The Or Inquiry - Summary of Events

Tuesday, September 12, 2000
Northern district police commander Alik Ron requests the authorization of the head of the investigations department, Yossi Sedbon, to begin an investigation of Hadash chairman, MK Mohammed Barakeh. Barakeh is suspected of inciting Arab citizens in the north of the country to attack policemen.

Wednesday, September 13, 2000
The Supreme Follow-up Committee of Israeli Arabs convenes in Kafr Manda following the decision to investigate Barakeh. At the end of the meeting MK Abdulmalik Dehamshe (United Arab List) says: "We will beat or forcefully attack any policeman and we will break his hands is he comes to demolish an Arab house... we are on the verge of an Intifada among Israel's Arabs following Alik Ron's incitement."

Thursday, September 14, 2000
A total strike in Nazareth following the murder of Nabieh Nussier, 52. The official reason for the strike is to protest the "police's incompetence in handling violence and crime."

Sunday, October 1, 2000
Violent demonstrations erupt among Israeli Arabs in Umm al Fahm, Tamra, Nazareth, Furdeis and other villages. Two Israeli citizens - Mohammed Mahmud Jabarin and Ahmed Ibrahim Siyyam Jabarin - are killed. Misleh Abu Jarad, a Dir al Balah resident demonstrating in Umm al Fahm is also killed. Umm al Fahm Mayor Ra'id Salah is wounded. Israeli police deploys a large number of forces to the areas of most tension. An Egged bus driver and Umm al Fahm resident is stopped along the Wadi Ara junction by several youngsters from the area, who make him leave the bus, which they then set alight.

The wave of violence in the north escalates. In a number of areas, policemen come under fire. The demonstrators throw Molotov cocktails and the violence spreads to the Gush Segev area and to the old city of Acre. Northern District Commander Alik Ron calls on the leaders of the Arab sector, saying, "those who incited, must block the demonstrators with their bodies."

Umm al Fahm
Three demonstrators are killed and 75 wounded in a demonstration in the town. Most are lightly wounded by rubber-coated bullets and receive medical attention at the local clinic. 12 demonstrators are hospitalized nearby. Dozens of demonstrators confront policemen and border policemen who are deployed opposite the entrance to the town. The policemen, who are using sniper rifles, try to prevent the Wadi Ara road from being blocked. Misleh Abu Jarad is killed by police fire and dozens of youngsters are injured. In the afternoon, the policemen retreat from the junction near the entrance to the town, as hundreds of youngsters block the Iron road with burning tires.

Western Galilee
Amed Jenaiem and Waleed Abu Saleh from Sakhnin, and Ala Khaled Mansour and Aseel Atili from Arabeh are killed in confrontations near the Lotam settlement in Gush Segev and in the western part of Sakhnin. Policemen fire rubber-coated bullets and tear gas at the demonstrators. Some residents of the alleys of Old Acre begin shooting live bullets at the policemen. Policemen fire rubber bullets and tear gas. Several residents are injured and taken to a hospital in Nahariya. Disturbances also occur in Kafr Nahef, Kafr Manda and Tarshiha.

Nazareth
Demonstrators, some of them masked, throw stones, burn tires, plunder and set fire to shops. In the morning hours, Eyad Sobhi Lawabni from Nazareth is killed in a confrontation with the police. In the afternoon, Lawabni's body is taken from the English Hospital and is placed in the Peace Mosque in the town. In the evening a woman from Nazareth is seriously wounded when she is shot during a demonstration. Approximately 100 residents are wounded during the violent events, and one policeman was lightly wounded. The police drive away dozens of Kfar Mashad residents who are approaching the Har Yona neighborhood in Upper Nazareth. The residents smash house and vehicle windows.

Kafr Kana
Serious disruptions occur throughout the day. Dozens of residents throw stones and Molotov cocktails at a police force that blocks access to the Beit Rimon junction, following a demonstration at the junction involving hundreds of residents.

Megido Junction
Ya'akov Ben-Hamo from Kibbutz Beit-Alpha is attacked by Arab youths while driving from Umm al Fahm toward the junction. The Arabs force him out of the car and set fire to it.

Haifa
A junction in the Wadi Nisnas neighborhood is blocked by 300 demonstrators who throw stones and burn tires. The police close the streets surrounding the neighborhood. Haifa Mayor Amram Mitzna arrives in the area and with the help of MK Issam Makhoul and Arab city council members calms the demonstration down. Police arrest six demonstrators.

Baka al-Garbiyeh
Three banks are set on fire in the evening.

