a third of the people of the city and it s important i think that. the months receive the same services as do as everyone else so they pay their taxes been heard i pay taxes i ve heard i ve heard directly from the mayor of jerusalem nir barkat he said he s committed to narrowing those gaps and i ask you once again to look at the trajectory is he in fact is the municipal government received today investing more in the arab sector in jerusalem i think the answer is clearly yes and as that trajectory continues you ll see gaps narrowed which is what we re committed to doing with this is the man who in two thousand and thirteen in the municipal elections only got just over five hundred votes from a maximum of one hundred fifty seven thousand palestinians who could have voted for him and surely that s a question that the arab leadership that s what they thought of his efforts but let s be clear if arab residents of jerusalem utilize the ability of the democracy actually participated in useab
a permanent residency for decades but as permanent resident of those very cannot vote in the national election they can vote in municipal elections and the truth is because of threats by the extremist groups unfortunately most of them still do not do so and i think one should ask the extremist about extremist why do you prevent encourage intimidate palestinian arab residents of jerusalem not to vote in elections why do you stop why do you stop people coming into the country and who belong to the boycott divestment and sanctions moved. and who recommend the economic boycott of israel why are you stopping them coming into the country every democracy on the planet has the right and happens in this country as happens in the united states as happens in other european countries has the right to prevent people from visiting you are a counter to the common good this is a freedom of expression she s nice association for civil rights in israel is a violation of democratic i don t support i m so
and saying no we re not interested in what the rest of the world if we had a system as in north korea we would speak in one voice but as you know israel is a democracy our governments a coalition so you speak it down metrically opposed position i wouldn t overstate it but i think anyone as you know who s covered israeli politics know that there s always a divergence of opinion in the israeli political elite which i suppose is healthy and is as strong as you know has been for some time correct like the your former attorney general michael pena put it a few years back we re talking about israel he said we enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society ignoring international treaties expropriating like transferring settlers from israel to the occupied territories engaging in theft and finding justification for all that activity some of the arm difference is i m very proud to live in a country where people can openly criticize government policy a country whether it s with meet the pre
so who can come into this can you can recommend a boycott of britain if you like you re certainly allowed it don t know exactly right i don t know that it s the product of the home secretary to decide who can come into this country or not this country is a democratic country israel has the same rights as other democracy it may be the prerogative but it s losing you important supporters and i don t think these people particularly supported us in the first place let s take a moment called david rothkopf who was a senior fellow at johns hopkins school of advanced international studies at juba lost three dozen of his relatives in the holocaust a few days ago he wrote bearing those whose opinions are uncomfortable for israel to hear and consider not only weakens the country but suggests that the reasons for my defenses of israel are collapsing collapsing. since the netanyahu administration has done more than critics it s turn supporters into adversaries it s taken one large step in the dire
you can ill afford to lose people like that i m sorry but i can disagree with them if they re factually wrong and he is factually wrong on this particular case israeli democracy is strong and vibrant i mean i urge you just to go to your computer and read a dozen israeli newspapers how much criticism will you find of the government when and where else in the middle east do trade union strike and can close down the whole country whereas in the middle east you have vigorous debates in parliament where government policy is debated and politicians argue with each other in an open way whereas in the middle east you have petitions being signed and demonstrations that we are a country with faults but we are a vibrant pluralistic democratic society and anyone who says to the country is simply not telling the truth. story gifts be good thank you very. good because.