Palestine's Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel formally submitted a complaint to the Israeli police and the Attorney General of the Government, Avichai Mandelblit, calling for a criminal investigation against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his racist comments against Arab citizens in general and the members of Knesset (MKs) of the Joint List in particular.
The Center sent a letter to Mandelblit indicating that Netanyahu continues to incite racism against Arab citizens, their political leadership, and their representatives in parliament, most notably at the Likud conference in Tel Aviv last Sunday.
“Arabs can be Zionists and support the state of Israel, but they aren’t Zionists and they don’t support the state of Israel,” Netanyahu told the rally, adding that “to be dependent on them all the time, especially at the current time, is an enormous danger to Israel and a breach of a kind never seen before in the history of the country.”
Netanyahu stood with a banner behind him saying: “stop the dangerous minority government that is reliant on terror supporters,” and continued his campaign against Arab MKs.
In the letter, Adalah stressed that PM's racist comments against the Arab deputies and citizens are not new, and are systemically directed at Arabs especially with Netanyahu’s supporters joining the campaign on social media.
Adalah noted that Netanyahu's statements constitute a new escalation against Arab citizens, adding that previously, the Supreme Court considered such statements a valid reason to cancel the candidacy of Michael Ben-Ari.
It called for investigating Netanyahu for violating Article 144 of the penal code, especially that he is the head of a large party and has been a prime minister for 10 years, who exploits his position and the great authority granted to him to incite against Arab citizens and MKs of the Joint List.
Earlier, 18 Israeli human rights organizations issued a statement demanding that Israeli President Reuven Rivlin condemn Netanyahu's cruel incitement against the Arab public and voters, denouncing the serious and persistent racist provocation that can not be disregarded.