The Umm el-Fahm Municipality announced that it will freeze community policing activities for two weeks, following police violence at a weekly demonstration held in the city on Friday.
Demonstrators have been protesting the rising violence and a recent wave of murders in the Arab sector.
Severe clashes took place between protesters and police during the demonstration, with some 35 protesters injured in clashes between the two sides, including Umm el-Fahm Mayor Dr. Samir Mahamid and Joint List MK Yousef Jabareen. Police dispersed the protesters using stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets.
"The brutal and racist police has assaulted non-violent protesters who only asked for a sense of personal security," MK Jabareen tweeted of the police reaction on Friday, during which eyewitnesses reported that was hit in his head by a stun grenade."The commander of the Umm al-Fahm police station must resign immediately, and that is the demand of the entire Arab public in Israel. Police officers who exert power on protesters and not criminals will not break us. We will continue demonstrating," he added.
A police statement noted that eight police officers were lightly injured after protesters began bombarding officers on the scene with rocks and attempting to block nearby roads. Four suspects were arrested, according to police, for violating public order and were taken in for questioning at the local police station.
Umm al-Fahm Mayor Dr. Samir Mahamid, who was also injured during the protest, has claimed that the police statement is misleading at best.
"Those who started the riots were the police. The person who gave the order was a police commander. Protesters were holding a quiet prayer and were asked to keep quiet and to avoid violent incidents," mayor Mahamid said.
The weekly protests against police inaction in Umm el-Fahm started in January and escalated after 21-year-old nursing student Muhammad Agbaria was shot dead by police while returning home from an anti-violence protest.