The Committee of General Affairs in the Knesset ( Israel's parliament) approves a proposal submitted by the Likud, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to create a new committee to look after the Arab Community in Israel.
The new parliamentarian committee will be chaired by Mansour Abba, a Palestinian dentist and chairman of the United Arab List (known also as Ra'am).
The Arab List is expected to support the Likud in forming the various committees in the Knesset.
Mikey Zohar, the acting Speaker of the Knesset said the new committee will be responsible for defined matters related to the Arab community in Israel.
Zohar refused to reveal whether the proposed committee will be a permanent or temporary one.
He also kept the members in dark regarding the limitations of the power of the new committee.
The United Arab List issued a statement that said that the new committee considered a success to it.
Mansour Abbas stressed that the committee will be a means to help the local authorities, national foundations, and professional and academic personalities in the Arab community to present their demands to the Knesset and the Israeli government.
On the other hand, the United Arab List (UAL) affirmed the new committee has resulted from a bargain beat between the UAL and the Likud.
But some Arab lawmakers in the Knesset warn that the new committee may become an Arab ghetto in the Israeli parliament and it works to hold the Arab issues away from other committees of the Knesset.
The Arab Lawmaker Issawi Freij from "Meretz"( Rights of the Citizen), a pro-leftist Israeli political party, also expressed his protest and said that the talk is about political bribery to UAL.
He also considered that the Arab community will turn into a ghetto with the establishment of the committee.
Freij indicated that "this committee will remove the Arab community from within Israeli society" and that "the transfer vision begins with realization."
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