国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

World / Middle East

Netanyahu defends plan to legally 'anchor' Jewish homeland

By Agence France-Presse in Jerusalem (China Daily) Updated: 2014-05-06 07:23

Netanyahu defends plan to legally 'anchor' Jewish homeland

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at a ceremony marking Memorial Day in Jerusalem on Sunday, when Israel commemorates its fallen soldiers. Nir Elias / Reuters

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved on Sunday to defend his plans to enshrine in law Israel's status as the national homeland for the Jewish people.

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the aim was to "anchor" in law Israel's status and ensure it would remain a Jewish state following any peace deal with the Palestinians.

"There are those who do not want Israel to be defined as the national homeland for the Jewish people," he said in remarks broadcast on public radio.

"They want a Palestinian national homeland to be established here next to us, and that Israel be gradually turned into a bi-national Jewish-Arab state within our reduced borders," he told ministers in a reference to Israel's Arab minority, who account for just over 20 percent of the population.

Netanyahu and others in the right-wing camp have long expressed fears that following the establishment of a Palestinian state, Israel's Arab citizens would seek to press their own claims for territory in the northern Galilee and southern Negev regions.

Netanyahu defends plan to legally 'anchor' Jewish homeland

"You cannot say we want to break away from the Palestinians to prevent a bi-national state - something which has a certain logic - and at the same time give your blessing to a bi-national, Jewish-Arab state within Israel's permanent borders," he said.

"Israel gives full equal rights to all of its citizens, but it is the national homeland of just one people - the Jewish people."

Throughout the most recent round of peace talks, which ended on April 29 with the sides bitterly at odds, Netanyahu demanded such recognition from the Palestinians, insisting it was a core issue of the conflict.

The Palestinians have refused.

For them, accepting Israel as a Jewish state would mean accepting the Nakba, or "catastrophe", that befell them when 760,000 of their people fled or were forced out of their homes in the war that accompanied Israel's establishment in 1948.

Israel's Arab minority are the descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who remained on their land after 1948.

According to figures published ahead of Israel's Independence Day, which began at sundown on Monday, Israel's population stands at 8.2 million, the Central Bureau of Statistics said.

Of that figure, 75 percent, or 6,135,000 people, are Jewish, and 20.7 percent, or 1,694,000 people, are Arab Israelis.

Trudeau visits Sina Weibo
May gets little gasp as EU extends deadline for sufficient progress in Brexit talks
Ethiopian FM urges strengthened Ethiopia-China ties
Yemen's ex-president Saleh, relatives killed by Houthis
Most Popular
Hot Topics

...
德化县| 肃宁县| 兴和县| 大洼县| 沈阳市| 朝阳区| 兴义市| 武义县| 湾仔区| 大关县| 福州市| 永靖县| 横峰县| 台南县| 湘潭市| 长阳| 德阳市| 汤原县| 疏勒县| 湘阴县| 赤峰市| 来凤县| 广宗县| 泰和县| 呼图壁县| 湘潭市| 白朗县| 吉林市| 商城县| 安多县| 汾西县| 梁山县| 浦县| 玉树县| 牡丹江市| 华亭县| 万全县| 浦江县| 清丰县| 资兴市| 广元市|