Far-right MK Sukkot tours Umm al-Fahm as local education system strikes against his visit

Far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism) tours Umm al-Fahm and hangs an Israeli flag outside one of its schools as the city’s education system strikes against his visit, which has sparked sharp opposition from residents.

The parents’ committee in Umm al-Fahm declared a strike last night ahead of Sukkot’s planned tour in the Arab city, shutting down schools for the entire day and calling the stunt a “racist provocation” meant to invigorate his right-wing base ahead of elections.

Sukkot, who chairs the Knesset Education Committee, claims in a video filmed from his car that he came to “check the education system in Umm al-Fahm,” claiming without providing evidence that its schools have ties to terror organizations.

In footage from his visit, he is seen outside the gates of a school while guarded by a police entourage as residents protest his presence in the city.

He tells the right-wing Israel National News outlet, which accompanied him on the tour, that there were no Israeli flags flying outside schools he visited, despite a law mandating a flag be placed in educational institutions and other public buildings.

“They did not put one up, so we’ve come to help them,” he says, sticking a flag atop one of the fenceposts outside a school.

As he talks to the cameras, a protester brings up Sukkot’s 2010 arrest on suspicion of setting fire to a mosque in the West Bank.

“It’s shameful that the chairman of the Education Committee behaves this way,” the protester says.

Yousef Jabareen, a resident of the city and newly elected chairman of the communist Hadash party, is seen joining a protest outside a school decrying Sukkot’s tour.

“In Umm al-Fahm we are proud of our educational system and its accomplishments. Zvi Sukkot is not coming to Umm al-Fahm to learn or meet people. He comes with one goal, to incite and spread hate,” Jabareen says.

Earlier this month, Sukkot was filmed using a circular saw to break open the gate to a school in the northern Bedouin town of Tuba-Zangariyye during a similar visit.