Emeute à Oumm Al Fahm أمّ الفحم mars 2009
Umm al-Fahm (Arabic: أمّ الفحم Umm al-Faḥm, Hebrew: אֻם אל-פַחְם) is a city in the Haifa District of Israel with a population of 43,300
Riots break out in Arab Israeli town during ultra-nationalist Jewish march
March 24, 2009
Barak agrees to join Netanyahu coalition
Rising ethnic tensions were underscored in Israel today as violent clashes took place in one of Israel‘s biggest Arab towns between Jewish ultra-nationalists and local youths.
Police dispersed rock-throwing Arab residents of Umm el-Fahm with stun grenades and tear gas in the town, which is close to Israel‘s boundary with the occupied West Bank.
The outbreak of violence took place following a march by right-wing Jews aiming to demonstrate sovereignty over the town, which has a strong Islamic movement.
Michael Ben-Ari, a lawmaker from the far-right National Union party who took part in the march, said: “I want to say that if we don’t wave the flag in Umm el-Fahm … we will bring a state of Palestine all the way to Tel Aviv. »
Among the leaders of the march was Baruch Marzel, who led the anti-Arab Kach party that was banned in 1994 and who has been questioned several times by police in connection with attacks on Arabs.
Umm el-Fahm is in an area of Israel where many of the country’s 1.5 million Arab citizens live, and which Mr Lieberman wants to to cede to a future Palestinian state in exchange for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Mr Lieberman has been slated to become foreign minister in the Netanyahu coalition.
More than 2,000 police were deployed as a buffer between the flag-waving Israelis, including many from openly anti-Arab political groups, and residents of Umm el-Fahm. Toward the end of the march, scores of townspeople, some bearing Palestinian flags, threw rocks at the Jewish demonstrators and at police, who responded with teargas and water cannon. At least 16 residents and 15 police were injured. Reports suggested that a senior police chief was also hurt.
Jamal Zahalka, an Israeli Arab MP, slammed the Jewish demonstrators as racists. “Racism is not freedom of expression, it’s a criminal act and the law should punish it, » he said.
Dozens injured after Israeli extremist protest causes riot
24 mars 2009
Police and soldiers responded to a hail of rocks with tear gas and stun grenades. (AFP Photo: Awad Awad)
Dozens of police and civilians have been injured during wild protests in the Israeli Palestinian town of Umm el-Fahm.
The violence erupted as a group of Israelis from a far right-wing group insisted on the right to march in the Arab town.
In an act of extreme provocation, the 100 ultra nationalists needed 2,500 Israeli police and bullet proof buses to protect them.
As they neared the town violence erupted amongst the thousands of Palestinian Israelis who wanted to prevent them from getting any further.
Police and soldiers responded to a hail of rocks with tear gas and stun grenades.
The pitch battles continued for around two hours.
The divisive march only went ahead after the ultra nationalists won a court order allowing them to go ahead.
Violent clashes in Arab-Israeli town after far-Right march
telegraph.co.uk
Israeli police have dispersed hundreds of stone-throwing Arab-Israeli demonstrators with stun grenades and tear gas after a group of far-Right Israeli Jews marched through an Arab town demanding that residents show loyalty to the Jewish state.
By Dina Kraft in Umm el-Fahm
24 Mar 2009
Israel riot: Teenage boys, some with faces wrapped in keffiyehs, darted down alley ways, through olive groves and charged down streets hurling stones towards the police. Photo: GETTY
Police fired stun grenades and water cannons in the town of Umm el-Fahm in a bid to disperse protesters, as they hoisted Palestinian flags and chanted « With our blood and our spirit we will defend Umm el-Fahm » and « We won’t let the racists come in. »
Teenage boys, some with faces wrapped in keffiyehs, darted down alley ways, through olive groves and charged down streets hurling stones towards the police. Dozens of Arab protesters were lightly injured by tear gas, and several policemen were injured by stones, including Shahar Ayalon, the deputy police commissoner.
