On Saturday night a vile act was perpetrated in our country, when a criminal gang brutally attacked three of our Arab citizens – a doctor, nurse and one other citizen – who were innocently enjoying the beach in Kiryat Haim. The racist act was carried out only after the attackers despicably made sure they were Arabs.
It is imperative we waste no time in denouncing this crime, bringing the suspects to justice and doling out a punishment that will deter other thugs in the future. Additionally, the city's leaders must apologize to the victims. This is the best way to prevent similarly atrocious acts from recurring. The victims should also be compensated for their ordeal and a public relations campaign has to target our youth in the streets and soccer stadiums. Doing so can perhaps begin undoing the damage this fringe group has caused, which has cast a blemish on us all.
The Palestinians will almost certainly add the crime in Kiryat Haim to their anemic list of heinous acts committed by the rabble among us. Our enemies, who are no strangers to employing terror, will gleefully flaunt this crime as proof that we are as detestable as them.
After the attack, Joint Arab List MK Aida Touma-Sliman rushed to declare: "The unbridled incitement is bearing fruit." She also said that those who banished the Arabs from the circle of citizenry and want to outlaw and delegitimize Jewish activists fighting the occupation – were causing such results. According to Touma-Sliman, Jews who do don't qualify as "pure Jews" could receive similar treatment in the future.
It is the Arab MKs, however, who are working to distance the Arab minority, citizens of this country, from the circle of inclusion by tendentiously defining them as separatist Palestinian "nationalists." The poor victims weren't at the forefront of Touma-Sliman's concerns, rather her desire to "prove" we are an apartheid regime that distinguishes between "pure Jews" and "other" Jews, as part of Palestinians' campaign against us. And could it be that Touma-Sliman, in her racist comment about "Jews who aren't pure," has incited harm toward the numerous ethnicities comprising the rich tapestry of our country – where dark-skinned citizens are free to love, marry, enjoy equal social rights, become Knesset members, and serve in the army and other state institutions?
I have no intention or desire to defend the horrible crime that took place in Kiryat Haim. But if we're talking about incitement, we can see to the same extent that the crime was the result of Palestinian incitement, which calls into question our very existence. Within the framework of this incitement, Palestinian youths, wearing shirts with the Palestinian flag and the number 48, are sent to the beaches of Tel Aviv to provoke. Their message: A Palestinian state must be established on the land that has been Israel since 1948. Their goal: to initiate violent confrontations as evidence of "racism." Regretfully, the explosion you planned "succeeded" at a different beach.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to recognize the Jewish state and its symbols. Thus the Arab MKs, the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee for Arab citizens of Israel and the Islamic Movement reject the nation-state law, which defines Israel as a Jewish state. Their response is to demonstrate in city squares across the country, armed with the Palestinian flag. Indeed, according to the Arab allegory, "He who instigates the provocation is the guilty one."
I'm sorry for those who were hurt. However, I shudder to think what awaits the Jew who stumbles into a Palestinian village in the territories. If he is unlucky, he'll return home in pieces. And still, Palestinians are more than welcome to our beaches. We will protect them with our policemen and lifeguards. If they wish, they can even "drink from the sea," as their hero Yasser Arafat said. Others will continue to incite against us and we will continue to build and be built here.
