Last update - 00:00 07/07/2007
Dozens demonstrate against Barak visit in Nazareth
By Yoav Stern, Eli Ashkenazi and Yigal Hai Haaretz Correspondents
Dozens of people demonstrated against a visit by Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Nazareth late Saturday.
Barak, who is also Labor chairman, came for an assembly of Labor party activists. The defense minister left Nazareth at the meeting's end.
During the demonstration police arrested Hadash's General Secretary Ayman Auda, the brother of a man killed in the October 2000 riots, and one further demonstrator.
During the riots in 2000, which lasted for ten days, 13 Arab Israelis were killed in clashes with police. Barak served as Prime Minister at the time.
The demonstration was organized by representatives of Arab political parties, and relatives of those killed in the 2000 riots.
According to Hassan A'asalah whose son Asil was fatally shot by policemen: "The protest is against Barak's return to political life - to the Labor leadership and as defense minister."
"Families of the October 2000 martyrs warn according to experience from those events, Barak is endangering the Arab sector and the nature of relations with it," A'asalah added.
Hadash Chair MK Mohammed Barakeh blasted Auda's arrest and called for his immediate released. Barakeh blamed this on police aggression and said he was actually attacked by the police commander at the scene for no reason.
The Hadash Chair said he intended on requesting Attorney General Menachem Mazuz investigate the police's violent behavior.