Israeli Arab leaders continued to drum up opposition on Thursday to Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s proposal that Israel offer the Palestinian Authority control over townships inhabited predominantly by Palestinians in exchange for settlements in the West Bank.
During a demonstration against the Prawer-Begin Plan for Beduin resettlement, MK Ahmed Tibi lambasted “the immigrant” Liberman.
“Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s statements regarding territorial swaps are provocative,” Tibi said. “We [Arabs] were in the Triangle before the establishment of the State of Israel. We didn’t come here on boats or planes.”
“Liberman is an immigrant,” Tibi said. “If he wants to repartition the land, then let’s do it on the basis of UN Resolution 181.” The lawmaker was referring to the original partition plan proposed by the UN in 1947.
Tibi was joined at the demonstration, which drew an estimated 700 protesters, by fellow Ra’am-Ta’al MKs Ibrahim Sarsour, Masud Ganaim, and Talab Abu Arar. Also in attendance were Hadash MK Mohammed Barakeh and the head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch Sheikh Raed Salah.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags and brandished signs bearing the names of 44 unrecognized Beduin villages. Some of the demonstrators sang the Palestinian national anthem.
Policemen were on the scene to ensure a peaceful conclusion to the event, which lasted an hour.
Meanwhile on Thursday, Leader of the Opposition Isaac Herzog (Labor) voiced his support for a possible exchange of territory with a future Palestinian state as part of a peace agreement.
"I would be happy to keep Samaria under Israeli soverignty but I would not rule out giving up territory in exchange for Ariel," Herzog said to a group of students at Bar Ilan University.