An Israeli police inspector was severely injured today and 17 others were hurt, when Arab Communists at a meeting in the village of Umel Fahem, on the Jordanian border in the Samaria district, rioted. The police had been attempting to break up a meeting called to protest “police brutality” in Nazareth on May Day.
Receiving advance information that the Communists had scheduled a mass protest meeting in the village for yesterday, the authorities warned the villagers, who are still under military governorship, that the meeting was illegal.
However, Tewfik Toubi, Arab Communist Knesset deputy, began to address the meeting, violently berating the Israel Government. The police informed the deputy, who on Thursday had been escorted out of Nazareth, to come off the platform. He refused, and the crowd began to stone the policemen.
Police reinforcements soon arrived and dispersed the crowd. They then marched Mr. Toubi out of the village. Thirty-three were arrested. Meanwhile, Communist leaders have demanded a discussion in Knesset of the incidents in Nazareth, which they characterize as “murderous police behavior and an attack on the people of Nazareth.”
A party of 120 Samaritans, the entire population of the sect dwelling in Israel, crossed into Jordan today to celebrate the Passover ceremony on Mt. Gerizim together with the other members of the sect, who live in Jordan. According to the sect’s religion, the height is a holy place. This is the eighth time since the state was organized that the Samaritan community was allowed to enter Jordan.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
