“The State of Israel . . . will ensure complete equality of social
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and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race
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or sex. . . .
“We appeal . . . to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Is-
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rael to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the
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state on the basis of full and equal citizenship.” (Declaration of Inde-
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pendence, State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708 [May 14, 1948])
“Today, I am in the minority. The state is democratic. Who
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says that in the year 2000 we Arabs will still be the minority:
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Today I accept the fact that this is a Jewish state with an Arab
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minority. But when we are the majority, I will not accept the fact of a
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Jewish state with an Arab majority.” (Na’ama Saud, teacher from
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the Israeli Arab village of Araba, May 28, 1976)
“Let the leaders of the Zionist movement . . . find their na-
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tion some uninhabited country.” (Arab writer Issat Darwazeh in
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the Haifa Arabic newspaper Al-Karmel, 1921)
“And the L-rd said unto Abram . . . Lift up now thine eyes
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and look from the place where thou art, northward and south-
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ward and eastward and westward. For all the land which thou
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seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever.” (Genesis
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13:14-15)
“We do not recognize the right which you call ‘historic’ of
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the Jewish people to this land—this is our fundamental
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principle. . . . In this land only the Palestinian Arab people have
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historic right.” (Mahmud Muhareb, chairman of the Arab Stu-
br
dent Committee, Hebrew University in Jerusalem 1978)
“And if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land
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from before you, then those that you let remain of them shall be
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thorns in your eyes and thistles in your sides and shall torment
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you in the land wherein you dwell.” (Numbers 33:55)