PM heckled by Arab-Israeli protesters, responds ‘shame on you’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had some tough words for Arab citizens who demonstrated against his visit to the Galilee town of Ein Mahil on Thursday: “Shame on you.”
“I saw a demonstration here at the entrance, people holding up Fatah and PLO signs against my visit,” Netanyahu said of a few hundred protesters who demonstrated near the municipality where he was invited to receive recognition for his efforts to help the town.
“What are they protesting against?” he asked. “Against the millions who were slaughtered and uprooted from their homes in Syria, Iraq or Libya?
“Who are you protesting against?” he continued. “Against the only state [in the region] that protects human rights, that established a field hospital [ on the Golan Heights] to help victims [of the war in Syria]? Against the State of Israel? Shame on you. We believe in progress, we believe in coexistence, we are working toward that and will continue to do so with you.”
Among the large signs that greeted Netanyahu in Ein Mahil, 5 km. northeast of Nazareth, was one that read, “Ein Mahil does not respect racists.”
The prime minister said that a fateful battle was taking place in the region “between the past and the future, the extremists and progress,” declaring that Israel represents progress, “the future” and “tomorrow.”
The line in the region between “extremists and progress, between barbarism and hope” runs on the Golan Heights, where Israel set up a field hospital to treat victims of the Syrian civil war, Netanyahu said.
All the leaders in the region are aware of the colossal battle taking place in the region, and for that reason there is unprecedented cooperation with Israel, he said.
“They know that their future, the future of their peoples and countries depends on cooperation with Israel, which is no longer seen as an enemy, but rather as a necessary, vital partner in turning back the radical extremists, both Shi’a and Sunni, Islamic State and Iran,” Netanyahu said.