One in five Palestinian-Israelis arrested last week were children

One in five Palestinian-Israelis arrested last week were children
One in five of the 850 Palestinian citizens of Israel who were arrested last week were children.
2 min read
17 May, 2021
Palestinian citizens of Israel are being arrested [Getty]

A quarter of the hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel arrested last week were children, authorities announced Monday.

The Israeli police on Monday announced that 850 Palestinian citizens of Israel after a week of angry protests in the country, as Far-right Israeli mobs launched violent attacks on Palestinian communities. 100 left-wing Jews were also arrested.

The Israeli Public Prosecution Office filed 116 indictments in the wake of the tensions between Palestinian and Jewish communities, all of whom were against Arab citizens.

Most of the indictments were accused of assaulting police officers.

During a meeting on Thursday, Israel's acting attorney general, Amit Eastman, instructed the police to speed up the filing of indictments after confrontations, and for a prosecutor to be responsible for that in every region.

The arrests come as Palestinian citizens of Israel have been brutally attacked by right-wing mobs, leading to deaths, while properties have also been vandalised.

Attacks reached their zenith last Wednesday when far-right extremists launched attacks on Palestinian-Israelis in several cities, vandalising Palestinian-owned shops in Jaffa and attacking the Al-Nour Mosque in the central city of Lod, where one-third of the population is Palestinian.

Issawi Fredj, an Arab deputy from the left-wing Meretz Party, said the images were a sign that the country was heading towards "civil war".

Late last week, Palestinian-Israeli Knesset Member Sami Abu Shehadeh called on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide international protection for Palestinian citizens of Israel.

In a letter sent to Michelle Bachelet, the leader of the National Democratic Alliance called on the UN to provide urgent international protection to the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Israel.

He said these communities are subject to racist discrimination and violence from Israeli forces and armed right-wing Israeli extremists.

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