Demands for an investigation of the alleged use of unwarranted force by police against Arab villagers in Galilee on March 30–Land Day–were sharply rejected by Police Minister Shlomo Hillel at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. The investigation was urged by Health Minister Victor Shemtov of Mapam and Minister of Tourism Moshe Kol of the Independent Liberal Party.
They said they had information from the villagers of Jatt and Baka Al-Gharbiye that police reaction to demonstrations in those villages was out of proportion to the nature of the Land Day disturbances. Land Day marked the first anniversary of Arab riots on March 30, 1976 to protest government land expropriations in Galilee. In Jatt and Baka Al-Gharbiye, apparently the only Israeli Arab villages where Land Day demonstrations led to violence, some 14 Arabs were injured in clashes with police. None required hospitalization.
Hillel said he regretted that the public was ready to criticize police behavior before ascertaining the facts. He said police had advance information of possible trouble at the two villages and made several preventive arrests. He said that although the police were under orders to stay out of Arab villages on Land Day, the orders had to be changed when unruly elements blocked the road into the village. The Cabinet decided to discuss the matter again at its next session.
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