In an interview published in The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, January 7, former Speaker of the Knesset, Avraham Burg, said that Hadash is the “only party fully committed to Jewish-Arab equality. A former Labor MK, Burg, who recently joined the Arab-Jewish front, also told the paper “I voted for Hadash over the last few election campaigns and I have been writing about it; my views are out there.”

Former Speaker of the Knesset Avraham Burg. (Photo: Al Ittihad)

“The nationalistic discourse in the Israeli sphere has cornered the other parties into the same nationalistic discourse,” said Burg. “Nationalism here is the most dangerous kind of politics that needs to be replaced with a civic one.” He went on to say that the “core principle of the Israeli system should be the equality of all of its citizens.” Asked about his plans for the Hadash front, Burg responded that he would want “to expand it into something wider and more comprehensive.” In an interview with the Post published on Tuesday, the day before the Burg interview, Balad MK Haneen Zoabi criticized the former Labor lawmaker for “preaching to the Arabs” about what they should do. Burgs’ response to this criticism: “I did not leave the Jewish nationalist Zionist camp in order to join an Arab nationalist or religious one,” referring specifically to the Balad party and the Islamic Movement.

Asked about the controversy resulting from his appearance at the Hadash conference in Nazareth on January 3, a Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath), while wearing a kippa (the skullcap worn by religiously observant Jews), Burg replied that such matters should be private. “Only in a country like Israel is personal life in the public domain. Argue with my arguments, not my personality,” he said.

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Former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg Joins Hadash