The violence broke out as a group of about fifty far-Right demonstrators waving Israeli flags walked along a winding road on the outskirts of the town, protected by a swath of riot police wearing helmets and plastic shields, some of them on horseback. They were permitted to march for only 800 meters at a distance of about 400 meters from the protesters, who had been cordoned off by the police.
The group, led by extremists from a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, had won the right to march in Umm el-Fahm after petitioning the supreme court. A previous attempt in the town had been thwarted by the police who said such a march could spark violence.
About 2,500 police had been deployed to secure the area.
« We have an issue only with extremists, not the Jews as a nation, » said Yunis Jabareen, a former deputy mayor of the town, as he stood on the main street where the clashes took place, which was strewn with rocks, tires, and toppled rubbish bins. Like other Arab-Israelis, he said he viewed the march as a provocation.
The far-Right group said that they were exercising their right as Israeli citizens to march in the town and wanted to send a message that Arab citizens of Israel should be loyal to the state.
Umm el-Fahm is considered a centre of Islamist activity in the country and was one of the first municipalities to be run by the Isamist movement.
It is viewed warily by many Jewish Israelis. Sheikh Raad Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamist movement who has been arrested repeatedly for anti-Israeli incitement, lives in Umm el-Fahm.
In 1985, Meir Kahane, the late leader of the Kach movement, a Jewish extremist organisation that advocated for the transfer of Arab citizens of Israel to neighboring Arab countries, tried to march here but was not allowed in.
« Today marks the beginning, » said Michael Ben-Ari, a lawmaker and member of the National Union, a Right-wing party, who was among the marchers. « We cannot say we won, but we did not lose. We started something. »
In the crowds showing their solidarity with the residents of Umm el-Fahm were Jewish peace activists and those from neighbourhing villages and kibbutzim, who said the march was an attempt to thwart efforts at peaceful co-existence in the area.
« The supreme court made a mistake letting the march go ahead because these people are abusing democracy in order to spark incitement and racism, » said Ilan Sadeh, head of a neighbouring regional council in the Wadi Ara area, home to a majority of Arab towns and villages along with Jewish areas. He pointed to the good relations between the communities who coordinate on business development, tourism and environmental issues.
Umm el-Fahm residents expressed fear that Israel‘s government was becoming more hard-line and even extreme, pointing to the recent rise of Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, which became the third-largest faction in the parliament in recent elections. Mr Lieberman has said that, in the event of a future peace deal with the Palestinians, Arab towns like Umm el-Fahm, close to the West Bank, should become part of a Palestinian state.
« This is a joke. We are citizens of this country, » said Mr Jabareen.
Clashes erupt in Israeli-Arab town
24 mars 2009
Israeli police have used stun grenades and tear gas to disperse a protest by Arab residents of a northern Israeli town.
The protest in Umm el-Fahm, one of Israel‘s largest Arab towns, erupted on Tuesday after Jewish hardliners tried to march through the town.
Mickey Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said police swung into action after protesters hurled stones at security men.
He said 16 policemen had been lightly wounded and ten protesters arrested.
Mustafa Suheil, the town’s deputy mayor, said 15 protesters had been lightly wounded.
Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Umm el-Fahm, said a group of about 100 Israeli right-wingers wanted to march in the town, home to about 15,000 Palestinians.
He said the group’s march followed a supreme court decision that allowed them to « excerise their sovereignty over the city ».
‘Provocative decision’
« They wanted to come with Israeli flags and many people thought that was a very provocative decision, » he said.
« Police have been using tear gas to try to disperse them. The Palestinians had gathered here to prevent this extreme Israeli right wing-group from entering the town.
« Police feared that there could be a confrontation between the residents and this group. »
Mohyeldin said the police were withdrawing and the situation was calming down.
He said police officers and Palestinians injured in the clashes had been evacuated from the scene.
Tensions inside Israel, particularly among the indigenous Arab population, have been extremely high following the war on Gaza, Mohyeldin said.
« And subsequently since then we have been hearing accounts of the conduct of the Israeli forces and that has angered many Palestinians inside Israel as well as peace activists. »
He said Palestinians inside Israel were complaining that they were being treated as second-class citizens – deprived of many of the same resources that the predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods in cities of Israel receive.
