Livni: Future of Israel's Arabs is in Palestinian state (Extra)

Dec 11, 2008, 12:28 GMT

Tel Aviv - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday that the future of Israel's Arab citizens was in a future Palestinian state to be established in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

'My solution (for preserving Israel as a Jewish and a democratic state) is to establish two nation states wih certain concessions and with clear red lines,' Livni, who heads Israel's ruling, centrist Kadima party, told high-school pupils in Tel Aviv.

'So I could also come to Israel's Palestinian citizens, those whom we call Arab Israelis and tell them: 'Your national solution is somewhere else.''

The idea of moving Israel's Arab citizens or the areas in which they live to the future Palestinian state is regarded as highly controversial in Israel and her remark was thought to be the first time Livni has spoken publicly in favour of it.

Her spokespeople were not immediately available for comment. Livni is in a neck-and-neck race with Benjamin Netanyahu of the hardline Likud party, who has in recent weeks obtained a lead in opinion over her Kadima party to win the upcoming February 10 elections.

Over the past weeks, she has expressed markedly hardline positions, among others by speaking out against the Gaza truce.