Muslim Likud Candidate Shunned by Family

YERUSHALAYIM

Dima Tayeh announced this week that she plans to run in the upcoming Likud primaries, which could lead to her becoming the first Arab Muslim MK in the party.

Tayeh’s family responded with a denunciation of her candidacy and said they would have nothing to do with her until or unless she reverses the decision.

“Due to her statements, we will not make contact with her or give her any assistance until she retracts her words and declares loyalty to her people and her faith,” the family, from the village of Kafr Manda in the Galil, said in a statement.

Besides praising Likud in general, she specifically defended the controversial Nation-State Law, which critics have condemned as discriminating against Israeli Arabs, in an interview with Hadashot.

She said she had read every sentence and “found nothing racist or discriminatory” in the law.

“I don’t see that it harms minorities or any citizen,” she said. “Israel is a Jewish state and democratic and there is no other country in the Middle East that respects its citizens and gives them as much equality as possible and democracy for all.”

“I’m proud to run in the Likud primaries, as an Arab, as a woman, as a Muslim who is extending a hand to her community and trying to help them and the State of Israel, and to improve its image.”

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