<Nobody is discussing deporting a million Israeli Arabs, nobody>
Nobody except members of Sharon's ruling coalition:
Israeli Ruling Party ‘Incites’ for Expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem
28/07/2003
In a new Israeli violation of the US-sponsored “roadmap” peace plan, which prohibits incitement by both Palestinians and Israelis, the extreme Moledet party, a member of PM Sharon’s ruling coalition and of the National Union bloc with seven MPs, presented to Knesset a draft bill calling for the expulsion of more than 200,000 Palestinians from occupied east Jerusalem.
Moledet party proposed that Israel hold a referendum to decide whether to “evacuate” the “Arab” (native Palestinians) districts of east Jerusalem, a party spokesman told AFP.
The chilling proposal could be on the Knesset agenda for discussion in October, when the Israeli parliament resumes.
The left-wing Meretz party asked Knesset to refuse placing the bill on the agenda, saying it violated a law banning incitement to racism and could be seen as a call for ethnic cleansing.
Moledet, a hard-line fringe party, supports the idea of a forced transfer during a war. Israeli Tourism Minister Benny Elon is chairman of the party.
The Party is a member of the National Union bloc, which is represented in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s ruling coalition, has long advocated transferring the Palestinians from the Occupied Territories, but argues that they should leave “voluntarily.”
The issue of “transfer” - that is, relocating Palestinians out of western “Eretz Yisrael” (the eastern part being Jordan) - remains very controversial to the present day in the Jewish state. “The main reason for this is obvious. The vast majority of Jews consider it to be immoral,” said Boris Shusteff on July 23.
The champions of the idea, Moledet leaders Benny Elon and Aryeh Eldad, discuss it mainly on the pages of internal party publications, Shusteff said, but “it is quite probable that the actual number of its supporters is much higher, and people simply do not want to reveal their true opinions,” he added.
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