File photo
Photo: Mohammad Shinawi
Council seeks to head off Arab event on displaced persons' rights
Police authorizes Independence Day rally by Arab-Israelis on grounds belonging to Nir Etzion moshav; regional council warns of '15,000 person anti-Zionist event', appeals to Public Security Minister Erdan, Commissioner Alsheikh to revoke permit; police claims location was chosen in conjunction with council, disavows ties to selection process.
Arab-Israelis are set to hold the minority group's main event on displaced persons' rights Thursday—which is also Independence Day. The event will be held on open land belonging to the Nir Etzion moshav in the northern region's Carmel.
Head of Hof HaCarmel Regional Council, under whose jurisdiction Nir Etzion is included, contacted Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh Wednesday requesting the event be canceled, fearing conflagration between the region's Jewish public and the Arab masses congregating there.
The council's head, Carmel Sela, had initially agreed to hold the event but later claimed he did so after being coerced by police. In recent days, however, more and more objections from local residents began to arise, as they refused to allow the event to be held in the intended location.
A previous Arab rally at Ofer Forest (Photo: Mohammad Shinawi)
Police rejected the council's claims, explaining the location was selected in coordination with both the council and its heads, with no compulsion involved whatsoever.
Nir Etzion is a collective moshav founded in 1950, partly by survivors of the battle for Kfar Etzion—overtaken by the Arab Legion on the eve of the state's founding.
In the past few years, Arab-Israelis have held memorial rallies near the locations of villages from which they claim to have been expelled during the War of Independence. In years past, the aforementioned event was held in the vicinity of Sepphoris (Zippori), as well as in Ofer Forest—also on the ground of Hof HaCarmel Regional Council.
The event was authorized by police this year to be held on grounds belonging to Nir Etzion. Head of the local council Sela commented on the matter, saying his regional council objected to holding the event on Israel's platinum jubilee.
"Since the police made it clear in no uncertain terms that the event will be held at Hof HaCarmel in any case," he continued, "I was left with no choice but to accede to hold the rally in the least sensitive place in the council—near the Nir Etzion waste purification plant, as per the police's recommendation."
(Photo: Mohammad Shinawi)
In a letter forwarded to Minister Erdan and Commissioner Alsheikh, Sela struck a less conciliatory tone in writing, "The Israel Police authorized to hold a huge rally and provided permits to 15,000 participants, who will be coming to protest and hold anti-Zionist actions on our land."
The rally, he added, will be held during a time of an "exceedingly sensitive security situation" and at the heart of Israel's Independence Day celebrations.
"We have received many overtures from concerned residents, religious organizations as well as Gush Etzion residents who said they planned to hold a counter-protest that will block the event from going ahead," Sela revealed.
"We consider holding the rally to be a real danger that may set the entire region alight," he cautioned, before concluding with a request for the pair's "urgent intervention" in canceling the event.
(Photo: Mohammad Shinawi)
Police disavows any ties to choosing rally's location
Police noted in a statement the location for the rally was selected by the council itself and that it was some distance away from the Nir Etzion moshav.
"Police received a request some two months ago from 'The Society for preserving the rights of displaced persons' to receive a permit to hold a march in the Ofer Forest region, with the participation of more than 10,000 people," the police's statement continued.
"The march," police said, "has been held annually for the past 20 years. Police reviewed the request and did not authorize the location sought by organizers."
As a result, police determined the rally was to be held in another location, to "prevent friction and reduce public disturbance."
(Photo: Mohammad Shinawi)
Organizers were therefore asked, the police alleged, to find an alternative location in conjunction with the relevant local authority and to enshrine the matter in a written agreement as a precondition to receiving the permit to hold the event.
The agreement was indeed officially signed, police added, and it was agreed that the march will pass through distant agricultural land leased by Nir Etzion.
"On the basis of the agreement by a council representative and a representative of the community to hold the rally on their grounds, the event was approved. Any attempt to tie the police to holding the event at any specific location whatsoever is wrong and misleading," the statement concluded.
