Minister Ayalon: Israeli Arabs should have 'cultural independence'

Minister Ami Ayalon said on Sunday that Israeli Arabs should be granted "cultural independence."

Addressing a conference in Haifa on Israeli Arabs and the peace process, organized by the Organization for the Advancement of Democracy in the Arab Sector in Israel and the Geneva Initiative, Ayalon said that "we should form a reality whereby an 'Israeli' [identity] exists, without overriding other identities."

"The State of Israel should grant equality, cultural independence and a sense of belonging to the state," he said.

Ayalon is a minister without portfolio, who is in charge of the national civil service, a scheme which is intended to constitute an alternative to military service, mainly for the ultra-Orthodox and Israeli Arab sectors.

According to Ayalon, Israeli Jews don't understand the identity dilemma of Israeli Arabs.

"If an Arab citizen says he's primarily Arab or Muslim or Palestinian, and only then Israeli, Jews consider him as an existential threat or a fifth column," he said.

Ayalon likened Israeli Arabs to "a limb, linking the Palestinian people to the State of Israel," and said that "it cannot be amputated. Israeli Arabs are part and parcel of the Jewish state and of the Palestinian people."

Hadash chairman MK Mohammed Barakeh told the conference that the Arab public supports peace.

"We are happy to be trodden upon as the bridge to peace, but get to the other side already," he said.

He also said that the Arab public will not put up with being treated as a demographic threat.

"We have not come here from nowhere, and we're not going anywhere. We won't tolerate being treated as a danger, threat or an illegitimate entity," Barakeh added.