Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s proposal to settle one million Jews and establish 40 new communities across the Negev and Galilee has ignited fierce opposition among Arab political figures and activists in Israel and drawn widespread attention across the Arab media.
Arab critics portrayed the initiative as an effort to dramatically change the demographic and geographic makeup of the two regions, with some accusing Smotrich of promoting “ethnic cleansing.” Several activists also seized on the proposal to urge Arab citizens to participate heavily in the upcoming elections in an effort to prevent the plan from being implemented.
Hadash chairman Yousef Jabareen expressed alarm over Smotrich’s proposal and characterized it as apartheid. “If you read a similar plan by a minister in Europe, and instead of talking about Arab communities he were talking about Jewish residents, what would you say? That it was a racist and antisemitic plan.”
Yousef Ibrahim, a member of the political bureau of the Abnaa al-Balad movement, addressed the proposal during an appearance on the Al-Jarmaq network and argued that Israel’s Arab population needs to more carefully examine the policies being advanced by its political opponents. “Our problem is that we do not study our opponents in depth,” he said, while calling for a “recalibration of the compass” regarding elections and Arab participation in voting.
Ibrahim maintained that resisting what he described as “settlement and Judaization projects” requires Arab citizens to develop a broader understanding of Israeli government policy. He urged the Arab public to “take responsibility toward the masses of our people” by taking part in the electoral process.
Writer and political activist Nivin Abu Rahmoun similarly cautioned against dismissing Smotrich’s proposal as campaign rhetoric. She argued that the initiative forms part of a larger settlement strategy that she claimed is designed to transform the demographic and geographic character of both the Negev and Galilee.
Abu Rahmoun connected Smotrich’s announcement to the “Decisive Plan” and to what she characterized as an ongoing effort to Judaize territory and bolster Jewish communities. Treating the proposal simply as an election-season initiative, she said, “ignores the broader and more dangerous picture.”
Reaction to Smotrich’s proposal also spread beyond Israel, with media organizations throughout the Arab world reporting extensively on the controversy. Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hadath channel characterized the proposal as “escalatory messaging ahead of the elections” and highlighted Smotrich’s stated plans to seek legislative changes affecting public institutions.
The Saudi outlet also reported that Smotrich intends to remove anti-Zionist and post-Zionist elements who, according to the minister, have gained control over institutions, and replace them with “good people who understand the challenge of Judaizing the Negev and Galilee, through legislation.”
Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported that the initiative was generating criticism among Arab, Islamic and European groups. According to the newspaper, the concept behind the proposal dates back to the 1990s and has been revived in various forms over the ensuing years.
Some of the most severe rhetoric came from Al-Ittihad, the newspaper affiliated with Hadash. In an editorial, the publication accused Smotrich of declaring “a new war against the Arab-Palestinian citizens in the Galilee and Negev,” and charged that the proposal seeks to move what it called “the settlement farms, the incubators of terror, from the occupied West Bank to the heart of the large population centers of Palestinian citizens within Israel’s borders.”
The editorial went on to accuse Smotrich and his political allies of pursuing a sweeping campaign against Israel’s Arab population.
“This racist minister, and those like him, exploit every opportunity and every minute to advance not only scattered settlement plans, but an entire comprehensive project of ethnic cleansing that does not stop in Gaza or the West Bank, but creeps without disguise or masks toward the Palestinians who are citizens of this state. Thus, he is not threatening for electoral purposes, but announcing his next steps.”
The newspaper continued its attack by warning Arab citizens that the proposal represented a direct threat to their communities.
“Judaization projects are not new, but in the minds and jaws of the unrestrained fascists, they will become more dangerous and violent. This is a real, direct and tangible threat to every Arab town, village and city, to each and every one of us. No one has the privilege of treating this with any kind of laxity or delay.”
Concluding its editorial, Al-Ittihad called for a major Arab turnout in the coming elections, arguing that defeating the government at the ballot box was the first necessary response to Smotrich’s plans.
“With the utmost clarity, we say-the first step toward repelling and breaking this declared campaign of violent war in every sense of the word against the neighborhoods, homes and streets of Arab citizens in this state is to bring down the government, beginning with the next elections, in which the Arab masses must throw all their weight behind sending these fascists to the dustbin of history.”
{Matzav.com}
