BBC News
March 24, 2009 - 12:00am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7960807.stm


Israeli-Arab protesters have clashed with police as Jewish Israeli right-wingers marched in the majority-Arab town of Umm al-Fahm.

Stun grenades and tear gas were used as hundreds of Israeli-Arab protesters threw stones, police said.

Israeli-Arab residents of the town view the march as highly provocative and had vowed to stop it.

The High Court gave permission for the march, but police had postponed it several times, fearing violence.

About 2,500 police in riot gear were deployed as about 100 far-right activists marched in the town, waving Israeli flags.

They declared the Israeli-Arabs counter-demonstration illegal and ordered protesters to disperse.

The BBC's Katya Adler at the scene described crouching behind a car with stones raining all around her as Israeli-Arab demonstrators pelted the police.

She says that while many of the city's residents say they want to live in peace with their Jewish neighbours, there is a lot of anger on the streets over the fact the march has been allowed to go ahead.

'Raising Israeli flag'

One of the leaders of the march was Baruch Marzel, who led the anti-Arab Kach party that was banned in Israel in 1994.

"All we are doing is waving the Israeli flag. All we are demanding is loyalty to the state," another march leader, Michael Ben-Ari Ben-Ari, a member of the Israeli parliament, told the Israeli news website Ynet.

"There is in Umm al-Fahm a gang of hooligans, who think they can win using violence. The State of Israel is the Jewish people's state. We are here to voice our truth and not to create provocations," he said.

Israeli-Arab residents of Umm al-Fahm consider the marchers racist, and had called a general strike and said they would use peaceful methods to prevent the activists from entering the town.

"Racism is not freedom of expression, it's a criminal act and the law should punish it," Israeli Arab MK Jamal Zahalka told the AFP news agency.

The march was over within an hour, and took place on the outskirts of the town, after the High Court ruled the activists could enter its municipal boundaries but not residential areas.

The town is considered a stronghold of Israeli-Arab sentiment, and is also where 13 Israeli-Arab protesters were killed during riots as the last Palestinian uprising, or intifada, broke out in 2001.

The march was planned about a year ago, but comes in the wake of a strong showing for the far right politician, Avigdor Lieberman, in Israel's recent elections.

Mr Lieberman advocates transferring majority-Arab areas in Israel to the control of the Palestinian Authority, and wants to bring in a citizenship law demanding that all Israeli citizens, including Israeli-Arabs, swear allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state.

Israeli-Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel's population, and are descended from families who remained in Israel after the war that followed the state's creation in 1948.

They are full Israeli citizens, but face widely documented discrimination.




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