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Israel’s President, Reuven Rivlin, appeared to rebuke Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying Israel “is not a state of all its citizens.”

Speaking at a conference at the Hebrew University’s Truman Institute, Rivlin said: “We’ve been seeing unacceptable discourse about Israel’s Arab citizens. I refuse to believe that there are parties that will concede Israel’s image as a Jewish and democratic state, democratic and Jewish, with a single remark. Anyone who believes in the State of Israel’s obligation to be Jewish and democratic in the full sense of the word must remember that there are absolute equal rights in the State of Israel for all citizens. There are no first class citizens; there are no second class voters. We are all equal at the polling stations, Jews and Arabs.”

In response, the Prime Minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu told Rivlin on Twitter: “Why are you surprised [at the anti-Arab rhetoric]? It’s all because members of your people have chosen the path of terrorism.” The comment was a reference to Rivlin’s statement after a Palestinian family were killed in a firebomb attack by Jewish terrorists. At the time he said: “From my people, there are those who have chosen the path of terrorism, and have lost their humanity.”

After the tweet, the Blue and White Party said: “Your incitement toward the President has crossed every possible boundary. Israel comes above everything, the Netanyahu family doesn’t.”

On Sunday Prime Minister Netanyahu criticised TV presenter Rotem Sela for criticising Likud Culture Minister Miri Regev for saying that Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid want to establish a government with the help of Arab parties.

“What is the problem with the Arabs???” Sela wrote on her Instagram account. “Dear god, there are also Arab citizens in this country. When the hell will someone in this government convey to the public that Israel is a state of all its citizens and that all people were created equal, and that even the Arabs and the Druze and the LGBTs and — shock — the leftists are human.”

Netanyahu responded to her post with “an important correction,” saying that: “Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to Basic Law: State that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people — and its alone. As you wrote, there is no problem with the Arab citizens of Israel — they have equal rights as all of us and the Likud government has invested more in the Arab sector than any other government.”