Joint Arab List members
Joint Arab List membersDavid Vaknin/Flash 90

Incumbent Likud MK Ayoub Kara has urged the Joint Arab List to stop attacks against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the media Wednesday, in a special interview with Arutz Sheva

"The Prime Minister did not intend to offend anyone," Kara stated, referring to Netanyahu's controversial remarks about a large Israeli Arab voter turnout. Netanyahu apologized earlier this week. "It was part of election campaigning, he wanted to get the people to stop being apathetic."

"Arab Knesset members said that people voting for any Zionist party are 'garbage' and no one said anything," he continued. "Now it's time for action, and I offer them to join the coalition and help out Arab citizens."

"All of these assaults, and saying they're representing Palestine and Gaza, it is not giving them anything," he added.

Kara, a member of Israel's Druze minority, also opined that Netanyahu should not hesitate to appoint a minister who is not Jewish. 

"There must be appointed a minister who is Druze, Christian, or Bedouin - someone who served in the IDF and shows that we walk together with those who walk with us," he urged. "The prime minister must appoint non-Jewish ministers in the government, who are loyal to the State of Israel and who want to develop the Arab sector, to unite all those who live here." 

Kara added that he hopes a nationalist government is established, but he did not reject the possibility of a unity government as well.

"The Prime Minister must uphold the promises he made, to go with a very nationalist government - but if they take things too far and try to blackmail him [in coalition negotiations - ed.], he should look for the option of [approaching] Yitzhak [Herzog; Labor-Hatnua leader - ed.], and [a unity government] does not need to be stricken from the agenda."

"It is impossible to have a government that every head of a list of six seats could bring down the coalition, and I believe that the Prime Minister must also take that into account," he concluded.