Clash in tense Israeli-Arab town
24 mars 2009
Local residents clash with police firing tear gas
Israeli-Arab protesters have clashed with police as Jewish Israeli right-wingers marched in the majority-Arab town of Umm al-Fahm.
Thirteen arrests were made as police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse stone-throwing protesters.
Israeli-Arab residents of the town view the march as highly provocative and had vowed to stop it.
The High Court gave permission for the march, but police had postponed it several times, fearing violence.
About 2,500 police in riot gear flanked about 100 far-right activists as they marched on the outskirts of the town, waving Israeli flags.
The BBC’s Katya Adler: « This is an extremely violent demonstration »
The march was over within an hour, but clashes broke out as dozens of young, male Israeli-Arab counter-demonstrators, some with their faces covered with Palestinian scarves, began pelting the police with rocks.
The BBC’s Katya Adler at the scene described crouching behind a car with stones raining all around her.
She says that most of the crowd were angry but not violent, and older residents expressed disapproval as the rioting escalated.
A police spokesman said 15 police officers were injured, including Israel‘s deputy police commissioner.
‘Raising Israeli flag’
The Israeli right-wingers said they wanted to exercise their right to march and raise the Israeli flag in any street in Israel.
One of the leaders of the march was Baruch Marzel, who led the anti-Arab Kach party that was banned in Israel in 1994.
« All we are doing is waving the Israeli flag. All we are demanding is loyalty to the state, » another march leader, Michael Ben-Ari Ben-Ari, a member of the Israeli parliament, told the Israeli news website Ynet.
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« There is in Umm al-Fahm a gang of hooligans, who think they can win using violence. The State of Israel is the Jewish people’s state. We are here to voice our truth and not to create provocations, » he said.
Israeli-Arab residents of Umm al-Fahm consider the marchers racist, and had called a general strike and said they would use peaceful methods to prevent the activists from entering the town.
« Racism is not freedom of expression, it’s a criminal act and the law should punish it, » Israeli Arab MK Jamal Zahalka told the AFP news agency.
Jewish Israeli leaders from nearby towns also condemned the march as provocative, and some Jewish left-wingers were at the counter-demonstration.
The march took place on the outskirts of the town, after the High Court ruled the activists could enter its municipal boundaries but not residential areas.
The town is considered a stronghold of Israeli-Arab sentiment, and is also where 13 Israeli-Arab protesters were killed during riots as the last Palestinian uprising, or intifada, broke out in 2000.
Our correspondent says the anger on the streets of Umm al-Fahm is symptomatic of a growing sense of alienation among Israeli Arabs.
She says many Israeli Arabs see the march as part of a growing trend within Israeli society of increased suspicion and intolerance towards them.
The march was planned about a year ago, but comes in the wake of a strong showing for the far right politician, Avigdor Lieberman, in Israel‘s recent elections.
Mr Lieberman advocates transferring majority-Arab areas in Israel to the control of the Palestinian Authority, and wants to bring in a citizenship law demanding that all Israeli citizens, including Israeli-Arabs, swear allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state.
He and other right-wingers accused Israeli-Arab leaders who were strongly critical of Israel during its recent operation in Gaza, of supporting Hamas.
Mr Lieberman’s party is a key members of the right-leaning coalition that Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu is putting together.
Israeli-Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel‘s population, and are descended from families who remained in Israel after the war that followed the state’s creation in 1948.
They are full Israeli citizens, but face widely documented discrimination.
Israel: Several wounded as Arabs protest far right march
24-03-2009
Dozens of radical right-wing activists carried out a provocative march in the Arab Israeli Umm al-Fahm Tuesday morning. According to ynet, thousands of Israeli police officers were deployed in the area to prevent clashes between local residents and the rightists.
However, leftist lawmaker Ilan Ghilon (Meretz) and a high-ranking police officer were wounded on Tuesday in a clash between police and Arab demonstrators protesting the march. According to Haaretz, at least three other police officers were wounded in the clashes, which erupted after police arrested three Israeli Umm al-Fahm residents, who had scuffled with officers. The detainees had gathered for a counter-demonstration held by Umm al-Fahm residents. Police declared the rally to be illegal and ordered the Israeli Arab protestors, some of whom were waving Palestinian flags, to leave.
