Israeli police disperse protesters

Police dispersed rock-throwing Israeli-Arab youths with stun grenades and tear gas after a group of Israeli extremists marched through an Arab town demanding that residents show loyalty to the Jewish state.

Israeli police are dispersing Arab protesters in Umm el Fahm Israeli police are dispersing Arab protesters in Umm el-Fahm

The clashes in the northern Israeli town of Umm el-Fahm came at a time of increasing tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority, and residents said the march was a provocation.

The leader of the Israeli demonstrators, the well-known anti-Palestinian extremist Baruch Marzel, has been involved in violent attacks against Palestinians.

Dozens of Arab youths, their faces covered with checkered Palestinian scarves, heaved rocks at heavily armed black-clad Israeli police holding up shields. They responded with tear gas.

Israel's national rescue service said 16 people were lightly wounded, and Army Radio said 18 protesters were arrested.

"There's tear gas everywhere," said resident Waseem Hosary, 26, a lawyer. Police blocked off the area with checkpoints, said deputy mayor Mustafa Suheil. He said the violence erupted after police tried to push back protesters attempting to block a bus filled with the Israeli demonstrators.

The Israelis marched on the outskirts of Umm el-Fahm, a major Arab town that is a stronghold of the radical Islamic Movement.

"We came to say that the state of Israel is a Jewish state. We came in a show of loyalty and to say whoever is loyal, welcome. But people who flout the law should get out of here," said Itamar Ben-Gvir, a Jewish ultranationalist who helped lead the event.

Police had anticipated trouble and stationed some 3,000 officers in town.

Unlike their Palestinian brethren, Israel's Arab minority hold citizenship. But Israeli Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of the country's population, have long suffered from discrimination under successive governments.

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