Top Arab MK says Kafr Qassem shooting the result of discrimination

The chairman of the Joint (Arab) List says the fatal shooting of an Arab protester in Kafr Qassem overnight is the result of systemic discrimination against Israel’s Arab communities.

“This isn’t about the Arab population being against the Jewish population,” Ayman Odeh says in an interview with Channel 10. “However, police continue to treat the Arab population as enemies to be defended against, and not citizens to be defended.”

Odeh points out the Or Commission Report — written after 13 Israeli Arabs were killed during riots in northern Israel in 2000 — prohibits the use of sniper fire as a crowd control method.

He adds that the commission determined that Israeli Arabs face systemic discrimination at the hands of police.

“But let’s forget about that and take a look at reality: Recently there have been many protests by the ultra-Orthodox community that devolved into violence, and the police never used live fire in those situations.”

He goes on to make another comparison between the way in which police handled settlers protesting the court-ordered evacuation of the Amona outpost and officers’ fatal shooting of a Bedouin resident of Umm-al Hiran who they claimed was trying to run him over.

He says police have shot dead at least 52 Arab protesters since 2000, as opposed to four Jewish protesters in that same period.