The Israeli Defence Minister (Peretz) has appointed Member of Knesset (the Israeli Parliment) Raleb Majadele as Minister of Science, Technology, Culture, and Sports.

Majadele, a Muslim, is the first Arab to be appointed minister since the
foundation of the State. The first Druze Minister was appointed in 2001.

Peretz noted that the appointment was historic, and hoped it would
improve the relationships between the different sectors in Israel.

Mean time an MK from the right wing Yisrael Beiteinu party said this appointment was a blow for Zionism, and was told by numerous parlimentarians and parties that they had no idea what they were talking about. One member of the Knesset went so far as to ask the Attorney General to check whether there is legal justification for opening a criminal investigation over the remarks.

As member of the Knesset have pointed out, Zionism all always advocated the integration of Arabs who are loyal to the state in all of its institutions on the basis of equality. Likud (the right of center party) have stressed this and called for a debate on the comments which they too describe as racist. The roel of Arabs being full partners in Zionism was supported by Herzl, Jabotinsky and Begin - three very different political views on Zionism but on this matter all entirely in agreement.

The BBC (as expected) has picked up the story, but not given much focus to the strong reaction against the comments. From their point of view, they comments are perhaps what they'd LIKE to think Israel and Zionism are about. This is itself another type of Racism and the UKs racism is perhaps far worse - being wide spread and not reacted so strong as we can see happens in Israel. In an effort not to spread racism in the UK we will NOT link to the BBCs story. HaAretz on the other hand has a decent story that is far longer and richer in detail.