Under police protection, right-wing extremists intend to march in the town of Umm al-Fahm, in the north of Israel to demand the expulsion of Arabs from the country and to commemorate Maer Kahane, the founder of the Kach Movement. At least 1,500 policemen will be deployed in the town. The settlers, led by far-right fundamentalists, Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir, are calling for the Islamic Movement in Israel to be outlawed.
The settlers intend to hold a protest while carrying signs against Arabs in the country and against the Islamic Movement.
Israel decided to allow the fundamentalist right-wingers to march in the town, which is completely populated by Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are Muslim. However, they were informed that they will not be allowed to protest in front of the office of the Islamic Movement.
They will be holding their protest nearby the place where protests had been held last year, when clashes between protesters and Arab residents resulted in injuries and the detainment of dozens of residents by the police.
This year, the police decided to take certain measures reportedly meant to limit confrontations between the Arabs and the Israeli protesters. The measures include deploying hundreds of policemen in the areas of Umm al-Fahm and Wadi Ara.
Meanwhile, the Umm al-Fahm Municipality decided not to declare a general strike. Acting mayor, Mustafa Suheil, said that the extremist protesters are only a minority that does not deserve the attention.
Israeli Yedioth Aharanoth reported that Arab member of Knesset, Afou Agbaria of the Hadash Party, demanded that the Israeli police refrain from any provocative acts and to perform their duties faithfully.
Umm al-Fahm City Council member, Riyadh Jamal, sent a letter to Mayor Sheikh Khalid Hamdan, asking him to hold an urgent session to be attended by representatives of different factions and the Arab Follow-up Committee, in order to discuss the provocative visit and the ways to deal with it.
The Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that the protesters intend to march near the the offices of the Islamic Movement to protest its participation in the Freedom Flotilla that headed to Gaza last May.
Seventy members of the movement, including its head Sheikh Raed Salah from Umm al-Fahm, participated in the humanitarian flotilla. Nine Turkish peace activists were killed and dozens of activists were wounded when the Israeli Navy attacked the Turkish Mavi Marmara solidarity ship.
Sheikh Salah accused the Israeli army of deliberately attempting to kill him when the soldiers boarded the ship.
Meir Kahane was a well-known right-wing Israeli rabbi and the leader of the Jewish organization, Kach. The movement was later regarded by Israel as a terrorist group.
He was known in the United States and Israel for advocating for massive Jewish immigration to Israel, and massive Arab expulsion, using the imminent threat of a ‘Second Holocaust,’ to justify the immigration.
He also promoted the idea a ‘Greater Israel,’ which supports a proposal for Israel to annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Kahane was shot and killed in Manhattan in 1990, following a speech he had given.
