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Effi Eitam: 'It is impossible with all of these Arabs.' (BauBau/Archive)
Last update - 15:53 11/09/2006
Leftist MKs blast Eitam's statements on Arabs, urge AG to investigate
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

Left-wing lawmakers reacted furiously Monday to statements made by rightist Knesset Member Effi Eitam against Israeli Arab politicians and Palestinians in the West Bank, and called for attorney general Menachem Mazuz to open an investigation into Eitam's comments on grounds of incitement to racism.

Eitam, a member of the right-wing National Union-National Religious Party sparked a political firestorm Monday when he said that the great majority of Palestinians in the West Bank should be expelled, and that Arabs should be ousted from Israeli politics as a fifth column and "a league of traitors."

The remarks, broadcast Monday on Army Radio, were made during a Sunday speech at a memorial service for a soldier killed in Lebanon during the recent war.
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It was the first time that Eitam, who heads the Religious Zionism faction within the National Union, has publicly supported deportation of Palestinians, a concept espoused by assassinated National Union founder
Rehavam Ze'evi as "transfer."

"We will have to expel the great majority of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria," Eitam urged, referring to the whole of the West Bank.

According to Eitam, experience showed that Israel cannot give up the area of the West Bank. "It is impossible with all of these Arabs, and it is impossible to give up the territory. We've already seen what they're doing there."

Turning to the subject of Israeli Arabs, Eitam said, "We will have to take another decision, and that is to sweep the Israeli Arabs from the political system. Here, too, the issues are clear and simple.

"We've raised a fifth column, a league of traitors of the first rank. Therefore, we cannot continue to enable so large and so hostile a presense within the political system of Israel."

Beilin: Bring Eitam to trial
Yossi Beilin, the leader of the left-wing Meretz party, urged Attorney General Menachem Mazuz Monday to bring Eitam to trial on charges of incitement to racism.

Beilin's call was based on an amendment to the law which grants lawmakers immunity from prosecution. The amendment lifts the immunity from legislators who incite to racism or ethnic prejudice. Earlier in the day, Meretz MK Avshalom Vilan called on Mazuz to open an investigation against Eitam, on suspicion of incitement and sedition.

Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) said Monday that "Eitam's remarks would have been more authentic, had they been delivered in German."

"These are irresponsible statements," Tibi told the radio, "directed at the lowest level of the racism surging within Israeli society."

"A long time ago the racists and fascists moved from the Israeli street to the Israeli government and the halls of power" added Tibi.

Peace Now leader Yariv Oppenheimer said that the words of Eitam "show that the dogma of [slain extreme right-wing Rabbi Meir] Kahane is alive and well. In a moment of candor, the mask was removed from Eitam's face, exposing him as a leader of fantasy and racism."

Arab MK Mohammed Barakeh said that the attack on the representatives of Arab citizens of Israel was an attempt to "delegitimize the Arab population entirely and to negate their right to voice their opinions and participate in the political process."

According to Barakeh, the measures proposed by Eitam are already being implemented, as the Palestinians, "are witness to many steps to push them aside and expel them from their homeland, among them the security fence in Jerusalem and the West Bank. The policies of siege, starvation, and negation of the basic right of human dignity are a means of extremely dangerous ethnic expulsion.

