Friday afternoon tens of thousands gathered in the Israeli-Palestinian town of Baqa alGharbiya to protest the continuing attack on Gaza's population. The mass demonstration, organized by the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, mourned the dead with raised black flags and showed its solidarity with Gaza's struggle by waiving Palestinian ones.
It should also be noted that since the beginning of the war, hundreds of Arab Israeli youth have been arrested by Israeli police and put away on minor charges, many of them remanded to the end of legal procedures; moreover, dozens have been questioned by the Shin Bet security service and subjected to warnings aimed at deterring them from organizing or participating in protest activities. In spite of all this, the chairman of Baqa alGharbiya's Popular Committee told the rally "we are one nation, a part of the Palestinian people; we feel their pain and support their struggle for independence. We are undeterred by the possibility of being arrested and will carry on with the protests."
