...and broken promises. Or they're just a primitive sect of Islam that still adheres to its tribal, clanish roots.

Not one study has shown danger from cellular antennas. The real target for destruction should be the petrochemical plants in Haifa which continue to spew out poisons into our air and water.

Not just in Druze areas.

Cellular antenna installed in Druze town of Peki'in prompts riots

Reminds me of something Saturday Night Live would spoof on "That's What You Did". But again, there could be a second side (let's hope - remember, Druze are the sane ones among us).

It's all SENSATION SENSATION SENSATION WAH-WAH-WAH!!! and at the bottom of the "article" you read the reason why ... Fearing Cancer from Cellular Antennae, Druze Riot; Dozens Injured What I want to know is how can the police get away with shooting somoeone in the stomach - that's serious.

There is no excuse for rioting and to injure MDA personnel is just a damn disgrace! Regarding the "dangers" of cellphone antennae, there is still no proof that the radiation is more dangerous than the radiation from other electrical devices such as the computer you are reading this on. How many rioters have given up their cellphones due to the “radiation danger”. What is a proven fact is that cigarette smoking kills and the Druze and Arab communities are some of the worst transgressors of the No Smoking laws. 10,000 Israelis of all creeds and faiths die EVERY year from smoking associated diseases. In that number are 1,500 who die of "Passive" smoking (Israel Cancer Society numbers). How many deaths can be attributed to cellphone radiation, both from the antennae and the phones? Anyone seen a “riot” or a demonstration against smoking?

I must remind you that smoking is voluntary. And so is the use of computers and cell phones. Exposure to electromagnetic radiation from those antennae is not. Too bad this degenerated into rioting, but when a community does not want these antennae located near residences or schools, their wishes should be respected. True, we don't have evidence that it's harmful, but there's no evidence that it's not, so we should err on the side of caution.

What a pathetically terrible article. It was a very obscure account with virtually no background, conclusion, nor analysis. It also seemed backwards. I read there was a riot and the outcome... and THEN I found out why. That's Grade 6-level writing.

I thought they were Druze, not Luddites.

What do the government, the police and Arab sector expect? They condition Yassam Storm Troopers to violently beat peaceful protestors as happened in Amona. They justify incarcerating a 14 year old girl for assault because she shouted at a policemen. They break the arm of a doctor and a retired general for no reason. When confronted with a real riot (burning a Jew's house, shooting, kidnapping, seriously wounded police) what do they want the Yassam to do?

What did that Jewish house have to do with the cellular antenna and the brutal behavior of the rioters? I suspect that beside their "anger with the antenna" some of them do not really like Jews. I'll keep that in mind next time I consider visiting P'kiin. In a democracy there is Law and Order and if that antenna was placed there lawfully, the only recourse is to fight it LEGALLY. Not only that, cellular companies are FORCED by law to provide their service to every part of Israel. If the residents of P'kiin have a problem with that, they should petition the Ministry of Communications to EXCLUDE their vilage from any cellular service. And rioting and sabotaging lawfully-installed equipment, is not "normative behavior" for ANYBODY, including for those "serving in the security forces" be they Druze or not. And kidnapping and blackmailing is not "normative" or acceptable either, under ANY pretext. If I was Cellcom, or Orange or anybody else, I would see myself freed from the commitment to offer service to those villages and stop each and every cellular service in the area. If they want to live in the middle ages and behave like primitives then let them!

The second intifada began after the unpopular Ehud Barak's surrender to Arafat's and Clinton's dictates with a series of "minor incidents" over the period of a month such as the assault on Atarot air field, the murder of an Israeli Border Policeman on "peace patrol" by his Arab colleague, and gunshots from the peaceful village Furedis. It seems the third intifada will now begin. The unpopular Ehud Olmert is surrendering to Abbas and Rice. His surrender is met with a series of "minor" incidents: the deadly assault yesterday by highly trained Hamas soldiers, endless Kassam rockets and now riots in a previously peaceful village.

How are the people on this talkback giving the blame to the Druze? No one is saying that burning / violating a cellular antenna is ok; they broke the law and everyone accepts that. However, how can we justify sending in 200 people officers to a Druze town for an ARREST operation? We don't send that many soldiers into Nablus when we go in for an arrest operation. Live ammunition? What are we at war with these people? The same people laying blame on the Druze in this situation are the same people who call the IDF nazi's or promote their disobaying orders when sent in against settlers / Jews. I don't support an abuse of power against Jews or Arabs; we have clowns for leaders and todays event is another sign of that.

The police/security services in this country are proving themselves more incompetent all the time. This reminds me of the excessive force used against settlers in Amona, the use of live ammunition against Israeli-Arab protesters in 2000..the constant inept harassment of the Bedouins. Why did they enter the Druze temple? What was the justification for that? Why are they provoking the Druzim, the most loyal pro-Israeli minority in this land? They handle everything with complete lack of sensitivity and respect. Outrageous,

