Right-wing MKs speak out against ‘Nakba Day’

MK Miller asks Steinitz to probe if state funds were used to finance protests; Steinitz says "Nakba Day" attempt to deny Israel's right to exist.

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
yaacov katz 311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
yaacov katz 311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Right-wing politicians said Sunday that the day’s “Nakba” events proved that Israel must not tolerate commemorations of the Palestinian “catastrophe” marking the creation of the State of Israel.
MK Alex Miller (Israel Beiteinu), who sponsored the controversial “Nakba Law,” wrote a letter to Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) asking him to probe whether any state funds had been used to subsidize “Nakba Day” protests.
RELATED:Violence breaks out in 'Nakba Day' protestsNetanyahu: Nakba Day conflicts are 'unfortunate'
The “Nakba Law,” which was passed during the last Knesset session, would allow the Treasury to impose financial sanctions against state-funded bodies using the funds to sponsor “Nakba Day” events.
“The recent events have proven that there is a boundary to cynicism and masochism, and thus I asked the Finance Minister to look in to the matter and to place financial sanctions against those using taxpayers’ funds to fund incitement, violence and anti-Semitic propaganda,” explained Miller.
Steinitz himself did not mince words Sunday regarding his interpretation of the day’s events.
“‘Nakba Day’ is, from our perspective, an attempt to deny the State of Israel’s right to exist and to call in to question the very attempt to reach peace and coexistence,” he said.
“There is an entire strategic effort to take advantage of the Oslo process in order to establish a Palestinian state without peace or security, without recognizing Israel as the Jewish state, and with Hamas.”
In permitting protesters to infiltrate the Israeli border, Steinitz alleged that Syria had made “a cynical use of the Palestinians’ events and disagreements by a leader who wants to distract attention from his internal problems by heating up the struggle against Israel. Anyone who does not fear killing thousands of his citizens in order to save his regime also does not fear sending them to cross the border and to endanger them.”
Earlier in the day, right-wing MKs said that the suspected terror attack in Tel Aviv was a direct result of “Nakba Day” commemorations.
“Incitement by Arab MKs surrounding the Nakba have brought us to murderous results today,” MK Danny Danon (Likud) said shortly after the incident that killed one and injured a dozen people.
“The time has come for Israel to reject the Arab-Israeli leadership which serves as a fifth column. The place where [MK Ahmed] Tibi and his friends belong is in the Hamas government and not in the Israeli Knesset.”
Uri Ariel (National Union) said that “anyone who allows the Nakba myth to circulate and to spread as a legitimate narrative should not be surprised that Israeli Arabs are killing Jews in the streets.”
“Even in a democracy, there are boundaries to freedom of expression, and the Nakba lie has clearly crossed them. The expression itself should be eliminated from the public discourse,” he added.
But on the opposite end of the political spectrum, MK Ibrahim Sarsour (UAL-Ta’al) said that the incident was “an ordinary accident and the driver is innocent. It is regrettable the way normal events escalate to be security incidents only because they are related to Arabs one way or another.”
He added that the driver “lost control of his truck, which resulted in damage in the city of Tel Aviv. The rumors and interpretations that followed and the extremist rampage of some right-wingers created a false impression that the incident was intentional,” Sarsour said.
“This is completely contrary to the reality of the case.”