Arab Israelis protest Gaza 'massacre'
UMM AL-FAHM, Israel (AFP) — Thousands of Israeli Arabs rallied in the northern town of Umm al-Fahm on Tuesday to express solidarity with the Palestinians and protest the army's deadly offensive in Gaza.
Gathered in the town centre amid a heavy police presence, the protestors waved Palestinian flags and called on Israel to stop its offensive in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which killed more than 120 people in less than a week.
"Stop the massacre!" the crowd chanted. Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that more than 5,000 people took part.
Israel's latest offensive in the Gaza Strip, launched in a bid to end the near-daily rocket fire against the south of the country, sparked a wave of violent protests across the occupied West Bank.
The protestors also called for moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement to form a unity government with the Islamist Hamas movement, which seized Gaza from Fatah last year.
"Abbas! Haniya! We want national unity," they cried, referring to Ismail Haniya, the prime minister who was dismissed by Abbas amid the Gaza takeover last June.
Arab Israeli MP Mohammed Barakeh called for Israel and the Palestinians to continue peace talks, which Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas suspended last week following Israel's offensive.
"Israel's war in Gaza will not give it security or stability. We call for Palestinian dialogue with Israel, but Israel cannot sit around the negotiating table and kill Palestinians on the ground at the same time," he said.
"There should be a comprehensive ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians," the MP told AFP at the rally.
One protestor, Adel Amer, 45, said he also came to call on Israel to lift its blockade on the densely populated coastal strip.
"I came here in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, to stop the massacre and to call for the lifting of the blockade," he told AFP.
Israel's Arab minority, the descendants of the 160,000 Palestinians who remained in the Jewish state when it was created in 1948, today accounts for 1.2 million of Israel's seven-million population.
