Settlers' provocative march in Umm Al-Fahm triggers violent clashes

[ 27/10/2010 - 05:44 PM ]

UMM AL-FAHM, (PIC)--

Violent clashes broke out Wednesday morning between the Palestinian natives of Umm Al-Fahm city, inside the 1948 occupied lands, and Israeli occupation government policemen who protected dozens of extremist Jewish settlers holding a provocative protest against the Islamic Movement, which is headed by Shaikh Ra'ed Salah.

Israeli policemen fired stunt 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.

This provocative march was organized on the 20th anniversary of extrimist rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was banned from the Knesset for inciting racism.

Earlier before the arrival of the settler's busses, 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.

Far-right march faces protest

Published today (updated) 27/10/2010 12:20 TEL AVIV (Ma'an) --

Several Palestinian citizens of Israel were arrested after demonstrating against a provocative march by racist, far-right illegal Israeli settlers in the Palestinian city of Umm Al-Fa'hm, on Wednesday.

Palestinians threw stones and set fire to tires when the far-right Israeli fascists entered their city, which contains the largest Palestinian community inside Israel. Israeli occupation forces fired stun grenades and tear gas.

Al Jazeera TV correspondent Sherine Tadros said 10 Palestinians were arrested. According to the Israeli news site Ynet, Knesset member Afu Aghbaria, of the Palestinian Hadash party, was injured, apparently by stun grenade. An undercover Israeli operative "disguised as an Arab" was also injured, according to the same report.

The far-right march was held to call for the outlawing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, an Islamist movement among Palestinian citizens of Israel. In July, the movement's leader Sheikh Raed Salah was convicted of assault for spitting on a border guard in 2007, a charge he denies.

The marchers planned to wave Israeli flags and march near Islamic Movement offices in Umm Al-Fahm to protest Salah's participation in last May's Gaza-bound flotilla.

Afu Agbaria, the Knesset member who was reported injured told Al Jazeera TV the right-wing march was "provocation against the people of Umm al-Fahm and the Arab minority in the country."

"They are attacking the legitimacy of the Arab presence in the country in co-ordination with the right-wing extremists in the government," he said.

The demonstration comes a day after hundreds of Land of Israel Movement activists and supporters of the outlawed Kach movement held a memorial service marking 20 years since Rabbi Meir Kahane's assassination.

Illegal Israeli settler provocator Itamar Ben-Gvir, who led the march with Baruch Marzel, told the Israeli daily Haaretz: "I don't understand why, when Peace Now comes to demonstrate at my house in Hebron, it's for the glory of freedom of expression, but when we want to fulfill our legitimate right, suddenly it's a provocation."

Umm al-Fa'hm Deputy Mayor Mustafa Ghalin said "Images of conflict help them raise funds and we don't want to play into their hands, so the decision was to continue with the regular routine for most of the residents, while the municipality's representatives and employees, along with key political activists, will get across the clear message that Umm al-Fa'hm will never be open to those extreme right-wingers," Haaretz reported.

Police have been meeting with city officials and political activists over the past few weeks in what they say is an effort to maintain calm.

Illegal Extremist Israeli Settlers To March In Umm al-Fahm

Wednesday October 27, 2010 09:39 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Under police protection, right -wing extremist, illegal Israeli settlers (marched) in the town of Umm al-Fahm, in the north of Israel to demand the expulsion of Arabs from the country and to commemorate Maer Kahane, the founder of the Kach Movement.

At least 1,500 policemen will be deployed in the town. The settlers, led by far-right fundamentalists, Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir, are calling for the Islamic Movement in Israel to be outlawed.

The settlers intend to hold a protest while carrying signs against the Arabs in the country and against the Islamic Movement.

Israel decided to allow the fundamentalist right-wingers to march in the town, which is completely populated by Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are Muslim, but informed them that they will not be allowed to protest in front of the office of the Islamic Movement.

They will be holding their protest nearby the place where their protest was held last year; clashes with dozens of Arab residents had then resulted in injuries to dozens of residents, and the detainment of dozens of residents by the police.

This year, the police decided to take certain measures reportedly meant to limit confrontations between the Arabs and the Israeli protesters. The measures include deploying hundreds of policemen in the areas of Umm al-Fahm and Wadi Ara.

Meanwhile, Umm al-Fahm Municipality decided not to declare a general strike. Acting mayor, Mustafa Suheil, said that the extremist protesters are only a minority that does not deserve the attention.

Israeli Yedioth Aharanoth reported that Arab member of Knesset, Afou Agbaria of the Hadash Party, demanded that the Israeli police refrain from any provocative acts and to perform their duties faithfully.

Umm al-Fahm City Council member, Riyadh Jamal, sent a letter to Mayor Sheikh Khalid Hamdan, asking him to hold an urgent session to be attended by representatives of different factions and the Arab Follow-up Committee, in order to discuss the provocative visit and the ways to deal with it.

The Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that the protesters intend to march near the the offices of the Islamic Movement to protest its participation in the Freedom Flotilla that headed to Gaza last May.

Seventy members of the movement, including its head Sheikh Raed Salah from Umm al-Fahm, participated in the humanitarian flotilla. Nine Turkish peace activists were killed and dozens of activists were wounded when the Israeli Navy attacked the Turkish Mavi Marmara solidarity ship.

Sheikh Salah accused the Israeli army of deliberately attempting to kill him when the soldiers boarded the ship.


Meir Kahane was a well-known right-wing Israeli rabbi and the leader of the Jewish organization, Kach. The movement was later regarded by Israel as a terrorist group.

He was known in the United States and Israel for advocating for massive Jewish immigration to Israel, and massive Arab expulsion, using the imminent threat of a "Second Holocaust," to justify the immigration.

He also promoted the idea a "Greater Israel," which supports a proposal for Israel to annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Kahane was shot and killed in Manhattan in 1990, following a speech he had given.