Turkish daily news : "Israel town caught up in violent clashes"

Israel town caught up in violent clashes UMMEL-FAHM, Israel - Israeli riot police fired tear gas to break up clashes yesterday in Umm El-Fahm, a bastion of Israeli Arab nationalism where far-right Jewish extremists held a court-sanctioned march.

Angry residents threw stones at helmeted police who were deployed in their thousands for the rally in the northern Israeli town.Police responded with tear gas, sound grenades and water cannon to disperse the demonstrators.

Police said 15 officers were hurt during the clashes and that three people had been arrested, while Israeli media said 16 people had been hurt, including a parliamentarian with the left-wing Meretz party and a deputy police chief.

Carrying Israeli flags, the far-right protestors marched for a half hour under heavy police protection on the outskirts of Umm El-Fahm, prevented by the police and hundreds of angry residents from entering the town.

The Jewish demonstrators had petitioned the High Court to allow them to march in the city, a stronghold of the radical wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, to demonstrate their right to march anywhere in Israel. Far right-wingers in Israel often accuse the state's Arab citizens of supporting Palestinian militants. Arab residents said the protest was meant to provoke and had to be stopped. "This is not just a simple provocation," the head of the Islamic Movement Sheikh Raed Salah told AFP, saying Israel's extreme right wanted to "legitimise the transfer" of Israeli Arabs from the country.