The Mossawa Center calls for an end to the escalation of violence, which has taken place over the last two weeks. We call on the Israeli government to stop incitement,to end the violations and disruptions to the status quo of holy sitesand to stop the use of oppression against demonstrations taking place in the country. This month marks the anniversary of the demonstrations of October 2000, which ended in the death of 13 Arab citizens and hundreds more injured. In recent weeks Israeli authorities have been preventing Palestinian worshipers from accessing the Al-Aqsa mosque. They have even gone so far asto turn back tens of busses of Muslim Arab citizens coming from the North and Negev area to pray at Al-Aqsa. In contrast to these actions, Israeli forces accompanied Jewish extremist activists and settlers to enter the Al-Aqsa compound. Following these eventsviolent clashes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have erupted leaving hundreds of Palestinians injured and 27 killed, many of whom are minors. Public outcry and mass protests ensued after Israeli security forces killed 13 year old Abdulrahman ShadiObeidalla in Bethlehem while he was on his way home from school.[1]

An escalation of tension and violence in east Jerusalem and the West Bank has been on going for the last 2 years with an increase of violent and destructive price tag attacks from settlers. Including an arson attack, which killed a baby and his parents.[2]The Government has done little find those responsible for these attacks and bring them to justice.

While most Jewish Israeli’s are usually able to live in ignorance of the events taking place in the West Bank and Gaza, the violence has now reached over the separation wall. Several knife attacks have been carried out against Jewish Israelis, which has lead to wide spread fear mongering and incitement against Arab citizens. It has also lead to the automatic execution of any Arab who is thought to look suspicious. BasaraaZidanTaufik Abad a resident of Nazareth,allegedly attempted to attack a soldier with a knife and was later shot while surrounded by the police resulting in severe injuries. Many are saying she was not part of any attack at all and even if she was there was no reason to use such excessive force at the time of her arrest.[3] When Jewish citizens have carried out violent attacks or Price Tag attacks in the past they have not been met with such excessive force.

Unfortunately this is the type of reaction Arab citizens are all too used to. In 2003 the Or Commission which was established to investigate the events of October 2000 determined that it should be made unequivocally clear that firing live ammunition, including sniper fire and rubber coated bullets, is not a means to disperse crowds by the police. This determination has been ignored time after time by Israeli police when dealing with Arab citizens.[4] This use of violence has led to the killing of 53 Arab citizens since October 2000.[5]Further more, the interim police commissioner who is over seeing the current crisis is Bentzi Sau. In October 2000 Sau commanded the northern district’s border police. During this time and by his orders live ammunition and other extreme force were used to put down protests and demonstrations by Arab citizens. The Or commission found that under his command three Arab citizens were killed and many others wounded. They recommended that Sau be suspended from promotions for 4 years. Many in the Arab community are out raged that he is now in a place of such power and influence[6],where he is continuing his tactics of violence and incitement against the Arab community and serving the extreme right agenda.

Arab citizens protesting against the actions of the Israeli government have also been met with oppressive violence from the police and mass arrests. Activists in Nazareth, Sakhnin, Haifa and Tamra have been arrested at protests and even from their homes to prevent them from participating in further demontrations. Mossawa sees this as a violation of Arab citizen’s right to freedom of expression. It is becoming clear that the extreme violence used byIsraeli forces, which Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are already familiar with, is becoming more and more acceptable to be used on Arab citizens. Arab citizens are a minority group in Israel and their rights to protest and freedom of expression must be protected at all times. Unfortunately, the current Israeli government has sought only to deepen the discrimination against Arab citizens through anti democratic legislation, which limits the rights of Arab citizens.[7]

Mossawa condemns the use of violence and calls for a de-escalation of violence and for an end to the incitement.

The Mossawa Center calls on the Israeli government to:

• Stop the incitement and intentional provocation of Jewish extremists
• Maintain the status quo at the Al Aqsa compound and protect all holy places
• Protect the right to freedom of religion for all citizens
• Stop the use of live ammunition, preventive arrests and all forms of oppression on both sides of the green line
• Act to prevent the promotion of police officers who have been involved in the used of extreme violence against Arab citizens such as BentziSau
• Protect the minority rights of Arab citizens and prevent the deepening of discrimination through new legislation in the Knesset
• Find a peaceful and just way to bring the current wave of violence to an end
• Act immediately to end the occupation, end discrimination and bring peace to the people of the region

The Mossawa Center calls on the International community to act immediately and use all all-possible means to end the occupation and bring peace to the region.