Israeli Arabs Reject ‘Nightmare’ of Living Under Palestinian Authority

Responding to deal’s suggestion that Arab communities be transferred to a PA state, Israeli Arabs reject the opportunity, saying they prefer to live in Israel.

By United with Israel Staff

Residents of the ‘Triangle’ of Israeli-Arab towns and villages in the Haifa District have slammed US President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan, according to which their communities would be transferred to a Palestinian state, Ynet reported.

According to the Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century,” which was released on Tuesday, “These communities, which largely self-identify as Palestinian, were originally designated to fall under Jordanian control during the negotiations of the Armistice Line of 1949, but ultimately were retained by Israel for military reasons that have since been mitigated. The Vision contemplates the possibility, subject to agreement of the parties that the borders of Israel will be redrawn such that the Triangle Communities become part of the State of Palestine.”

“This is a nightmare that cannot be implemented,” Taibeh Mayor Shuaa Massarweh Mansour said, Ynet reported.

“Peace is made with the enemy. We are residents of the state, and we are not the enemy,” Mansour said.

Referring to Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal woes, the mayor claimed that “the prime minister wants to save his skin at the expense of inciting hatred against the Arab population…

“The will of the people is stronger than any plan, especially when it comes to the will and determination of the heroic Palestinian people. Peace is made between nations and not by unilateral moves.”

Notwithstanding his lip service to the “heroic Palestinian people” and censure of the Israeli leader, it’s clear that living in the democratic Jewish state is preferable to living under the PA, where those who oppose the regime are tortured and/or murdered.

Indeed, the situation is explained in the following video, published a year ago, featuring Ramadab Dabash Muktarm a resident of the Arab neighborhood of Sur Baher in eastern Jerusalem, who said in an Al Jazeera interview that 90 percent of residents have no faith in the PA and that “we identify more with the Israeli side.”

“We want to stay with the blue [Israeli] ID card, living in east Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty,” he affirms.

“The Palestinian Authority did not succeed in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] and it won’t succeed in east Jerusalem.”