Does the RJC Think Israeli Arabs Are a Fifth Column?
Are Israeli Arabs “a fifth column, a league of traitors”?
According to a blog posted last Thursday by Shari Hillman, the communications director for the Republican Jewish Coalition, they are.
Hillman was agreeing with statements made on September 11 by Effi Eitam, a leader of the joint Knesset faction aligned with Orthodox Zionists worldwide, that called for Israel “to expel the great majority of the Arabs” from the West Bank and “sweep the Israeli Arabs from the political system.”
Eitam reportedly described Arab Knesset members as “a fifth column, a league of traitors of the first rank.”
UPDATE: Shari Hillman told the Forward yesterday that she did not mean to suggest that she believes all Israeli Arabs are a “fifth column” or should be deported, but rather meant to draw attention to some allegedly illegal behavior by certain Arab-Israeli politicians.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
