the city.
Israeli security forces have also recently deployed an observation balloon over Jerusalem’s Old City and observation drones to try to quell street disturbances that have been continuing since the summer.
Speaking at the beginning of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said: “We are reinforcing Jerusalem with approximately 1,000 Israel police and border police personnel, including from special units.
“We will not allow the reality of Jerusalem to become one of throwing stones and firebombs, and disturbances. This is not coincidental. Islamic extremist elements are trying to set alight the capital of Israel and we will use all necessary force, with determination and responsibility, so that they are unsuccessful. I expect broad support here from all citizens of Israel in order to guard over the capital of Israel.”
