Palestinian MK: New Israeli ad campaign 'racist'
Jan. 16, 2017 10:37 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 16, 2017 10:42 P.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774955

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Former senior Israeli defense officials rolled out a
massive ad campaign in Israel on Sunday “warning” Israelis of a single-state
with a Palestinian majority if the two state-solution is not implemented as
the end goal in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The former officials are members of a group known as Commanders for Israel’s
Security, “which is made up of approximately 200 former top officials from
the country’s security services and is dedicated to advancing the two-state
solution,” according to the Times of Israel.

The ad campaign featured pictures of Palestinian crowds, which the Times of
Israel referred to as a “Palestinian mob,” overlaid with the caption “Soon
we will be the majority” written in Arabic, and “Palestine: One state for
two people” in English.

The ads reference the growing Palestinian population, which is projected to
reach 7.13 million by the end of 2020, compared to 6.96 million Jews in
"historical Palestine" -- meaning the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem,
the Gaza Strip, and Israel -- according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of
Statistics 2016 census.

The campaign featured in full-page ads in two of Israel’s “most influential
newspapers” and billboards across the country, the Times of Israel reported.

Palestinian lawmakers inside Israel slammed the campaign, which was
reportedly intended to promote the two-state solution and to oppose
right-wing calls to annex large swaths of occupied West Bank, calling it
racist.

Ayman Odeh, a member of Israel’s parliament, posted a statement on Facebook
saying “this isn't a peace campaign, but rather a hatred campaign against
Arabs. It's an ugly campaign and exaggerated campaign, and given the general
atmosphere as the [Israeli] prime minister classifies Arab citizens as
enemies, this campaign turns dangerous.”

Odeh emphasized that a two-state solution involving the establishment of a
Palestinian state next to the state of Israel was “clearly in the interest
of both peoples,” but first and foremost was “a legitimate and a just right
of the Palestinian people.”

Odeh, a member of the Joint List political bloc -- representing parties led
by Palestinian citizens of Israel in Israel's parliament, the Knesset --
said that the road to achieving the two-state solution was not “through
joining the incitement band.”

According to the Times of Israel, former Israeli major general Amnon Reshef,
a member of the group responsible for the campaign, denied that the campaign
was racist or inciteful, saying that “we’re not doing any demonization.
There’s nothing here that’s racist.”

“I don’t want trucks to come from Jabal al-Mukabbir into Jerusalem and run
over soldiers. I don’t want them,” the Times of Israel quoted former head of
the Israeli army’s central command Gadi Shamni as saying in a press
conference in Tel Aviv following the release of the campaign.

Referring to an attack carried out last week by a Palestinian truck driver
that left four Israeli soldiers dead in occupied East Jerusalem, Shamni said
that the only way to prevent such attacks was “to disconnect entirely from
the Palestinians.”

“I want us to be here and them to be there. We’ll be like good neighbors,”
Shamni said.

Odeh, however, saw the campaign as being far from promoting a “good
neighbor” type of relationship, saying that “he who sees us a threat,
doesn't see us partners, and he who doesn't see us partners can't make
peace.”

Odeh concluded his statement by calling upon the officials who started the
campaign to “stop spreading this hatred and immediately put down all the
propaganda.”