Hadash Knesset members reacted angrily on Wednesday to a report in the “Maariv” daily newspaper, which stated that Israel has suggested to the United States a plan to transfer to the Palestinian Authority (PA) areas with a Arab-Palestinian population inside Israel.

The city of Taybe in the South Triangle area (Photo: Wikipedia)

The report specifically referred to an area known as the South Triangle, located in east-central Israel, including the cities of Taybe and Tira, in which about 300,000 Arabs Israeli citizens live. Two Israeli sources confirmed that such an offer had been made and said that in return for the area ceded, Israel will get to keep settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.

MK Afo Agbaria (Hadash), a leading member of the Communist Party, slammed the idea, saying, “Citizens in a democracy are not pawns or hostages in the hands of the government. If Israel wants to redraw the map of the boundaries, we favor a return to the 1947 partition lines.” “This is a bizarre offer which treats Arab citizens as a chess piece that one can move around and change. Once they feared our nationhood, now they fear our citizenship,” he added.