Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Attias raised a stir Thursday when he warned against a growing anti-Israel Arab population in the Galilee and stated that mixed Arab-Jewish cities were “unsuitable.” He also said that hareidi-religious and secular Jews should live separately. Attias, a member of the hareidi-religious Shas party, spoke at a conference held by the Israel Bar Association in Tel Aviv. Attias spoke about the planned hareidi-religious town of Harish in the part of north-central Israel known as Wadi Ara, or Nachal Eeron. Bringing a large Jewish hareidi population there would “stop the expansion from Wadi Ara of a population that does not love the state of Israel, to say the least,” he said, in a clear reference to Arabs. Wadi Ara, a winding valley between Hadera and Afula, is home to a primarily Arab... [read full story]
