Israeli Arabs mark Land Day

TEL AVIV, Israel, March 30 (UPI) -- Israel's Arab community called for general strikes and protests to mark Land Day, an annual event to protest the confiscation of land by Israel, officials said.

Events Wednesday mark 35 years since the killing of six Israeli Arabs during clashes that erupted over land confiscation in the Galilee in 1976.

In an effort to maintain calm, police officials spoke with dignitaries from the Higher Arab Monitoring committee planning the protests, Haaretz said, noting police are on high alert and will be deployed in the north of the country and the Negev to maintain the order, but will refrain from entering towns and villages where protests occur.

Protests were planned in the Galilee and a rally was scheduled in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Arakib in the Negev, site of fierce clashes between police and Arabs last year, Haaretz said.

Tuesday night, some 1,500 Arabs protested in the city of Lod against Israeli government plans to demolish homes in the city, the newspaper said. Arab and Jewish Knesset members participated in the rally with some protesters holding Palestinian flags while others burned pictures of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Haaretz said.

"It is because he's the most racist person in the country, we can't stand the sight of him and he'll be well advised to stay away from our communities," one protester told Ynetnews when asked why Lieberman's photo was burned.

Knesset member Mohammed Barakeh told Israel Radio burning the foreign minister's picture was "a legitimate expression of protest against a party that challenges the basic existence of the Arab population."