Jerusalem - Israeli Arab MKs rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s outreach on Monday night in the release of YouTube videos urging the country’s Arab citizens to engage further in Israeli society.

Joint List head Ayman Odeh in a biting response on Tuesday said, “But Mr. Prime Minister, you are right about one thing, we really want to be part of society, but maybe I’ll surprise you now saying, we do not want to be second-class citizens in a racist and occupying state.”

He also mentioned that “more than one hundred thousand Arab citizens who live in unrecognized villages in the Negev, they cannot listen to your words, not in Hebrew nor in English…simply their homes do not have electricity.”

Joint List MK and Ta’al party head Ahmad Tibi told The Jerusalem Post that “the international community will not buy this sweet exercise in public relations. They just know Bibi.”

Following the release of the video, Tibi had ridiculed the prime minister, saying that “addressing the Arab public in English was ridiculous.”

“Mr. Netanyahu’s impassioned appeal to the residents of Taiba and Rahat in English raised smiles and questions about the context of this spin,” he had said.

Tibi accused Netanyahu’s government for the huge disparities between Arab and Jewish communities and for home demolitions rather than real integration.

Netanyahu released YouTube videos in Hebrew and English with Arabic subtitles addressing the country’s Arab citizens and apologizing for controversial remarks made during the 2015 election when he called for right-wing voters to turn out, warning that Arabs were “going en masse to the polls.”

“I said Arabs voters were going to the polls in droves,” he said in Monday night’s video. “I was referring to a...read more at VIN