MK Hanin Zoabi
MK Hanin ZoabiIsrael news photo: Flash 90

On behalf of the Jewish Home party, MK Orit Struk asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein on Sunday to launch a police probe against four Arab Knesset members, on suspicion of incitement to violence.

The four are Afu Agbaria (Hadash), Ahmed Tibi (Raam Taal), Taleb Abu Arar (Raam Taal) and Hanin Zoabi (Balad).

"At a session of the Knesset plenum,” accused Struk, “the MKs incited and called for violence in an unmistakable way, should there be progress in legislation and implementation of the Prawer Bill. A direct connection can be seen between their calls for violent protest and the events of last Saturday, in several locations in the southm which endangered the lives of police and citizens in a way that is unacceptable in a democratic, law abiding society.”

Struk copied several passages from the Knesset plenum minutes, which she said prove her contention.

MK Afu Agbaria said: “I am in favor of a new intifada, because you are carrying out a new nakba against the Negev Bedouin. And none of the Bedouin – and not just in the Negev, but also in the Triangle and the Galilee, will obey this lawm and we will tell the people in the Negev, too, not to obey this law.”

"Nakba,” or catastrophe, is the Arab nationalists' name for Israel's War of Independence in 1948. The Triangle is a cluster of Arab towns in central Israel.

MK Ahmed Tibi said: “I want to ask each one of you: what would you do if there was a plan to expel you from your homes, to rob you of your current temporary home? People were once expelled in the nakba of 1948, and some of them are being expelled a second time...

"What does a reasonable person do when he is expelled from his home?... He shouts, he protests, he rises up, he is angry, he reacts to the aggression. And when the word 'intifada' is used... that is to rise up. It is not the right of the Arabs of the south, the expelled and robbed ones, to rise up; it is their duty to do so. It is a human right to defend the home... to rise up and defend the home.”

MK Hanin Zoabi said: “Even if this bill passes, the plan will not pass, rather it will have a price, and a heavy price, that you, the Knesset members and government, are bringing about. Even with tear gas, it will not pass. And there will be tear gas, and there will be many confrontations, and many demonstrations, and you will have a confrontation. After all, with Arakib, with the smallest village, you had 50 confrontations, and you are still carrying out demolitions, and you have demolished 50 times, so imagine the same scenario with 40 villages. And you are the opnes who chose this. And what do you expect from us? We are not refugees...”

MK Taleb Abu Arar said: “The government of Israel declares war on the residents of the Negev, who I am one of, with this program, this outline... This law will not be obeyed. This law, we will step on it with our feet. That is how the Bedouin will behave. It will not be obeyed. And in this way, the government of Israel will bring upon itself... and intifada in the heart of the Negev. The Bedouin will rise up and I warn the government of Israel – it will not be honored and it will not be implemented.”