6 wounded in clashes over home demolition in Sakhnin
Two moderately hurt, four others in light condition after clashes between police and residents trying to stop the court-ordered demolition of a house illegally built on farmland and without permits; two arrested.
Six people were wounded Monday morning in clashes between police and Sakhnin residents who were trying to stop the court-ordered demolition of a house. Two were arrested.
An 28-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman, who were moderately hurt, were airlifted to the Ramban Medical Center in Haifa. The other four wounded were taken to a hospital in Nahariya in light condition.
A police force arrived in Sakhnin along with representatives of the Finance Ministry's district planning and construction committee to demolish under a court order a house built and populated illegally in the city's municipal area.
The two-story structure was built on farmland not allocated for construction and without its obtaining the proper building permits.
The police was entrusted with securing the demolition, which was supervised by Finance Ministry inspectors and carried out by a contractor.
After the demolition, some 200 Sakhnin residents arrived at the site, and some of them began rioting and throwing stones at police forces. The policemen used crowd dispersal measures.
"A young man on an ATV tried to break through a roadblock set up by the Israel Police," the police said.
Ali, a resident of Sakhnin, complained that "the police only want to demolish our homes without dealing with the housing crisis. Where can be build, while no progress is being made on the outline plan?"
"We're not construction criminals, but we have nothing left to do but to build on our lands," Ali went on to say. "We will continue our struggle without being afraid and without answering to anyone. The police won't deter us."
A woman from Sakhnin said that "Once we knew about the intention to demolish a house, we dropped everything and arrived at the scene to protect the house with our bodies. We're willing to sacrifice our lives for the houses and the families."
"The police and the government must understand that demolishing the homes will lead to an explosion. Because of the Nationality Law, they'll probably go more and more wild and allow themselves to hurt us in the most outrageous ways there are," she added.
Over the past month, several houses have been demolished in Arab communities, including in Qalansawe, Jaljulia, Manshiya Zabda, Umm al-Fahm, 'Ara and Lod.
The police said that they will "continue acting with determination against violent lawbreakers, whoever they may be, using arrests and crowd dispersal measures , among other things. On the other hand, we will continue allowing the freedom of expression and protest under the law, but we will not allow disturbing the public order, violence against police officers or civilians, rioting on main roads and hurting the daily life of Israeli citizens."
