RAHAT // Palestinian Israelis closed shops and schools from the northern Galilee to the southern Negev desert on Tuesday in a day-long strike to protest the deaths of two Bedouin men in incidents involving Israeli police.
Palestinian students at Tel Aviv University also staged a protest outside the campus fence, drawing jeers and angry retorts from Jewish passers-by, according to Israeli public radio.
“The general strike today is to send a strong message that the entire Arab community ... strongly protests the murders of two citizens of the state of Israel whose only crime is being Arab,” said Taleb Al Sana, a former member of the Israeli parliament and chairman of an umbrella organisation of Palestinian Israeli groups. Mr Al Sana is himself Bedouin.
Sami Al Jaar, 22, died of a gunshot wound last week during a police drug raid on the Negev Bedouin town of Rahat.
Police have opened an inquiry to determine if the shot was fired by officers or townspeople.
During Al Jaar’s funeral on Sunday, Sami Al Zayadna, 47, died of a heart attack during clashes in which police fired tear gas.
Following Al Zayadna’s burial on Monday, angry protesters – some of them masked – hurled stones at the Rahat police station, police said, adding that five suspected stone-throwers were detained and more arrests were expected.
Residents of Rahat have been on strike since Sunday.
* Agence-France Presse
