Arabs say racism on rise as Israel turns 60

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Olmert's spokesman Regev said the bills did not reflect racist attitudes against Arabs, rather "legitimate differences of opinions".

LICENCE TO KILL-

About 1.5 million Arabs reside in Israel with 5.5 million Jews, but 3.8 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

U.S. President George W. Bush is hoping for an agreement this year to create a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside Israel.

To Israelis, the government justifies holding talks about creating a Palestinian state by saying the alternative is a single state where Arabs would soon outnumber Jews.

A recent poll by Israel's parliamentary TV station showed 76 percent of Jewish Israelis give some degree of support to transferring Palestinians living inside Israel to a future state - an option most Arab citizens strongly reject.

"The Jews are the ones who immigrated to our homeland and took our land. We did not immigrate to their land so we cannot leave," said Jamal Zahalka, an Arab lawmaker.

The outbreak of the latest Palestinian intifada marked a turning-point in the way Israel treats its Arab citizens, many say, especially after 13 unarmed Israeli Arabs were killed in October 2000 when police used live ammunition to disperse protests in support of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Rights groups say a January Israeli court decision not to indict the alleged killers due to "insufficient evidence" was tantamount to giving police a license to kill Arabs.

Two rights groups documented the killing of 41 Arabs by Israeli police or in "racist attacks" by Jews and security guards since 2000. Of those, only one suspected killer has been indicted, said Jafar Farah, director of advocacy group Mossawa.

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