By Jack Khoury, Haaretz – 13 Oct 2009
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1120791.html
The formation of an undercover unit to monitor Israeli citizens proves that police view Israel’s Arab community as a threat, the chairman of the Israeli Arab Balad party, Jamal Zahalka, said Tuesday.
“Such a unit will carry out provocations, in which the Arab public will be blamed for disorderly conduct,” Zahalka told the Knesset plenum. “I call on the public security minister and the police commissioner to disband the unit and treat the Arab public like citizens of this country.”
The MK’s comments came after it emerged that police have been operating the “mistaravim” unit, in which officers go deep undercover, and that Police Commissioner David Cohen said two months ago the force had “no intelligence infrastructure to deal with the Arab community.”
Zahalka spoke after he and other Israeli Arab lawmakers raised the matter at the Knesset.
During the session, MK Talab al-Sana (United Arab List-Ta’al) blasted Cohen for saying that it was hard for police to work in the Arab town of Umm al-Fahm and in an Arab neighborhood in the city of Ramle.
“The police commissioner has apparently forgotten that Umm al-Fahm and Ramle are parts of the State of Israel,” Al-Sana said. “The residents of these Arab communities are not demanding independence and are not undermining Israeli sovereignty – and are fighting for their equal civil rights and social justice.”
Meanwhile, the Arab human rights organization, Adallah, said Tuesday that it was investigating the matter, over which it was also considering launching legal proceedings.
