JERUSALEM, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- An Israeli-Arab group Wednesday proposed a constitution that would change the Jewish state into a "bi-national and multi-cultural state."
The proposal by Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, is the second of its kind in recent months. Earlier The follow-up committee comprising Arab politicians and heads of local councils recommended a de-facto autonomy for Israeli Arabs.
The papers demanded Israel "recognize its responsibility for the historic injustices caused to the Palestinian people," including the consequences of their defeat in the 1948 war.
Citizenship should be granted to an Israeli citizen's spouse and 75 percent of the Arab Knesset members could veto legislation.
Israeli Arabs are 20 percent of the population.
In a discussion at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Haifa University Dr. Assad Ghanem complained the Jewish majority is exercising "tyranny under a democratic procedure." Jafar Farah, director of the Mossawa Arab advocacy center, complained that only 5 percent of the country's development budgets go to the Arabs.
"This is a declaration of war against Israel... We are on a collision course," warned Jewish Prof. Uzi Arad of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
