Israeli troops fired stun grenades and prevented hundreds of Israeli leftist activists from organizing a solidarity rally on Friday in a Palestinian town that was set on fire by radical Jewish settlers earlier this week, protesters said.
Soldiers pushed at least two protesters to the ground, activists said, pressing their knees into their necks and backs before briefly restraining them.
Activists from Israeli rights organizations said soldiers and border policemen prevented busloads of protesters from entering the occupied West Bank town of Hawara, which still bears the scars of Sunday’s settler-led attack.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU RETURNS TO POWER IN ISRAEL WITH THE SWATH IN OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT
According to Sally Abed of the Standing Together group, soldiers knocked at least two protesters to the ground as they tried to arrest them, kicking and handcuffing them. Both were eventually released, she added.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hundreds of settlers, some armed with knives and guns, rampaged through Hawara on Sunday and set fire to dozens of homes and businesses after two Israeli brothers were shot and killed nearby. A Palestinian was killed in the mob assault.
Israel Border Police officers prevent hundreds of Israeli leftist activists from organizing a solidarity rally March 3, 2023, in a Palestinian town that was set on fire by radical Jewish settlers on Sunday. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
On Friday, some 500 people carrying solidarity placards and Palestinian flags – mostly elderly men and women, both Jews and Arab citizens – got off the buses and headed along the highway towards Hawara in defiance of army orders.
Palestinian motorists honked their horns in support. Protesters chanted “No to the Occupation” and “End Jewish Terror”. Facing the mass of police and troops deployed to stop their peaceful protest, they shouted, “Where were you when Hawara happened?” – referring to the intense rampage that went largely unchecked and unpunished.
In response to the crowd of protesters heading towards Hawara, the Israeli military fired stun grenades and tried to stop them, Abed said.
ARE PROGRESSISTS DEMONIZING ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU’S RIGHT-WING COALITION?
“It is ridiculous that the army is allowing settlers into Hawara as we speak, but we – Israeli Jews and Arabs who wish to show our solidarity – are being told there is no entrance,” Standing Together said. The group said the demonstration was coordinated with the local council and residents.
Unlike Palestinian cities like Ramallah which are under the control of the Palestinian Authority, Hawara is mostly under the control of Israeli security. The Israeli military said the ferocity and scale of the settler crowds earlier this week took them by surprise. The defense ministry has sent two suspects responsible for the violence into administrative detention.
A city of 7,000 Palestinians surrounded by ideological settlements, Hawara has long been a hotbed of violence between Israelis and Palestinians
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
On Friday, a delegation of European diplomats visited Hawara and a nearby village to examine the damage and report the chaos.
A chorus of condemnations for the rampage poured in from around the world, particularly after finance minister and settler leader Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday that Hawara should be “obliterated”. Smotrich, whose party wants Israel to formally annex large parts of the West Bank, later backtracked on those remarks.
Egypt’s foreign ministry on Friday called Smotrich’s remarks a “dangerous and unacceptable incitement to violence”.
