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Protests in Arab towns following deadly police shooting
Unrest broke out in a number of Arab towns in northern and central Israel after a local man was shot dead by Israeli police in the village on Kfar Kana on Friday evening.
22-year-old Kheir a-Din Hamdan was killed by a single bullet fired by a police officer who said that Hamdan was wielding a knife and his life was in danger. Security footage of the incident shows Hamdan repeatedly strike a police vehicle with an object that looks like a knife and then move away from it as police emerge from the vehicle, before being shot. Hamdan died in hospital on Saturday morning.
Although the police and Justice Ministry have launched an investigation into the incident, a general strike was declared in Kfar Kana on Saturday morning. Arab community leaders declared that the strike would be observed nationally on Sunday. Arab businesses closed in the north of the country while schools shut in the centre.
The strike was accompanied by violent protests and Channel Two reported that 29 arrests were made yesterday. In Kfar Kana, tyres were burned and stones hurled at police. Meanwhile, a Jewish Israeli driver was dragged from his car near Taibe and although reportedly rescued by locals, demonstrators burned his car. Rocks were apparently thrown at cars near Abu Ghosh on Route 1 towards Jerusalem. Meanwhile, demonstrations took place in northern towns Shfaram, Umm al-Fahm, Kafr Qasim, and Nazareth. Dozens of Arab students also protested at Tel Aviv University and Haifa University.
United Arab List MK Ahmed Tibi insinuated that police dealt with Hamdan differently than they would have a Jewish demonstrator, commenting, “there is one Jew [Yigal Amir] that shot the Prime Minister [Yitzhak Rabin] and he was neutralised without being shot to death.” However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that the violence was fuelled by incitement from “first of all – the various Islamic movements: Hamas and the Islamic movement in Israel.” He added, “But also standing behind this incitement is the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas].”