A conflict erupted at a scholarship ceremony in Karmiel on Thursday when a group of Druze activists called MK Avi Dichter, the author of the nation-state law, a "Nazi."
Dichter was invited to speak at an event at which the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews handed out scholarships to Druze men and women who had completed military or national service.
When Dichter got up to give a congratulatory speech, a few of the people at the event leaped out of their seats and ran to the stage, shouting, "We're first-class and you're second-class – you're a Nazi!"
The protesters tried to prevent Dichter from speaking.
"I know it's not easy for you to sit and watch what happened here," Dichter said after order was restored.
"I'm not entirely surprised and it was difficult for me, too, but I can stand it. [There is] one thing I won't ignore: No one will call me a Nazi – not Jews, not Muslims, not Christians, and not Druze. I lost family in the Holocaust and my full name is Avraham Moshe – after my grandfather, who was murdered by the Nazis along with many other relatives of mine.
"But it's not an issue I have with the Druze community or anyone else. It's a personal issue I have with anyone who calls me a Nazi. When it comes to everything else, I want to make it as clear as possible that we can work everything out by talking," he said.
In an interview in this week's Israel Hayom weekend supplement, Dichter said, "For me, the nation-state law is coming out of exile – and if not [actually] coming out of exile, then coming out of the exile we carry inside ourselves."
