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Arab-Israelis accuse police of brutality against demonstrators

Demonstrations in the Arab-Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm spun out of control, and accusations of excessive force by the police have reached the Knesset.
Israeli Arab women take part in a protest after a student was killed in a reported police shootout this week, in the northern Arab-Israeli town of Umm-Al Fahem  on February 5, 2021. - Hundreds of Arab Israelis demonstrated protesters defied coronavirus restrictions on gatherings to demonstrate in front of the police station in the Arab-Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Early this January, armed assailants shot the former mayor of Umm al-Fahm, Suleiman Aghbariah, leaving him seriously wounded. In response, the people of the city have gathered every Friday after prayers for the last eight weeks to protest the wave of violence and crime inundating Arab society and an alleged absence of police efforts to enforce the law in the country’s Arab towns and villages.

The spontaneous protests were eventually taken over by the town’s youth movement known as al-Haraq al-Fahmawi al-Muwahad. This Friday, things spun out of control. When clashes erupted with the demonstrators, the police apparently resorted to using tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades. Knesset member Yousef Jabareen of the Joint List and current Umm al-Fahm Mayor Samir Mahameed were among some three dozen people who were injured by stun grenades or rubber bullets, with one young man evacuated to Haifa’s Rambam Hospital. After surgery, he is now in serious but stable condition.

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