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Palestinians in Israel speak up against hate speech, police brutality

Police brutality has become a common refrain among Arab Israelis who dare demonstrate against oppression and hate speech.
Palestinian and Arab Israeli protesters wave Palestinian flags as they march for the right of return for Palestinian refugees who fled their homes or were expelled during the 1948 war that followed the creation of the state of Israel, during the 70th anniversary of the Jewish state's founding, near Haifa in northern Israel, on April 19, 2018. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)        (Photo credit should read AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images)

The focus of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict suddenly shifted May 18 from Gaza and Jerusalem to Haifa, Israel’s third largest city. A pro-Palestinian demonstration attended by about 200 Arab Israelis was violently repressed by Israeli police. Nineteen protesters were arrested, among them the director of the Mossawa Center in Haifa, Jafar Farah. According to the human rights organization’s website, Farah had come to the demonstration to search for his son when he “was caught up in police interventions and arrested.”

Mossawa reported that when Farah “asked the police officers how [his son and others] came to be [bleeding], he was himself beaten and had his knee broken when a police officer kicked him in the leg.”

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