Thousands demonstrated in Sakhnin on Monday marking 12 years since the October 2000 riots in which 12 Arab-Israelis, a Palestinian and a Jewish citizen were killed. They are protesting the State's failure to take legal action against members of the security forces who caused the victims' deaths.
The protesters carried Palestinian flags and posters reading "The blood of the martyrs is dear to us", "We shall not forgive the killers" and "The Israeli government wants to humiliate us."
Many of the victims' families who participated in the protest leveled harsh criticism at the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee that organized the march and demanded that a general strike be declared in the Arab sector.
The mother of one of the victims said that her son had sacrificed his life for the Arab people. "It's been 12 years but I feel it's only been 12 seconds," she said.
While no strike has been declared, hundreds of Arab students chose not to attend school on Monday.
"The monitoring committee will not decide what we do on this day," a high school student from Sakhnin said. "If they don't want a strike, we'll do it. We have called on all the students not to go to school and to demonstrate on the main road for the martyrs. It is a very important matter."
One of the residents of the village of Arabe decided to take the protest one step further and closed the village's cemetery with shackles and a lock to prevent members of the monitoring committee from visiting the grave of his son Asil Assallah. Assallah refused to comment but a relative told Ynet he is "very angry" that no strike had been declared.
The protest was attended by Knesset Member Talab El-Sana who said, "If the government fails to do justice – we shall. If it fails to punish the criminals – we shall. We shall not forgive and forget. The Arab public holds the Israeli government accountable and demands an apology by the prime minister and the prosecution of the murderers.
"The killing of 13 Arab citizens who came out to protest and were shot only because of their national identity will remain a blemish on the face of the Israeli government as long as the murderers go unpunished."
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