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Police, protesters clash in Arab Israeli town during Jewish extremists' march
Dozens of Jewish extremists hoisting Israeli flags defiantly marched through this Arab-Israeli town Wednesday, chanting "death to terrorists" and touching off clashes between rock-hurling residents and police who quelled them with tear gas.
As the unrest unfolded, an Israeli court convicted a prominent Arab-Israeli activist of spying for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a plea bargain that will send him to prison for up to 10 years. The activist, Amir Makhoul, greeted supporters in court with a smile and a victory sign.
The court case and the violence in Umm el-Fahm added to mounting tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority.
Israel Arabs–one-fifth of the country's citizens–have grown jittery as nationalist elements in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government have questioned their loyalty to the state.
They are ethnically Palestinian, but enjoy equal rights under Israeli law, unlike their brethren in the West Bank and Gaza. Still, they often suffer discrimination and are statistically poorer and less educated than Israeli Jews. Tensions between the two communities run deep.
The Jewish extremists converged on Umm el-Fahm, one of Israel's largest Arab towns, because it is a stronghold of the country's radical Islamic Movement. Jewish ultranationalists held a similar march in the town last year.