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Israel Upgrades Probe Team on Arab Citizens' Clashes with Police
Israeli security cabinet decided November 8 to upgrade its current investigation committee on Israeli Arabs' clashes with police early October to a full state commission of inquiry, a cabinet official announced.
A state inquiry committee will replace the public investigation commission, which was set up on October 22 to look into the violence, according to the official.
The committee will probe the sequence of the clashes, during which 13 Israeli Arab citizens were killed by police and Israeli Jews, and decide whether the police had used "excessive and discriminatory forces against Arab citizens" as some Arab leaders had accused, the official added.
The violence in Arab communities in northern Israel broke out early October after their Palestinian brothers were engaged in bloody clashes with Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli-Palestinian clashes have lasted for nearly six weeks since September 28, killing over 180 people and wounding thousands more, most of them Palestinians.
Analysts said over 1 million Israeli Arabs used demonstration as a weapon to express their embarrassment toward discriminating policies on job markets and community development in the Jew-dominated society.
To pacify the Arab sector, Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed last month to create the public investigation team to hear claims of "brutality against Arab citizens in the disturbances."
The committee was headed by retired judge Shalom Brenner, former president of the Jerusalem District Court, and comprises former president of the Nazareth Magistrate Court Khalil Aboud, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Dan Shomron, and two professors Ehud Shpinzak and Gavriella Shalev.
Barak hoped then that such a committee could "make every effort to achieve peace, equality and partnership with Israeli Arabs."
However, the decision got cold shoulders from Arab communities, which demanded the establishment of a state inquiry commission that has more judicial power than the current one. The communities announced that they will boycott the current investigation until the government met their demands.
After that, probe panel head Shalom Brenner recommended Barak to upgrade the authority of the committee, and Barak accepted the suggestion, cabinet officials said Wednesday.
In response to the dramatic concession to Israeli Arabs, Arab lawmaker Mahmoud Barakeh said he was encouraged by the decision but that "it didn't come soon enough." Other Arab leaders also urged the police to immediately release Israeli Arabs who were still under arrest because of the demonstrations.
But the right-wing Likud lawmaker, Uzi Landau, blasted the decision, accusing Barak of making the judgment out of political expediency.
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