"You don't need trucks to transfer Palestinians.
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  1.   A certain inconsistency 10:02  |  Colin Wright 11/09/06
  2.   AhmadiNatad 10:06  |  Kris 11/09/06
  3.   TO HAARETZ CAN YOU HELP ME PLEASEEE 10:20  |  ANTI ISRAEL NOT JEWS 11/09/06
  4.   Effie Eitam out of this world 10:24  |  John 11/09/06
  5.   Expel Arab MKs. 10:31  |  David Nigel Braham 11/09/06
  6.   Eitam is revolting 10:35  |  jutha 11/09/06
  7.   eitam, being a pig... 10:37  |  kosher 11/09/06
  8.   #1, eh? 10:40  |  Danny - Israeli one 11/09/06
  9.   To #2 `AhmadiNatad` 10:40  |  Colin Wright 11/09/06
  10.   #2, well there is one tiny difference 10:42  |  Danny - Israeli one 11/09/06
  11.   The normal Israeli finds his voice 10:43  |  Andreas 11/09/06
  12.   #3, anti-Israeli not Jews 10:44  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 11/09/06
  13.   Eitam Is Clearly Correct 10:53  |  Yishai Kohen 11/09/06
  14.   Eitan 10:56  |  marty 11/09/06
  15.   His Exelancy Mr Eitam 10:59  |  Michel Keslacy 11/09/06
  16.   As bad as Arab MKs are 11:00  |  TheTruth 11/09/06
  17.   i like eitam 11:07  |  herodotus 11/09/06
  18.   Eitam 11:08  |  Israel Israeli 11/09/06
  19.   # 12, Cipora 11:11  |  ANTI ISRAEL NOT JEWS 11/09/06
  20.   marty 11:20  |  herodotus 11/09/06
  21.   Eitans big mouth 11:22  |  john 11/09/06
  22.   Eitam 11:23  |  Baruch 11/09/06
  23.   the truth of ramat gan 11:23  |  herodotus 11/09/06
  24.   Eitam and his racism 11:33  |  fk 11/09/06
  25.   And when the tide turns? 11:34  |  David 11/09/06
  26.   to #1-no inconsistency at all 11:35  |  Laurie 11/09/06
  27.   Herodotus (Post No. 17) 11:36  |  Johnny Weintraub 11/09/06
  28.   to Kohen flip your suggestion, will be the same 11:37  |  gus 11/09/06
  29.   Laurie - and her song for peace 11:49  |  fk 11/09/06
  30.   He`s only being honest 11:50  |  SD 11/09/06
  31.   haaretz i told andreas and jutha what i thought of them 11:50  |  herodotus 11/09/06
  32.   Not very original, Efi 11:50  |  NSJAP 11/09/06
  33.   GERMAN 11:51  |  herman 11/09/06
  34.   The old conflict. 11:52  |  Vital 11/09/06
  35.   #11, if etam is the "normal Israeli" 11:54  |  Danny - Israeli one 11/09/06
  36.   Again, where is the ADL? Where is the Congressional resolution? 12:00  |  Freddy 11/09/06
  37.   Simple Minds 12:01  |  Yonatan Netser 11/09/06
  38.   johnny weintraub 12:01  |  herodotus 11/09/06
  39.   #25, showing your ignorance up AGAIN 12:02  |  Danny - Israeli one 11/09/06
  40.   THEY ALL SUPPORT TERROR!! THEY MUST GO!! 12:05  |  DAVE 11/09/06
  41.   #30, I see the dumb-asses are out in force today 12:09  |  Danny - Israeli one 11/09/06
  42.   Eitam; Expel Arabs from West Bank 12:13  |  Maureen Ann 11/09/06
  43.   Transfer 12:13  |  Evelyn Rosenbaum 11/09/06
  44.   Forget not the Russian experience 12:20  |  Amoz 11/09/06
  45.   Herman from Germany 12:25  |  Rick (second posting 11/09/06
  46.   Status quo. 12:28  |  Vital 11/09/06
  47.   And he calls himself a religious jew 12:28  |  jon 11/09/06
  48.   Arabs deserved this solution but USA &Europe shall do the same 12:30  |  Barbara Tayson 11/09/06
  49.   EXPELL EITAM the way Kahane was expelled. 12:35  |  PETER SM 11/09/06
  50.   Haaretz supported ethnic cleansing of Jews from Gaza 12:36  |  Bennie 11/09/06
  51.   If is moral to expell jews from Gaza it is also moral to expel Ar 12:45  |  David Green 11/09/06
  52.   Eitam 12:49  |  Choni 11/09/06
  53.   why is eitam insulted by the jews on this site? 12:58  |  fagin 11/09/06
  54.   Why does the Fifth Column still have citizenship? Why is it still 13:07  |  Yaakov K. 11/09/06
  55.   Andreas, Colin Wright and sundry hatemongers 13:09  |  Yonatan 11/09/06
  56.   Herodotus 13:13  |  Johnny Weintraub 11/09/06
  57.   #51 fagin 13:20  |  Yonatan 11/09/06
  58.   so good to know 13:20  |  doitnow 11/09/06
  59.   eitam has fought long enough and well enough 13:21  |  fagin 11/09/06
  60.   #54, Arabs have it for the same reason Illan Pappe does 13:23  |  Danny - Israeli one 11/09/06
  61.   mr johnny weintraub 13:26  |  herodotus 11/09/06
  62.   Most of us disagree violently 13:27  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 11/09/06
  63.   WRIGHT &Co.Lets have your humanitarian views on the Hamas charter 13:33  |  PETER SM 11/09/06
  64.   *39 13:34  |  David 11/09/06
  65.   Leftwing hypocrisy 13:35  |  Matthias Roth 11/09/06
  66.   A Question To Eitan !! 13:37  |  Palestinian 11/09/06
  67.   Where is Beilin when Arab MK`s commit treason-he is a fool. 13:37  |  Steve 11/09/06
  68.   YES to number 49 13:39  |  Alissa 11/09/06
  69.   Eitam and other reactionary fanatics 13:46  |  Ren 11/09/06
  70.   german herman and danny 13:49  |  ahmed levy 11/09/06
  71.   MK Eitam speaks the truth & the truth is a crime 13:51  |  Darren 11/09/06
  72.   Traition? how to betray the o