Livni holds emergency meeting with Israeli Arab leaders to calm inflamed situation

'Stop incitement, violence - it does not matter in which language,' the justice minister implores.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (photo credit: REUTERS)
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni held an emergency meeting on Monday with Israeli-Arab leaders to try to help stabilize Jewish-Arab relations in the current heated state of affairs.
Livni met with Sakhnin Mayor Mazen Genaim, Ilavon Regional Council Head Gires Matar, Kafr Kasim Mayor Adal Badir and Rahat Mayor Talal Alekrinavi.
Livni said, “the price that all of us have paid is horrific, we must learn lessons and charter a new path.”
She said, “today we send a message with one voice which needs to be heard in Hebrew and Arabic and is targeted for all Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs.”
Livni continued, “we are all citizens with equal rights in the democratic State of Israel, a country of law.”
The justice minister added, “I want to send a message of reducing the flames, stop the incitement and the violence - and it does not matter in which language.”
Livni stated, “as justice minister, I am obligated to enforce the law for all, with no double standard and with no subjectivity.”
She said, “we are all hurting during this time with the pain of the bereaved families who lost children, the greatest pain a human being can experience,” noting that, “I find myself going from funeral to funeral.”
The justice minister plans to continue ongoing meetings to address the developing situation.
Genaim said, “price tag is a cancer that spreads throughout the body of any healthy society, and it afflicts the Jewish public, even more than the Arab public.”
Denaim said, “meetings like this can only help lower the flames” and that “we all need to sit around one table to talk.”
He continued, “in wars where we all lose, talking is the only solution” adding that, “the blood is the same blood, so we all need to show restraint and make a better future for our children – human beings are more important than land.”
But Denaim also slammed “some ministers in the cabinet” who are “inciting against a large portion of the Arab public.”


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