Albuquerque Tribune · Albuquerque, N.M. · 3 October 2001

CP-2001-056

Arab citizens of Israel show signs of increasing alienation

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Transcribed from the clipping

UMM EL-FAHM, Israel — Arab Israeli Hassan Asleh was the guest of honor at a rally by Islamic fundamentalists, a Palestinian flag draped around his neck as a crowd of 50,000 chanted it would fight Israel in defense of Muslim holy places. Asleh once would have stayed away from such a scene; he was a firm believer in Arab-Jewish reconciliation.

But a year ago, 13 Arab Israelis, including Asleh's peace activist son, were shot dead by Israeli police trying to quell protests in Arab towns. At the time, demonstrators were pouring into the streets in an outburst of solidarity with the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Arab Israelis await with anticipation the report of a commission investigating the police killings of last October, including the death of 17-year-old Asel Asleh who his family maintains was shot by police at close range. Hassin Asleh, 52, said he hopes for a measure of justice, but his son's death has hardened the grocer, a former champion of Arab-Jewish coexistence.

At a Sept. 14 rally by the Islamic Movement, Asleh sat in the front row, with a picture of his son leaning against his leg. Asleh said that no matter what the outcome of the investigation into the killings, his fate will always be tied to Israel. “This is our country,” Asleh said. “We don't have any place else to go.”

How this transcription was made

Date confirmed on the page (folio). Legibility fair; any passage that could not be read is omitted rather than reconstructed.

Context added by this archive

AP staff copy, unbylined. Vocabulary: 'Arab citizens of Israel' in the headline, 'Arab Israeli(s)' throughout the body, 'Palestinians' reserved for the West Bank and Gaza - except in Jaber's quote, where a citizen of Israel calls Palestinians his nation. Two ordinary people named, father and son.

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