Likud MK: Give Triangle to the PA

MK Carmel Shama (Likud) spared no punches on Saturday when he took the stage in Beersheba and in a few sentences evoked the ire of Arab MKs in advocating “turning the Arab Triangle [the area surrounding the Sharon-area towns of Taiba, Tira and Jaljulya] over to the Palestinian Authority.”

He also recalled his recent quarrel with his party chairman, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

“In a final-status agreement,” asserted Shama, “we must turn over the Triangle,” as well as the Umm el- Fahm area, to the Palestinian Authority. The Arab population in Israel suffers from extremism, and people such as [leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement] Sheikh Raed Salah are growing stronger,” added the freshman Likud MK.

“As far as I’m concerned, either we are brothers, or we separate from each other. I do not support transferring people – I would simply turn them, their possessions and their houses over to the Palestinian Authority.”

Shama said he was “afraid that Arab lawyers are taking control of the Israel Bar Association’s Northern District” and that because he supports a “Jewish and democratic state,” he believes that “as many as possible” Arab Israelis should become citizens of the PA as part of a final-status agreement.

In response to Shama’s comments, MK Taleb a- Sanaa (UAL) submitted a complaint to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein on suspicion of incitement to racism and calling for population transfer.

“The residents of the Triangle are here to stay,” retorted Sanaa. “In contrast, the fate of the racists and the fascists is to be thrown into the dustbin of history. The residents of the Triangle did not come here on a boat or on an airplane – they have been here forever, and they will stay forever. Whoever doesn’t like that can go back to the place he came from.”

In the course of his speech, Shama referred to the recent tensions between himself and Netanyahu, who has dragged his feet in living up to his promise to appoint Shama to chair the Knesset’s Economic Affairs Committee. Two weeks ago, Shama blasted the prime minister during a Likud faction meeting.

“Between [US President Barack] Obama and Shama, the prime minister is busier with Obama,” said Shama.

There has been no Likud faction meeting since the dust-up as Netanyahu was overseas last week, but Shama has already promised that he will not leave the issue to rest.