After the march ended, local residents continued to clash with police. At least 13 locals were injured during the clashes.
The municipal council of Um Al-Fahm city has decided to announce a general strike on Tuesday to protest the march. It said that the strike would cover the commercial sector and schools, which might lead to confrontations between the Arab city inhabitants and the supporters of the Israeli right, who will flock to the city to participate in the march.
Right-wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who planned the march together with Baruch Marzel said, « We will just come with Israeli flags and demand that the residents of Umm Al-Fahm be loyal to the State ».
Last week police approved the march after receiving an order from the High Court of Justice.
© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
Israeli police disperse protesters in Arab town
UMM EL-FAHM, Israel (AP) — Israeli police say they are using stun grenades and tear gas to disperse a protest by Arab residents of a northern Israeli town.
Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld says hundreds of protesters are hurling stones at thousands of security men who have gathered in Umm el-Fahm. There are no reports of serious injuries.
Umm el-Fahm is one of Israel‘s largest Arab town. The demonstration began after Jewish extremists marched by the town in what was widely seen as a provocation. Hundreds of residents were gathered at entrances to the town.
Arabs in Israel are one-fifth of Israel‘s population. They suffer discrimination and tend to be poorer their Jewish counterparts.
Israeli police flood Arab town ahead of march
UMM EL-FAHM, Israel (AFP) — Thousands of Israeli police flooded into the town Umm el-Fahm, a bastion of Israeli Arab nationalism, ahead of a court-sanctioned march by far-right Jewish extremists.
« We have almost 3,000 officers in and around the city, » police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.
« The march is scheduled for 10 am (0800 GMT) on the outskirts of the city, » he said. « We have a large police presence to maintain public order and prevent disturbances. »
Residents of the lower Galilee city, a stronghold of the radical wing of the Islamic Movement, have vowed to prevent the Jewish marchers from entering municipal boundries.
« We will prevent their entrance with our bodies with restraint, in a quiet and peaceful manner, » mayor Sheikh Khaled Hamdan said.
Among those who plan to march is Baruch Marzel, who led the anti-Arab Kach party that was banned in 1994 and has been questioned several times by police in connection with attacks on Arabs.
Israel’s High Court allowed the far right-wingers to march in Umm El-Fahm in October, but police called off planned demonstrations on several occasions.
« The last time it was cancelled it was based on concrete intelligence that there will be disturbances and that’s why it was cancelled, » Rosenfeld said.
« The court decision is final. All the necessary precautions have been taken. Hopefully it will be quiet today. »
Marzel had planned to monitor voting in Umm el-Fahm during the February 10 Israeli election, but the authorities withdrew permission at the last minute for fear of violence.
Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel’s population of nearly seven and a half million
Arab Town Braces For Jewish Rally Violence
Tuesday March 24, 2009
An Israeli Arab town is bracing itself for potential violence during a march by radical Jewish right wingers.
Israeli authorities are preparing for trouble from a Jewish rally in an Arab town
Two thousand police are being sent to Umm al Fahm because of fears of a riot later.
The town, in Israel proper, has a history of unrest. It was a flashpoint during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising when Israeli Arabs clashed with security forces there.
Right wingers say they are only practising their right to march anywhere on the land of Israel.
« There is no reason why we shouldn’t be allowed to show that it’s a part of Israel, » one of the leaders of the march, Baruch Marzel told Sky News.
« We’re going there and we’re marching and we’ll show the whole world it’s a part of Israel. »
But critics say the march is a deliberate provocation of the town’s Arab residents at a time of heightened tensions in the wake of Israel‘s offensive in Gaza in January.
Arab Knesset members have condemned the march and residents have vowed physically to block its passage into their town.
But Mr Marzel told Sky News they intend to march into the town regardless.
Asked about the feelings of the people of the town, he said putting up with the march was « part of the price you have to pay for democracy which included listening to voices you don’t agree with ».
But he said that principle did not extend to the right of Israeli Arabs to demonstrate their support for Hamas during the war in Gaza.
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