Trade Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) and MK Uri Ariel (National Union) lashed out at Defense Minister Ehud Barak for his harsh words against the nationalist camp.
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At a Yitzchak Rabin memorial rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night attended by tens of thousands, Barak implied that the nationalist camp in Israel was rife with “cancerous” elements, and threatened to firmly “uproot” them. Referring to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin 13 years ago, Barak said, "The violence exists today as well; the stray weeds have turned into cancerous tumors, with dangerous outgrowths.”
The phrase “stray weeds” was used to describe convicted assassin Yigal Amir and other extreme right-wing elements in the months and years after the assassination. By saying they have become “cancerous tumors,” Barak is understood to have meant that support for violence has spread into the normative nationalist camp as well.
“This is no longer just a warning sign, but rather a blatant threat against democracy and the rule of law,” Barak continued. “We promise you, Yitzchak, that we will uproot this evil from our midst – with deeds and not with words.”
Yishai: This is a Mega-Generalization
Minister Yishai accused Barak of possibly leading to incitement against an entire population sector. "This is an attempt to push a group that is the majority in the country out of the national consensus," Yishai said at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting. "I oppose generalizations, and to say that seeds have become tumors is a mega-generalization that leads not to unity, but to division.”
Ariel: Barak Should Apologize
MK Ariel was even more strongly critical of Barak. At a press conference in the Knesset on Sunday afternoon, Ariel said that Barak should apologize for maligning an entire public. In the past, Barak has apologized in the name of the entire Labor Party for its treatment over the decades of the Sephardic population. More recently, prior to the national elections that were held just a few months after the outbreak of the Oslo War, Barak apologized for the deaths of 13 Israeli-Arabs during violent confrontations with police.
“Defense Minister Barak must enforce the law, and he must do so honestly and equally,” Ariel said. “Every Friday, Israeli citizens come to Bal’in with the stated intention of fighting the police and the security forces, but no one does anything about it. The government does not discuss it, but rather arrests a Jewish boy from Hevron, placing all the attention on him, as opposed to the left-wing inciters.”
“If Barak thinks that he will be able to walk over us and that we will be his bridge in order to win the elections, he is wrong… He should try not to divide, but rather to unite.”
“I protest the sharp and impossible words that Barak said about [us being a] cancer; someone apparently lost his marbles, and at a ceremony that is supposed to be official. For a Defense Minister to use such words is improper; he should apologize and enforce the law fairly.”
MK Ariel also protested Barak’s intention of increasing the use of administrative orders against the religious-nationalist camp: “Police presence is not felt in Akko, nor in Judea and Samaria, and not elsewhere. If there is a suspect, then he must be arrested or tried – but not with unexplained and undemocratic administrative orders.”