Ketzaleh in Wadi Ara
Ketzaleh in Wadi AraIsrael News photo / Gil Ronen

"We are a law abiding state and not only Jews have to respect the law, Arabs do too,” the Ichud Leumi (National Union)'s leader Yaakov “Ketzaleh” Katz told Arabs Thursday in Wadi Ara, a valley densely populated by Arabs in northern Israel.

“The lawlessness in the Arab sector will end exactly five days from now, when we are elected into office,” he vowed. “When we run the country, the situation will change. You've grown used to Barak and Livni's weakness, but the party is over.”

Ketzaleh in Wadi Ara

Israel News photo / Gil Ronen


Arabs curse smiling MK Ariel

Israel News photo / Gil Ronen

"The October [2000] riots will not be repeated,” Ketzaleh added, as a small crowd of Arabs from the city of Umm El-Fahm began to gather around the Knesset members and their supporters at the entrance to the city.

A small contingent of policemen, some of them from the special Yassam unit, pushed away some of the Arabs, but some of the locals got very close to the Ichud Leumi candidates and cursed them with various epithets. Knesset Member Uri Ariel was crowded by four or five Arabs but did not lose his cool and kept a determined grin on his face throughout. At the police's request, the Ichud Leumi convoy moved onward and stopped at Megiddo Junction, where they gave interviews to reporters from Jewish and Arabic media outlets.

Police ask MKs to wrap things up.

Israel News photo / Gil Ronen


Arab argues with candidate Ben-Ari

Israel News photo / Gil Ronen

Ketzaleh and MK Uri Ariel said that Arabs in Wadi Ara have built over 3,000 units illegally in recent years along Highway 65. They said it was time for Israel to begin demolishing illegally built Arab houses.

“In the State of Israel, there will no longer be a situation in which a Jew drives along the Wadi Ara road and the locals will shout 'Itbach al-Yahud' ['slaughter the Jews' – ed.] at him,” Ketzaleh said. “This happened in Europe during the Holocaust but it will not happen in the State of Israel. The Arabs have 21 states in which they can build their houses and shout 'itbach' all day long,” he said. "The Arabs are cowards and when they see the Jews behaving proudly they calm down very fast."

Humanitarian corridor to Venezuela

Number four on the Ichud Leumi list, Rabbi Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, told the Arabs listening to him that Israel would be willing to open a “humanitarian corridor” to Venezuela for Arabs wishing to leave. “It seems the Venezuelans and the Arabs get along well,” he said, in a reference to recent statements and actions by Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. When an Arab interrupted him and protested that the Arabs want good neighborly relations with the Jews, Ben Ari reminded him of the Arabs who chanted "Ya Saddam, ya chabib, udrub udrub Tel Aviv" [Saddam the beloved, hit Tel Aviv"] when Scud missiles were falling in the 1991 Gulf War.

MK Ariel promised that Israel would settle tens of thousands of Jews in Katzir and Harish in the coming years, and Ketzaleh noted the strategic importance of Wadi Ara, which serves for transportation of IDF tanks and other heavy equipment between central Israel and the north.

The Ichud Leumi faction announced that it intends to imitate Peace Now and establish a body that will research, document, complain and publicize illegal building. Unlike Peace Now, which is interested solely with Jewish building, the new body will deal with Arab building. Illegal construction in the Arab sector creates an atmosphere of lawlessness, the faction's spokesman said, which encourages the creation of terror cells.