Ben Gvir, Marzel set to demonstrate in Umm el-Fahm

March comes as 3 new cases of pro-Kahane graffiti found in northern towns, connection to other far-right vandalism last week is unknown.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
SilwanMarch311 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski/The Jerusalem Post)
SilwanMarch311
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski/The Jerusalem Post)
Far-right activists led by Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir have been granted permission by the Israel Police to commemorate the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane by holding a demonstration Wednesday in the Arab city of Umm el-Fahm and call for the banning of the Islamic Movement’s Northern Branch.
Kahane was shot dead in a New York hotel by an Egyptian- American terrorist in 1990.
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Police are opposed to the event due to security concerns, and initially turned down a request to hold the protest, but were forced to authorize it following a High Court ruling in favor of the right-wing activists earlier this year.
Thousands of police officers will secure the demonstration, which has been slammed by Peace Now as a dangerous provocation by a small group of extremists.
Last year, a similar event was held in March by several dozen activists on the outskirts of Umm el-Fahm, in which disturbances broke out after local youths clashed with riot police.
“Nothing is more symbolic on the 20th anniversary of the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane than the arrival of his disciples to continue his struggle against the Arab enemy from the Islamic movement,” Marzel said.
“It is our right to march and demand that appeasement against terror movements ends. We demand that Raed Salah and his friends are outlawed,” he added.
Umm el-Fahm is the heartland of the Islamic Movement’s Northern Branch, which is affiliated with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Unlike its southern counterpart, the Northern Branch refuses to field candidates for parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, police have launched an investigation into graffiti messages reading “Kahane was right” which were spray-painted on a pool and college in Upper Nazareth, and on the walls of a shopping center in Migdal Ha’emek.