Israel's National Union party launches racist provocation in Arab town

Palestinians that live in Israel have been smashed off the streets by police as they tried to prevent a bunch of Israeli racists marching through their town. These sort of marches remind me of when the racist, anti-semitic and fascist National Front would attempt to stage provocative marches in the multicultural areas of UK cities in the 1970s.

The police poured huge resources into protecting the NF but we eventually smashed them off the streets through force of numbers, notably in Lewisham, south-east London.

The National Union rally also sounds similar to the sectarian Orange Order marches through Catholic areas of the north of Ireland which were designed as a statement of superiority and supremacy by the Protestants over the Catholics.

Unfortunately in this case in northern Israel it was the police that succeeded, and the racist ant-Arab rally to 'assert sovereignty' went ahead. Mind you in the UK at the time we didn't have to put up with shock grenades and tear gas, although the police still managed to kill one of our number, Blair Peach.

And please, enough already with the 'there's no racism in Israel' line our pro-Israel commenters are fond of spouting.

Violent clashes broke out between the Israeli police and Arab residents of Umm Al-Fahm on Tuesday morning as right-wing Israelis staged a rally in the northern Israeli Arab town.

The police declared the gathering of residents and left-wing activists at the entrance to the town as illegal and demanded that dozens of demonstrators leave the area.

Police responded to stones hurled at them with shock grenades and tear gas.

At the same time, Israeli right-wing activists arrived at the outskirts of the city, accompanied by two bulletproof buses, and marched along a 800-meter stretch with Israeli flags.

More than 2,500 police, volunteers and border police were deployed in the town ahead of the rally in order to prevent violent confrontations between the locals and the protesters.

One hundred right-wingers took part in the rally, which was approved by the Israeli police, and lasted for about 30 minutes.

The procession was led by Itamar Bin-Gvir and Baruch Marzel, two firebrand right-wing activists, and Michael Ben Ari, a newly elected member of Knesset (the Israeli parliament) from the hawkish National Union party.

Below: The People of Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, northern Israel, speak out

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