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Clashes erupted between hundreds of Israeli police and dozens of flag-waving protesters in an Arab town in northern Israel on Wednesday over a planned march by extreme rightwing Jewish group.
Israeli police fired tear gas and stun grenades against Arabs. Police, some on horesback, charged about 200 Arabs before retreating, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Ten Arabs were arrested.
However, the right-wing group held a brief rally in the city then were escorted away on buses by police. Organizers said they would be calling for the Arab Israeli Islamic Movement led by the preacher Sheikh Raed Salah to be made "illegal".
Hassan Sammalah, an Umm el-Fahm resident, accused the Jewish demonstrators of seeking the expulsion of Arabs.
"Their goal is to initiate a situation where they can transfer the Arabs out of Israel to Lebanon or Jordan, not even to the West Bank," Sammalah said.
Ahmed Tibi, an Arab legislator in Israel's parliament, said the reaction displayed by Umm el-Fahm residents was understandable.
"The unified position of the people of Umm al-Fahm was to repel those (ultranationalists) and the reaction was a natural one to this incursion by the security forces," Tibi said.
When the same group held a similar march in the town in March 2009 clashes erupted and dozens were wounded.
The march roughly coincides with the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane, a rightwing extremist who routinely referred to Arabs as 'dogs' and called for their expulsion from Israel.
PHOTO CAPTION
Arab-Israeli protestors run from undercover Israeli police on October 27 in Umm al-Fahm.
Agencies