Tuesday, October 3, 2000
Western Galilee
Ramez Abas Bushnark from Kafr Manda is killed in a confrontation with the police near the entrance to the village, and another youth is seriously wounded. Dozens of residents clash with the police who are blocking access to the main road leading to the Gush Misgav settlements. Arab sources report that Ramez Abas was shot in the head from a close range while hiding behind a tree during a confrontation between police and a group of residents. Ramez Abas and the wounded youth are taken to hospital in an ambulance. Police report that the department for policemen investigations will examine the circumstances surrounding the incident. "The policemen in the areas were attacked by hundreds with stones, bottles and flares. They responded, but testimony that he was shot from a close range while hiding is not true," said Galilee region spokesman, Kobi David.

Tens of thousands of people attend the funerals of Emad Faraj Ghanem, Waleed Abu Saleh from Sakhnin, and Ala Khaled Mansour and Aseel Asaleh from Arabeh. The villages remain quiet for most of the day, but after the funerals dozens of residents engage in violent confrontation with the police.

Great fires erupt around the villages. Light aircraft assist in putting out the fires and several residents of the settlement Lotam are evacuated. Police suspect that Israeli Arabs set the forests on fire, but no arrests are made.

Old Acre
Clashes between demonstrators and policemen. Residents report that one demonstrator is seriously injured.

Nazareth
Thousands attend the funeral of Nazareth resident Eyad Subhi Lawabny who was killed during confrontations with the police. Demonstrators burn tires and throw stones, as policemen shoot tear gas and rubber-coated bullets. Nazareth Mayor Ramez Jerayssi says snipers shot at the demonstrators from nearby roofs.

Turan
Dozens of residents attempt to block the junction leading to the village on the Golani Junction-Beit Rimon road. Policemen throw tear gas and shoot rubber-coated bullets at the demonstrators.

Kafr Kana
Confrontations erupt between the police and hundreds of residents gathered near the Beit Rimon junction at the entrance to the village. Demonstrators block the junction and the police use tear gas and rubber-coated bullets against them.

Wednesday, October 4, 2000
Jaffa
Hundreds of residents burn tires and beat reporters. An assembly organized by the Committee for Jaffa's Arabs in Yeffet Street becomes a violent demonstration in which stones are thrown and tires burnt. Police response is restrained, but eight suspects were arrested for disruption of order when the situation deteriorates. Five people are lightly injured, three of them reporters.

Thursday, October 5, 2000
Hundreds of people attend the funeral of a Kafr Kana resident who was killed in the clashes. The mourners throw stones, moderately wounding Tiberias resident Yigal Abu, 45, who is driving his car nearby. A private ambulance from Kafr Kana takes him to a hospital in Nazareth.

Friday, October 6, 2000
Tiberias
Hundreds of Jewish youths begin rampaging through the streets of the city. They hurl burning tires at a mosque in the town, trying physically assault Arabs.

Jerusalem
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox youths throw stones at Arab vehicles passing through Shmuel Hanavi Street and Ma'alot Daphna Street. Police forces are called to the scene. Haredi youths also attack Palestinian workers in Shmuel Hanavi Street. The Palestinians flee to the roof of a nearby building and are rescued, uninjured, by the police.

Saturday, October 7, 2000
Upper Nazareth
Dozens of Jewish and Arab youths throw stones at each other near the shopping mall in Upper Nazareth, which is close to the eastern neighborhood of the Arab part of the Nazareth. Stones are thrown at Arab vehicles in the center of Upper Nazareth.

Or Akiva
A scuffle erupts between Jews and Arabs at a shopping mall in the town. A police force that arrives on the scene is attacked. A Molotov cocktail is thrown at one of the buildings in the town.

Sunday, October 8, 2000
Thousands of Jews participate in violent acts against Israeli Arabs. In the Hatikva neighborhood in Tel Aviv, three apartments belonging to Arabs are set on fire. Hundreds of the neighborhood's residents confront police, chanting "death to the Arabs."

The demonstrators force the Arab employees of the Avazi restaurant evacuate the building and then set the restaurant on fire. Two Arab owned vehicles parked in front of the restaurant are also set alight. Jews rampage in Jaffa, Bat Yam and Petah Tikva.

Two Arabs from Nazareth are killed in confrontations between Arabs and Jews in Upper Nazareth. Police deny responsibility for the shootings, and investigate the possibility that the shootings were carried out by the Jewish demonstrators.

Monday, October 9, 2000
Hundreds of Jewish residents enter the shopping mall at the southern entrance to Nazareth, breaking windows and burning two vehicles.

Approximately 1,000 Jews rampage in Karmiel. Police report that Mayor Rafi Eldar, who came to the area in an effort to calm the violence down, is attacked and lightly wounded.

Jews rampage and damage Arab-owned property in Bat Yam and Petah Tikva.