Official PA Daily assails Israeli Arab Parliament Member Mansour Abbas after he stated that Israel is a "Jewish State"
Headline: “Mansour Abbas adopts ‘the [Jewish] Nation-State Law’: ‘Israel is Jewish and thus it will remain’!”
“Yesterday, Tuesday [Dec. 21, 2021], Ra’am [party] Chairman [Israeli Arab Parliament Member] Mansour Abbas emphasized that he adopts the racist [Jewish] ‘Nation-State Law’ and claimed that Israel is ‘a Jewish state, and thus it will remain’ (sic., Abbas said he protested the Jewish Nation-State Law; see below for his full statement). He also claimed that he is ‘realistic.’
While ignoring the history of the land, the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel) of the Palestinians, and the uprooting of 90% of them, Mansour Abbas added: ‘The Jewish people decided to establish a Jewish state, this is how it was born and thus it will remain.’ Those present gave a thundering applause, according to the [Israeli Arab] website Arab 48.
During the Israel Business Conference, which is organized by the [Israeli] paper Globes, he said: ‘The State of Israel was born as a Jewish state and thus it will remain. We are realistic (!!!) [parentheses in source]. I do not want to deceive anyone (sic., this was said after noting his opposition to the Jewish Nation-State Law). The question is not what the identity of the state is, but rather what the status of the Arab citizen is in it.’ …
Mansour Abbas’ statement yesterday is a continuation of his ‘realistic’ path, as it were. Last Thursday he joined the choir of the Israeli right-wing in defending the settlers’ terror, following the statements of [Israeli] Minister of Public Security Omer Bar Lev on the topic of ‘the phenomenon of settler violence’ and their escalating attacks against the Palestinians and their property.
In an interview with Israeli public radio ‘Kan’ [on Dec. 16, 2021], Mansour Abbas condemned Bar Lev’s words, and said that 'We must not generalize any public – not settlers, not ultra-Orthodox Jews, and not Arabs.’ In addition to defending the settlers and their terror, in this statement Mansour Abbas compares the settler terror – which they carry out against the Palestinians with the encouragement of the occupation state and with its support – with crime in the Arab society, which is a result of a racist policy and inaction by the Israeli police.”
At the Globes Israel Business Conference on Dec. 21, 2021, Israeli Arab Parliament Member Mansour Abbas said: "The State of Israel was born as a Jewish state. This is the people’s decision, and the question is not what the identity of the state is – it was born like this and thus it will remain… I protested the [Jewish] Nation-State Law and I do not want to deceive anyone. The question is what the status of the Arab citizen in the Jewish State of Israel is. That is the question.”
Jewish Nation-State Law – law passed by the Israeli Parliament on July 19, 2018, which codifies in Israel's Basic Law that Israel is the home of the Jewish nation with Jerusalem its capital, and the Hebrew calendar its official calendar. It establishes Hebrew as the sole official language and grants Arabic a special status, and it recognizes Jewish and Israeli holidays, memorial days, and the Jewish Sabbath as national holidays and days of rest - while guaranteeing the right of all Israeli citizens and residents to celebrate their holidays and days of rest. The law, which passed with 62 in favor, 55 against, and 2 abstentions, has sparked controversy within Israeli society.