This article is about NYJA’s first ever in person event, a reception, held on Tuesday 3/29, with Israel’s Minister of Regional Cooperation, Esawi Frej
“NEW YORK — Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej called for Jewish-Arab unity in Israel in the face of terror attacks during a meeting in New York with Jewish community representatives.
Frej, Israel’s second Arab minister and a member of the left-wing Meretz party, said he was “worried” by the recent attacks shortly after a gunman killed five Israelis in Bnei Brak, but that the “silent majority” of Jews and Arabs in Israel could counter extremism.
“The majority, we want to live together. We love life. Don’t let this extremist, this murderer, win,” he told The Times of Israel. “Arabs and Jews, we have the same interests. In order to keep Israel strong, we should go hand in hand together.
Frej spoke at the event organized by the advocacy group New York Jewish Agenda to Jewish community representatives. He was in the US at the behest of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid to meet with the Jewish community and Congress, he said.
He said extremists, such as the terrorists who killed 11 people in three attacks in Israel in the past week, were trying to derail social progress, including in Israel’s government. The governing coalition includes the Islamist Ra’am party, the first independent Arab party in an Israeli government…”