Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday said Israel is not a state of all its citizens in a reference to the country’s Palestinian population.
In comments on Instagram, he said all citizens, including Arabs, had equal rights, but referred to a deeply controversial law passed last year declaring Israel the nation-state of the Jewish people.
“Israel is not a state of all its citizens,” Netanyahu wrote, adding that “according to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people — and only it,” according to AFP.
“There is no problem with the Arab citizens of Israel. They have equal rights like all of us and the Likud government has invested more in the Arab sector than any other government,” he said of his right-wing party.
Netanyahu again spoke of the issue at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting, making similar comments and calling Israel a “Jewish, democratic state” with equal rights, but “the nation-state not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people.”
The premier has been accused of demonizing Israeli Arabs, who make up some 17.5 percent of the population, ahead of April polls in a bid to boost right-wing turnout.
He has always warned that his opponents will receive Arab parties’ support and that they will make significant concessions to the Palestinians.
Netanyahu is facing a tough challenge from a centrist political alliance led by former military Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and former Finance Minister Yair Lapid. Arab parties would be extremely unlikely to be part of any coalition government after elections.
Netanyahu leads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history and says he wants a similar coalition after the upcoming polls.
