Arab member of Israeli Knesset, Mohammad Baraka, head of the parliamentarian bloc of the Democratic Front in Israel, stated on Thursday that the killing of the Palestinian driver by a settler on the West Bank is not the first, and that such incident are part of a bigger phenomenon in Israel.
The driver, Taiseer Abdul-Karim, was shot on May 13, at point blank by a settler who guards an Israeli settlement near the West Bank city of Salfit.The statements of Baraka came as he spoke in front of the Knesset’s General Committee.
He added that there are central figures in the Israeli government and the Knesset who keep inciting against the Arabs and the Palestinians which increases hatred among the people and does not help in developing the means of coexistence.
“It seems that the settler, a new immigrant from France wanted to show the maximum level of racism in order to be absorbed in Israel”, Baraka added, “It seems he needed to kill an Arab to be accepted in the country”.
He slammed that Israel claims that the assailant was mentally ill and stated this Israel repeatedly used such claims to justify racist attacks.
He stated that Israel claimed that Baroch Goldstein, who opened fire at Muslim worshipers in the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron in 1994, was mentally ill although he was a physician.
Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians and injured dozens of residents before the crowd managed to overcome his bullets and killed him.
Baraka added that Israel also did not seek justice when Eden Natan Zada, stepped on board of Bus heading to Shfa-Amr Arab town in Israel in August 4 2005, and opened fire at the passengers killing two Christian and two Muslim Arab residents, and injuring at least twenty-two other residents before the passengers managed to overcome his bullets and killed him.
Baraka added that the Israeli officials always try to portray such attacks as isolated incidents, and slammed the Israeli policy of not dealing with the root of these attacks especially since they stem from hatred directed against the Arabs and the Palestinians.
