“We want to live as equal citizens in our country while maintaining our national character, our heritage, our civilization and our memories, including the Nakba, which will remain in our memory 
and in the memory of our sons, and which no one can erase”, said in a sharp protest and with angry voice the Palestinian-Arab MK (Member of the Knesset) Mohammed Barakeh, President of The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash), while criticizing the racist Israeli laws against its Arab citizens.
Barakeh explained that the new ruling of the government against the Nakba was a clear sign of collapse of the Israeli State. He added “we have said that we are Palestinian citizens and our roots belong to our homeland, and not to the establishment of the rule of the zionist Jews ruling in Israel”.
Barakeh announced that on Thursday, October 1 2009, a general strike and a protest against the racist policies of the government of Israel will take place.
He said that the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Israel took a decision yesterday, Wednesday, September 2 2009, during their meeting held in Nazareth, to hold a general strike on the first of next month.
In the meeting, held in Nazareth, it was decided that the strike will take place on 
the same day that the events of October 2000, which left 13 Palestinian-Arabs (Israeli citizens) dead, are commemorated.
The one-day strike will include all sectors in Arab towns. This is a serious move, since it has been a few years since the last general strike in the Arab sector. The last time a general strike was called in the Arab sector was in the year 2005, in protest of the decision to close the cases against police officers suspected of firing gunshots during the events of October 2000.
Barakeh said: two days ago the committee’s Follow-up Committee on Education threatened to declare a rebellion if the singing of the Israeli national anthem and encouragement to serve in national service were imposed in Arab schools.
He explained the decision: “This strike will be a protest
call against the racist wave that has been sweeping this country on all levels. On the level of the government and its ministries’ conduct, the denial of the Arabs’ rights – at least in anything to do with October 2000 and the murder in Shfa-amr (Shfaram), where the victims are being brought to court instead of hunting down the perpetrator to see who assisted him”.
“Because of the demolition of houses in Wadi Ara without providing any alternatives to the home-owners, and the serious state the local authorities are in. In the Arab education system, we are not talking about computers, but about school benches.”
According to the leading Communist Party of Israel member, “There are 9,000 classrooms missing, and at the rate of construction of the Education Ministry, it will take another 51 years to close this gap. The racist atmosphere has become a favorite arena for frustrated politicians.
“Anyone seeking fame finds it in racist whims against Arabs – the ministers of 
infrastructure, education, transportations, whoever. Whether it’s an idea to change traffic signs by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, or the spreading of Zionist education and rewarding schools for military and national service recruitments rates by the education minister”. MK Barakeh said that Gideon Sa’ar “must understand that he is the education minister, not the defense minister. This is an irrelevant condition to be placed by an education minister”.
He added, “We decided on this move early and we will work until the day of the strike in every city and village and form public commissions to get the broad public on board.
MK Barakeh warned the government, he said: “I would like to warn the government and its extensions not to aggravate its attitude towards the Arab public, but to internalize the message we wish to convey that we seek life and equality. Threats against the Arab public from the government and the opposition will be futile and will not help. I hope that a large part of the democratic Jewish public is attentive to our demands and concerns.”
Possibly related posts (automatically generated):
- Regards to Venezuela Which Expelled the Israeli Ambassador The Ministry of the Foreign Affairs of Venezuela stated that on Tuesday night, 6 January 2009, the Venezuelan government expelled...
- Israel Escalates Racism in Occupied Palestine Press Release The Palestine Return Centre (PRC) expressed deep anxiety because of the Israeli practices in occupied Palestinian territories. International...
- Israel Persecutes Israeli Arab MK The Israeli Public Prosecution in the Magistrate’s Court of Tel Aviv – Jaffa imposed a serious indictment against the Israeli...
- Israel Arrests Palestinian Security Forces The Palestinian Authority “PA” covered up the news that on last Friday 20 November 2009, the Israelis arrested five senior...
- Israeli Apartheid Week The Sixth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week Solidarity in Action: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions March 2010 Mark your calendars – the 6th...
I had a dream last night that Jesus has already been reborn and is living as an Arab boy in the Gaza strip prison .
It was just a dream, but……..What if?