Palestinians in Israel speak up against hate speech, police brutality
Police brutality has become a common refrain among Arab Israelis who dare demonstrate against oppression and hate speech.
The focus of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict suddenly shifted May 18 from Gaza and Jerusalem to Haifa, Israel’s third largest city. A pro-Palestinian demonstration attended by about 200 Arab Israelis was violently repressed by Israeli police. Nineteen protesters were arrested, among them the director of the Mossawa Center in Haifa, Jafar Farah. According to the human rights organization’s website, Farah had come to the demonstration to search for his son when he “was caught up in police interventions and arrested.”
Mossawa reported that when Farah “asked the police officers how [his son and others] came to be [bleeding], he was himself beaten and had his knee broken when a police officer kicked him in the leg.”
