April 18, 2024
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Israeli Arabs Reject Becoming Citizens of Palestinian State, as Suggested in Mideast Peace Plan

(Ariel ben Solomon/JNS) Israeli Arab citizens flatly reject the idea floated in the recently released U.S. “Peace to Prosperity” plan that envisions the possibility that borders would be redrawn and some Arab cities and villages could become part of a future Palestinian state.

While the discussions over settlements, annexation and Palestinian statehood have drawn headlines, one controversial aspect that has gained less attention is the proposal of land swaps, specifically transferring Arab towns in Israel into a future Palestinian state.

The Trump administration’s peace plan provides only a brief mention of the idea of transferring Israeli-Arab areas close to the West Bank, known as the Triangle region, in the center of the country, east of Kfar Saba, and turning the residents into Palestinian citizens.

Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu weighed in recently and dismissed the idea. “There will not be any population transfers under any circumstances: I oppose it in principle,” The Jerusalem Post reported him stating.

Sheikh Safwat Freij, deputy leader of the southern branch of the Islamic Movement who lives in Kafr Qasim, told JNS that Trump’s Mideast peace plan “is so unserious it does not even deserve a response.”

“For us, it is completely irrelevant. We would respond to a plan if it was serious, but this is not,” he said.

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