Vladimir Jabotinsky Quotes

In the midst of wanton aggression, we yet call upon the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to return to the ways of peace and play their part in the development of the State, with full and equal citizenship and due representation in its bodies and institutions - provisional or permanent.

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

This country is just that great that the opportunities are there for a Hispanic president, a black president or any other race for a president, yes.

For those who have envisioned the State of Israel to be a democracy, which although primarily a Jewish polity for Jews is one in which non-Jews can become citizens and enjoy equal civil rights with the Jewish majority, the question of natural law is the question of human rights.

I am the President of Arabs and Druse as well as Jews.

If the Arab citizen will feel at home in our state … if the state will help him in a truthful and dedicated way to reach the economic, social, and cultural level of the Jewish community, then Arab distrust will accordingly subside and a bridge will be built to a Semitic, Jewish-Arab Alliance.

It had always been one of my convictions that Jews and Arabs could live together. Even as a child it never occurred to me that Jews might someday be living in Israel without Arabs, or separated from Arabs. On the contrary, for me it had always seemed perfectly normal for the two people to live and work side by side. That is the nature of life here and it always will be.... though Israel is a Jewish nation, it is, of course, not only a Jewish nation...

Israeli Arabs are equal citizens.

I'm very proud to be the prime minister of all of Israel's citizens, Arabs and Jews alike.

It is certainly refreshing to feel, at any rate, that this is a Parliament where half the nation will not be able to ride rough-shod over the other half.

The Jews must be refused everything as a separate nation, and be granted everything as individuals.... There cannot be a nation within a nation.

Arabs and Jews have lived together for many centuries. We are both children of Abraham.

Above all, democracy means pluralism.

No more wars, no more bloodshed, and no more threats.

I think my appointment is the example and answer for those who accuse Israel of being an apartheid state. It shows minorities have equal rights and we are part of the government, the state and the parliament

The basis of our constitution is in opposition to the principle of equal political rights if it refuses to all but freeholders any participation in the natural right of self-government... And even among our citizens who participate in the representative privilege, the equality of political rights is entirely prostrated by our constitution... if it gives to every citizen of one county as much weight in the government as to twenty-two equal citizens in another.. If these fundamental principles are of no importance in actual government, then no principles are important.

A secular state can offer security to Muslims since it is compatible with acknowledging that religion is important and, that in a religiously plural environment the state does not allow believers in one religious tradition to enjoy a privileged status. All are citizens with equal rights.

There are 800,000 refugees who are being cared for by the U.N. and have been cared for since, during the war, their own Moslem mufti in Jerusalem called upon the Arabs in Israel to leave. Israel was not the aggressor in this war. The Arabs were the aggressors. The partition of Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel was the result of U.N. action. The Arabs did not accept the new state. So Israel fought and gained more land, holding it by defeating her Arab attackers. The Arabs who did not heed the call of the Mufti and leave Israel during the war are still living there.

An equality of estate will give an equality of power; and an equality of power is a commonwealth, or democracy…

A Christian, a Deist, a Turk, and a Jew, have equal rights: they are men and brethren.

No error is more common than to confound democracy as an element in national character with democracy as a form of government.… Now the two are not only not identical, but they are not even necessarily coexistent. By the former we understand that spirit in a people which leads them to demand equality among citizens and a substantial control over their own affairs; by the latter, a system in which the people pronounce directly on all the details of government.

... the even more fundamental task that lies before the leader of a democracy is to bring to the people the realization that true democracy is the effort of the people individually to carry their share of the burden of government.

Jews and Arabs have been living together for years and years

We do not wish, we do not need to expel the Arabs and take their place. All our aspirations are built upon the assumption — proven throughout all our activity in the Land — that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs.

Even amidst the violent attacks launched against us for months past, we call upon the sons of the Arab people dwelling in Israel to keep the peace and to play their part in building the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its institutions, provisional and permanent.