http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060347.html
Last update - 00:21 01/01/2009
Israeli Arabs protest banning of PFLP founder memorial service
By Yoav Stern, Eli Ashkenazi and Fadi Eyadat, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel News
Arab demonstrators rallied in Haifa on Saturday in protest of a police
decision to ban an open-air memorial service for George Habash, the founder of
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Mohammed Kanana, secretary general of Ibnaa el-Balad (Sons of the
Country), which organized the rally, told Haaretz he had not been surprised by
the police decision.
"Israel Police is famous for its oppression of the Arab public and for
its opposition to lawful democratic activity," he said.
The event was supposed to be held on Saturday, marking the first
anniversary of Habash's death. Among the invited speakers were Arab public
figures, clergymen, and Habash's relatives living in Israel.
Kanana said that the event was not to be a support rally for the Popular
Front, but merely a memorial service.
A police spokesperson said on Friday that "on Saturday a rally in support
of Habash's organization was supposed to take place, under the guise of an
election rally. Since it's a terrorist organization, such activities are banned
by law."
Kanana said he rejects the claims that Habash was a terrorist.
"Habash fought against Zionism and imperialism," he said. "He enjoyed a
special status among the Palestinians, as well as among Israeli Arabs.
Terrorists are the people who carry out carnages in Palestine, Lebanon and
everywhere for over sixty years. It's no different to what the Nazis and the
Fascists did in Europe."
The Sons of the Country have been urging Israeli Arabs to boycott the
national elections.
Meanwhile on Saturday, Balad activists demonstrated outside an election
rally held by Public Security Minister Avi Dichter in the Arab village of
Eilabun, in protest of his involvement in the killing of the top Hamas
commander Salah Shehadeh in 2002, in which 14 civilians were killed. They
carried banners calling Dichter a "murderer" and "war criminal." They also
called on Arab voters to refrain from voting for Zionist parties.
Earlier this week, a Spanish judge launched an investigation into seven
current or former Israeli officials, including Dichter, over the bombing in
Gaza that killed Shehadeh.
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