Wednesday morning in Umm Al-Fahm, which is the second largest Arab city in the country and the center of the Islamic Movement, the extremist right-wing party, Baruch Marzel, held a protest march.
To set the stage...
Baruch Marzel to march in Umm al-Fahm
Our Land of Israel group to hold protest rally in northern city against police 'servility' towards Islamic Movement. Clashes expected as last year
...About three months ago the High Court approved the demonstration despite police claims, based on past experience and intelligence information, that the demonstration would likely end in public disorder. [...]
The demonstration is to be held after the holidays, and organizers have chosen the day after the memorial day for Rabbi Meir Kahane...
“Nothing is more symbolic than the fact that one day after the twentieth anniversary of his murder, Rabbi Kahane’s followers will arrive to continue his struggle against the Arab enemy in the Islamic Movement,” said Marzel. “It is our right to march and demand that the obsequiousness towards this terror movement be stopped. We demand that (leader of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, Sheikh) Raed Salah and his partners be made illegal. They made Kach illegal, so the Islamic Movement should be even more so."
The Guardian has a great photo montage of the event...
Israeli Arab and Jewish protesters clash in Umm Al-Fahm
Clashes broke out after extreme right-wing Jewish protesters marched through the outskirts of Umm Al-Fahm in Israel. The march commemorated the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York. Hundreds of Israeli Arabs began throwing stones and police, who had been supervising the march, responded with tear gas, stun grenades and arrests
As the Jpost had reported...
Police use stun grenades to disperse Umm el-Fahm protest
...Police released stun grenades and tear gas into the street in order to scatter Arab residents demonstrating in the area where the right-wing activists are supposed to march. [...]
National Union MK and Kahane disciple Michael Ben Ari announced on the way to the march that there are terrorists in Umm al Fahm.
"I warned, and no one listened to me!" Ben Ari said. "I turn to the prime minister and say: There is no reason that the Islamic Movement should be allowed to exist in Israel. In Egypt, it's illegal. In Jordan, they're not allowed to have any influence."
Ben Ari continued: "There is no reason we should be a stupid democracy and let people who want to destroy us have a voice."
After nearly half an hour of rock-throwing and tire-burning, police ran and rode horses into the streets of Umm al Fahm, continuing to shoot stun grenades and tear gas, and dragged away the offenders, as the right-wing activists approached the town.
Police arrested several suspects, and reported no injuries. MK Hanin Zoabi said she was injured by tear gas, and accused the police of using extensive force, Israel Radio reported.
"There is a large police presence in and around for this morning's gathering by right-wing activists," Israel Police spokesman Chief Inspector Micky Rosenfeld told The Jerusalem Post earlier Wednesday. "We are hoping things will be quiet and without any disturbances."
As Al Jazeera had reported...
...Violent clashes have broken out between Palestinian-Israelis and Israeli police in response to a demonstration by members of a right-wing Jewish group in the town of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel.
Israeli police fired tear gas at a crowd of Palestinian-Israelis who had gathered to protest against the march by about 70 Our Land of Israel supporters through the mainly Arab town.
The Jewish protesters were calling for the Islamic Movement of Israel, led by Sheikh Raed Salah, to be made illegal. [...]
The police responded with tear gas and baton charges, Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reported.
"Certainly police were expecting this kind of violence and it has manifested itself," she said.
Fifteen of the Palestinian demonstrators were injured, two of them members of the Knesset.
No Our Land of Israel protesters were arrested, but ten from the Palestinian side were.
Plainclothes Israeli police officers were seen amongst the Palestinian protesters with handguns firing shots.
Protesters have said that they believe live ammunition was used, a charge which Israeli police deny.
Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesperson for the Israeli police, told Al Jazeera their level of response "did not involve live fire or rubber bullets".
"Soft balls were used, which in fact only cause minimum amount of damage and no one was injured seriously, in terms of those causing the riots," he said.
"
Now, the PIC reports on this interesting development...
Israeli policemen fired stun and tear gas grenades at the angry Palestinians who tried to confront the settlers, and physically attacked them which led to injuries and suffocation cases among the protesters including Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi.
The clashes erupted after more than 30 right-wing settlers traveled in buses from occupied Jerusalem to Umm al-Fahm this morning, led by far-right activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir, in order to hold a protest march calling for outlawing the Islamic Movement.
Eyewitness said that undercover agents who were throwing stones along with Umm Al-Fahm young men fired shots into the air to signal to the Israeli policemen to start their attack on the Palestinians. Those agents helped the policemen to arrest seven of the Palestinian protesters. [...]
Earlier before the arrival of the settler's buses, eyewitness reported that more than 1,500 Israeli policemen were deployed in Umm Al-Fahm and its environs to protect them after an Israeli court allowed them to march in the city.
Now, the head of the Israeli Police, MK Aharonovitch, backs the police's use of force in Umm al-Fahm...
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch told the Knesset that the rightist march in Umm al-Fahm had been approved by the Supreme Court and coordinated with the police.
"Gunpowder was already laid out on the city's grounds and police officers did their utmost to maintain order. Sometimes the price of preserving democracy is use of force – these are rules applicable to every protest. I support the officers," he said.
You be the judge...
*gah*
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