Sami Abou Shahadeh, chairman of the National Democratic Assembly (Balad) and a former MK on its behalf, revealed that the party intends to act to internationalize issues related to Israeli Arabs.
In an interview with the Israeli Arab news site Yafa48, Abou Shahadeh said, "The fascist right has been growing stronger in recent years, and the situation under the current government has become more complicated and more challenging for Palestinians in Israel."
"At the same time," he added, this is an opportunity to "internationalize the issue of the Israeli Arabs and raise issues related to them on the international level."
Abou Shahadeh claimed that, "Israeli Arabs are faced with a racist and unjust policy towards them, and therefore it is necessary for them to appeal to the UN, EU and human rights organizations."
"We are working on establishing a new organization, which is against racism in Israel, and we agreed that its role will be to document cases of racism against the Arabs and to internationalize this issue by raising them before parliaments in Europe and the United States, as well as human rights organizations. This is the main goal in the next few years," he said.
Referring to the issue of violence and crime in the Arab society, he claimed: "The State of Israel is an expression of a single security mechanism, which has different arms operating under different names. This state can provide security and peace to its citizens, and it is actually fulfilling this role, but only for the Jewish citizens, who are the majority of the residents, and preventing security and peace from the Arab residents, who make up twenty percent of the population."
According to Abou Shahadeh, "There is no security problem in Israel and there is no situation of security chaos. There is a state that can provide security and peace to its residents but prevents security and peace from the Palestinian Arab residents. That is, there is a clear political decision to dismantle the Palestinian society from within, by spreading organized crime in this society, and the clearest evidence of that, in my opinion, is – the same police mechanism was able to prevent the spread of crime in the Jewish society."
Regarding the political situation, Abou Shahadeh said that he does not foresee elections taking place soon, but estimated that there could be a "surprise" during the next year.
He mentioned that the Balad party appeals also to Israeli Jews who are opposed to Zionism, so that they support its platform which speaks of a state for all its citizens.