Hundreds of Palestinian students demonstrated today in downtown Nazareth, north of the 1948-occupied territories, in protest of the ongoing crime wave and the failure of the Israeli police to take action to end this phenomenon. During the demonstration, students raised banners condemning all forms of violence, murder and intimidation. On Thursday, five Palestinian nationals of Israel, including a 15-year-old, were shot dead at a carwash in the town of Yafa an-Naseriyye, an Arab town near the city of Nazareth. Since the start of the year, 100 people have been killed in crime-related violence in Arab communities in the 1948-occupied territories, according to NGOs. Palestinians have long blamed the Israeli police for turning a blind eye to gun violence among Arab Israelis and even complicity with criminal gangs. Arabs in today’s Israel are Palestinians who stayed on their land following the establishment of the occupying state in 1948 and their descendants. They make up about 20 percent of the country’s nine million people. By law, their rights are equal to those of Jewish citizens. But in practice they suffer discrimination in employment, housing, policing and other essentials.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA