Beilin: Judaism is about moral values
Photo: Eli Elgarat
Beilin to Jaffa Arabs: This is your home
Meretz chairman tours Jaffa, tells Arab residents no one will threaten their future in country; remarks come in response to tour by rightists who offered compensation for Arab departure
If Jews were called upon to leave France voluntarily in exchange for compensation, "we would protest against the anti-Semitism there," Meretz-Yachad Chairman Yossi Beilin said during a tour in Jaffa along with dozens of Meretz activists.
"For us, Judaism is about moral values and Zionism is self-determination that doesn't come at the expense of others' rights," he said.
Jaffa Clash
(VIDEO) Jaffa residents hurl stun grenade, bottles at Herut party members who hand out leaflets calling on Arabs to emigrate from Israel in return for compensation
The tour came in response to an earlier tour by rightists, who offered compensation to Jaffa Arabs in order to encourage them to leave.
"You're citizens with equal rights," Beilin said during the tour. "This is your home and no one will threaten your future here."
"As long as we're alive, Meretz will fight against the incitement coming from (rightist activists) Kleiner and Marzel," Beilin added. "We intend to do this from within the next government."
A leaflet handed out by the activists read: "We have fought, are fighting, and will fight against all racist ideas and all those people who express them. Jewish-Arab coexistence is the only way to live in our country, the state of the Jewish people and all its citizens."
Meretz activist and Jaffa resident Ahmed Mashrawi said the party wanted to show its disgust with the earlier right-wing tour.
"I was shocked as a Jaffa resident, and also because Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and all the others did not harshly condemn it," Mashrawi said. "We are citizens of Israel, this is our home, and no one will threaten our future. There will be no forced transfer and no voluntary transfer."
Local residents, however, displayed a mixed reaction to the tour. Some commented that politicians only make an appearance during election campaigns, while others invited the activists for coffee and candy.
