- Reminiscent of Kristallnacht violence, Israeli Arabs
in Haifa District's Umm al-Fahm community were attacked, Haaretz writers
Fadi Eyadat, Jack Khoury, and Chaim Levinson headlining, "Police clash
with Arab protesters as rightists rally in Umm al-Fahm," saying:
-
- In Arab Umm al-Fahm, "Dozens of extreme rightists
(hooligan West Bank settlers) held a protest against the Islamic Movement,"
an initiative advocating Islam among Israeli Arabs on three levels - religious,
social, and support for Palestinian self-determination.
-
- Clashes followed, pitting Arab residents against 1,500
police, including special paramilitary and undercover forces, aiding hooliganism,
"fir(ing) tear gas and stun grenades" to scatter crowds. Nine
Arab residents were arrested, portrayed as instigators when they responded
in self-defense.
-
- Haaretz said about "30 right-wing demonstrators
traveled in buses from Jerusalem to Umm al-Fahm on (October 27), led by
far-right activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir." Their purpose
- in league with police, to hold a provocative demonstration march to incite
violence, calling on Israel to outlaw the Islamic Movement (headquartered
in Umm al-Fahm), as well as condemn Sheikh Raed Salah's (its leader) Gaza
Freedom Flotilla participation.
-
- Head of the religious Jewish National Front party, Marzel
is a notorious bigot, a man saying he was Rabbi Meir Kahana's "right
hand man" - Kahana, the extreme racist former Kach party head until
Israel banned it in 1988, calling it a "threat to security."
Gviv is a Knesset aide to MK Michael Ben-Ari (a protest march participant),
and spokesman for Marzel's Jewish National Front party. Both men are fascists.
-
- Their actions, and others like them, defile core Judaic
tenets. Exhibit A - holding a provocative/racist/violent rally in an Arab
community where they're not wanted and don't belong. It was held close
the 20th November 5 anniversary of Kahana's assassination, a man who lived
and died by the sword, a rabbi in name only.
-
- On October 27, Al-Jazeerah covered the incident headlining,
"Israeli Occupation Forces Attack Palestinians in Um Al-Fahm, During
a Provocative March by Fascist Israeli Settlers," saying:
-
- Violent clashes resulted, "Israeli occupation government
policemen....protected dozens of extremist Jewish settlers holding a provocative
protest against the Islamic Movement...."
-
- Besides assaulting residents with tear gas and stun grenades,
police "physically attacked them which led to injuries and suffocation
cases." MK Haneen Zoubi was harmed, struck in the back and neck by
rubber bullets when police opened fire. She believes snipers deliberately
targeted her for her Gaza Freedom Flotilla participation, after which she
received death threats and calls to expel her from parliament.
-
- Angrily, she denounced police violence, saying: They
"proved that they are a far more dangerous threat to me and other
Arab citizens than the fascist group that came to Umm al-Fahm," though
for sure former Kahanists and others like them pose a serious threat. Unaccountable,
they're lawless, menacing, and rampage freely in the West Bank.
-
- Umm al-Fahm is Israel's largest Arab community, its population
exceeding 43,000. Before settlers arrived, police and paramilitary goons
deployed within and around the city, ready to initiate assaults when they
came. Arab residents, of course, reacted defensively.
-
- MK Afu Agbaria was also injured, telling Al Jazeerah
that right-wing settlers and police "attack(ed) the legitimacy of
the Arab presence in the country in coordination with the right-wing extremists
in the government."
-
- Umm al-Fahm's Deputy Mayor Mustafa Ghalin told Haaretz
that the city "will never be open to those extreme right-wingers,"
arriving to incite violence.
-
- On October 28, Muslims.net said "Palestinian leaders
called for (a) city-wide strike....in protest (against) premeditated Israeli
police brutality and violence." The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee
wants it. It also demands that Israel investigate the violence, committee
chairman Mohammed Zeidan saying:
-
- "What happened (on October 27) was a very dangerous
occurrence. This wasn't a Marzel incident. It was an attack by security
forces who came to the city" with that in mind. "They planted
undercover officers (dressed like Arabs) among us who threw stones (to
provoke) and attack. Their decision was clear from the beginning, even
though they knew there were Knesset members in the crowd. What we felt
on our flesh today has taught us that a new era has started. Racism is
no longer found only in documents or on the margins, like with Marzel,
but has become a phenomenon among decision makers and carried out on the
ground. What happened in Umm al-Fahm is a menacing escalation."
-
- The committee plans to circulate a message to human rights
groups and global figures, highlighting the growing danger. It's reminiscent
indeed of 1930s Germany that escalated from racist laws to widespread violence
to death camps and mass extermination. Afterward, worldwide Jewry said
"never again," a hollow slogan given Israel's decades long slow-motion
genocide against Palestinian and Israeli Arabs, former victims now world-class
hatemonger/persecutors, committing horrendous daily crimes.
-
- Umm al-Fahm residents understand. So do West Bank and
East Jerusalem Palestinians as well as 1.5 million besieged Gazans. Suffocating
under imposed harshness, their very existence is threatened. Yet they endure
despite little outside aid, knowing it's up to themselves to survive, what
they've done heroically for over six decades and have no intention now
of quitting, a lesson Israelis haven't learned or that what they're doing
is self-destructive.
-
- A Final Comment
-
- On October 27, Haaretz writer Jack Khoury headlined,
"Israeli Arab activist confesses to spying for Hezbollah." Well
not exactly. Falsely accused and given a choice of life in prison or less,
Ameer Makhoul signed a plea bargain, "approved by the highest ranking
levels of prosecution, including the state prosecutor."
-
- According to Haaretz, he admitted to espionage, contact
with a foreign agent, and abetting an enemy, Makhoul saying in court that
the story "is not yet finished." He claims many charges were
irrelevant, but took the lesser of two choices. His lawyer said he passed
no classified documents or materials to anyone, let alone an enemy agent.
All cited information was well known and publicly available. On December
5, he'll be sentenced. Prosecutors want 10 years. His counsel seeks seven.
-
- Information about him can be accessed through the following
link:
-
- http://freeameermakhoul.blogspot.com/
-
- Two earlier Makhoul articles can be found through the
links below:
-
- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/05/israeli-persecution-of-human-rights.html
-
- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/10/israels-persecution-of-ameer-makhoul.html
-
- Makhoul is an Israeli citizen, human rights activist,
and head of the internationally recognized Ittijah organization for Palestinian
empowerment. He also chairs the Public Committee for the Defence of Political
Prisoners within the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee in Israel. Moreover,
he supports the global BDS movement. Like many others, he was targeted
for his activism and faith. In his case, for his prominence as well.
-
- He committed no crime, yet was arrested in May on spurious
charges of spying for Hezbollah. In fact, his outspokenness and legal discussions,
within and outside Israel, were called communicating with a "state
enemy," outrageous by any standard.
-
- According to Ittijah's founder, Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh, "there
is no doubt" that he was targeted for his political views. His wife,
Janan, said "The story is not finished, it will be told later."
Accepting a plea "was a choice between bad (or) worse" in a nation
where Arabs get no justice. It bears testimony to Israel's lawlessness,
its mockery of democratic principles, ones even eroding for Jews.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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