Clashes erupt in Israeli-Arab stronghold

Dozens of Jewish extremists marching along the outskirts of one of Israel's biggest Arab towns on Tuesday clashed with stone-throwing protests by Arab residents who were then dispersed by riot police.

Angry residents threw stones at helmeted riot police, who were deployed in their thousands to provide buffer between rallying far-right Jewish extremists and the residents in the northern Israeli city of Umm el-Fahm, close to Israel's boundary with the occupied West Bank.

Police responded with tear gas, sound grenades and water cannon to break up the demonstration. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

"We have almost 3,000 officers in and around the city," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

Residents protest

Residents of the lower Galilee city, a stronghold of the radical wing of the Islamic Movement, have vowed to prevent the Jewish marchers from entering municipal boundaries.

"We will prevent their entrance with our bodies with restraint, in a quiet and peaceful manner," Mayor Sheikh Khaled Hamdan said. Among those who plan to march is Baruch Marzel, who led the anti-Arab Kach party that was banned in 1994 and has been questioned several times by police in connection with attacks on Arabs.

Israel's High Court allowed the far right-wingers to march in Umm El-Fahm in October, but police called off planned demonstrations on several occasions. "The last time it was cancelled it was based on concrete intelligence that there will be disturbances and that's why it was cancelled," Rosenfeld said.

"The court decision is final. All the necessary precautions have been taken. Hopefully it will be quiet today."

The confrontations in Umm el-Fahm, underscored rising ethnic tensions throughout the Israel after years of bloodshed and diplomatic deadlock with the Palestinians.

We will prevent their entrance with our bodies with restraint, in a quiet and peaceful manner

Sheikh Khaled Hamdan, Mayor of Umm el- Fahm

Asserting Jewish sovereignty

Michael Ben-Ari, a lawmaker from the far-right National Union party who took part in the march, described the event as an assertion of sovereignty in the face of Israeli Arabs who profess loyalty to the embattled Palestinians.

"I want to say that if we don't wave the flag in Umm el-Fahm ... we will bring a state of Palestine all the way to Tel Aviv," Ben-Ari said.

Umm el-Fahm is in an area of Israel, where many of the country's 1.5 million Arab citizens live, that ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman wants to cede to a future Palestinian state in exchange for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Lieberman is slated to become foreign minister in the government that right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is forming.

Toward the end of the march, scores of townspeople, some bearing Palestinian flags, threw rocks at the Jewish rightists and police, who responded with teargas and water cannon.

At least 16 residents and 15 police were injured. A police spokesman had no immediate word on any arrests. Among those rallying against the march were Jewish left-wing activists.

Arabs make up 20 percent of Israel's population and, while enjoying citizenship rights, complain of widespread racial discrimination. Some refuse to recognize Israel, which was founded in a 1948 war on what was then British-ruled Palestine.

"What is going on today is that we are being targeted by the Israeli entity," Islamist Arab leader Raed Salah told Reuters.

"It's trying to legitimize the transfer of the Palestinians who live inside Palestine," he said, referring to Israeli Arabs.

I want to say that if we don't wave the flag in Umm el-Fahm ... we will bring a state of Palestine all the way to Tel Aviv

Michael Ben-Ari, Jewish lawmaker