Joint Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi on Saturday called on young Arab couples struggling to find housing in the Galilee region's Arab communities, to purchase apartments in the area's Jewish cities and communities.
Tibi's comments came in response to a highly divisive clause in the controversial nation-state bill, which allows communities in Israel to reject non-Jews.
In an interview with Israel Hayom, Tibi remarked that "in light of the housing and land shortage within Arab communities and the poor infrastructure there, I am calling on young people who wish to do so to go live in Jewish communities like Carmiel, Afula, Nazareth Illit and Harish, in addition to the mixed [Arab and Jewish] cities."
"Let's keep in mind that Nazareth Illit and Harish were built on expropriated Arab land," he added. "[My call] is particularly legitimate and understandable if you consider the racist nation-state bill, which allows the establishment of Jewish-only communities and prohibits Arabs from living there, and the fact that my demand to build a new Arab city, or new communities for Arabs, has been denied."
Tibi also dismissed criticism leveled against him and his fellow Arab members of Knesset, suggesting that instead of addressing the poverty and violence in their constituency, the Arab sector, they mostly focus on diplomatic and political matters.
"This is a false claim," Tibi told Israel Hayom. "Over 80% of our time is devoted to social and economic issues on behalf of the Arab public."
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a proponent of the nation-state bill, suggested last week an alternate provision to the controversial clause allowing Jewish communities to reject non-Jewish applicants. Bennett's provision is a softened version of the clause, stipulating that Jewish communities would be "allowed to maintain their character" and that the state would have the power to earmark certain areas for the construction of Jewish-only communities, especially in national priority areas such as the Negev and the Galilee.
Last week, President Reuven Rivlin publicly came out against the controversial clause, warning that including such a provision in the bill "effectively allows any group to build a community without Mizrahi Jews, haredi Jews, Druze or LGBTQ people. I am concerned that the sweeping, unbalanced wording of this clause may harm the Jewish people, Jews throughout the world, and the State of Israel and could even be used as a weapon against us by our enemies."
