In surprising and controversial comments considering Israel's current political climate, Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai blamed Israeli occupation for Palestinian attacks.
"On the one hand the occupation has lasted 49 years, and I took part in it," Huldai said in a radio interview Thursday morning, according to +972 Magazine . "I recognize the reality and know that leaders with courage must look to take action and not just talk. The fact that we are suffering does not lead to a change in understanding of what must be done… There is no courage to do what needs to be done in order to reach a [peace] agreement."
Huldai also said that Israel is "perhaps the only country in the world holding another nation under occupation without civil rights."
"There is no way to hold people in a situation of occupation and think that they will reach the conclusion that everything is OK and they will continue to live like that," he said.
His comments come following an attack by two Palestinian cousins in Tel Aviv this week, which left four dead and sixteen injured. In response to the attack, Israel announced that 83,000 Palestinians would have their Ramadan travel permits frozen.
While Israel's government has become increasingly right-wing and anti-Palestinian under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, other Israeli leaders have voiced comments similar to Huldai's in the past. In 1998, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said that he would have joined a terrorist group if he was Palestinian and the right age.