Not enough people know that cellular phones adjust their transmitting power according to the signal intensity they receive from the cell antennas. This is true to EVERY brand, Nokia, Motorola, Sony, etc. - and any Cellular service company (Orange, Cellcom, Pelephone etc.) this is an international standard and no riot can change that. That means that if the signal is weak, the cellular phones INCREASE their transmission power up to FIVE times as much as when the signal is good. That means that in case you don't have a good reception (no nearby antenna) you're getting a MUCH higher dosage of radiation on the same frequency and NEAR YOUR BRAIN! In normal use, the periods of "high power" are very short because the "big" antennas coverage is good and as such the reception is good. But what happens when you constantly don't have reception around where you live? You are not mobile and you get the same low-signal all the time, forcing the cell phone to transmit at maximum power. Ye, you get "iradiated" many times more becasue of that. So all those "greens" being afraid of the "big" antennas and fighting them, are actually condemning themselves and all the users around them to a much higher radiation level than if it was an antenna nearby. I do not claim that yhe radiation is harmful or not but if you are afraid of it, you should know these facts before burning a cellular antenna near your area. Instead of fighting to remove the antenas, you should fight to get good coverage and as a result, reduce the transmitting power of the cell phones. The only way to reduce/remove any radiation is to stop using cellular services - no antenas, no cellular phones. Which will be the first village / city to do that? Yet again a proof that ignorance, primitivism and "green" taken to extreme can be hazardous to your health.

There are sectors of out society who are incapable of conflict resolution in a civilized manor. In Modiin there was also a conflict over Cell phone Antennas, this is being disputed through the Mayors office and courts, not through riots , kidnappings and fires. This apect of being incapable of resolving conflict in a civilised manor is at the heart of a great many of Israel's and the region problems. Education of the public is the only way to solve it.

So why should those residents get high radiation from the antenna so that you and other users can get less radiation by having a closer antenna? Can you understand their point? They just don't want the darn antenna near their homes and couldn't care less whether the users are inconvenienced. It's their homes and their health that they are trying to protect. I don't condone their methods but we have to understand what's behind all this.

The Israel Police are not trustworthy, and certainly can't be allowed to main what is essentially their own militia.

Instead of cowering in fear from the planters of toxic cellular towers on rooftops in every city and township inhabited by Jews. Rise UP. Rise UP. Fight! Why are we such wimps and chickens when it comes to our lives and welfare???? PATHETIC!

Ironic that no one riots over the petrochemical chernobyl that slowly kills Haifa region residents while one of the Israeli owners lives in America.

It is THEM - the Pkiin reidents -getting more radiation - not the passers by! I could not care less if there is cellular coverage in Pkiin or not: if I drive my car near Pk'iin and have a weak coverage then I will have great coverage again in 1-2km (about 45 seconds of driving) . But if I LIVE in Pk'iin I would constantly have low reception and all the Pkiin cell phones will emit more radiation to their users brains (or lack of)! No do YOU understand the point "Bob"? So if they don't want an antenna, fine! Did they actually MEASURE the radiation levels to check if they are high enough to be "dangerous" ? NO! They just went crazy when they saw the antenna and burnt it. THAT is primitive and unlawful. If Pkiin residents don't want cellular phones, that's fine: then they should stop using them and they will get zero radiation. FYI, radiation levels drop by tye SQUARE of the distance from teh source, but since the cellphones ahave zer distance from the ear, the radiation level is 100%. Not so with the Cellular antennas which are hundreds and sometimes kilometers away from populated areas. And thiose installed IN populated areas have significantly lower transmission power (and higher deployment density) so you get an overall lower radiation per sqm. Basically before barking theri ignorance in public and biting anybody who happens to be coming their way, people should check all the facts. And I do understand what is "behind this". More than often it is ugly politics hidden behind "concern for the citizens" and not really about any radiation. If you care to dig a bit deeper than what is comfortable for you to hear, then you will discover the real agenda behind the riots, and it can be anything from money and crime, to extreme nationalism playing with people's ignorance and legitimate concerns.

Yes, stop the "toxic cellular towers". STOP USING YOUR CELLULAR PHONE YOU WHIMP! Do you have the balls to do THAT? You do indeed have the mind of a "chicken" since it seems that you think with your @$$ and not with your brain!

And that is the burning of the Jewish house. I think that all of us need to reflect on this incident and others where the Druze have shown overtly hostile feelings for the Jewish citizens of Israel, with even the talk of a Druze intifada. The incident about the antenna is only a minor detail within the greater context of a very serious problem regarding this minority in Israel.

Ah, you ask - what could the police force possibly have been thinking when it sent 200 police to enforce one court order? Well, as any resident of the Galillee knows, there is one set of rules for the Jews and another for the non-Jews. The non-Jews are "allowed" to stockpile arms, shoot off guns far into the night at outdoor weddings, build without building permits, break any and all laws when driving. Any interference with these God -given rights is met with instant, total violence involving as many people as possible. I'm no big fan of police force, but I can definitely understand why such a large group of police was sent. They were well aware of what was going to happen! I heard a Druse leader interviewed on the radio who said that the man who was harboring the antenna had already been told to remove it and had responded, "This is my income source, butt out!" People are PAID good money by the phone companies to keep antennas. The real source of all the problems in Pekin was someone who, for whatever reasons of his own, decided that money was more important to him than anything else, including the health of those around him.

Does anything 'nice' ever happen in Israel? Or is it just violence, death, walls, incursions, black outs and stories of Israelis painting swastikas everywhere. It sounds as if not happy with eliminating the Palestinains the Israelis are now getting heavy handed on the Druze.

The demand for cell phone service in Israel is way out of control. Why does every 8 year old need a freakin' cell phone? Why use a cell phone when you're at home with a land line? Why call when it's not 100% necessary? The idea that every person needs one is ludicrous. How did we survive 20 years ago without being on call 24-7? Also, do people really need to clog the system by sending 3rd generation images and video, further radiating the rest of us?