MK Barakeh: We'll break any hand raised against Israel's Arabs

Hadash Chairman MK Mohammed Barakeh on Monday that the Arab sector in Israel will "break the hand" of anyone who tries to harm Israel's Arabs out of racist motives.

"Anyone who dares to attack Arab citizens in this country in efforts to dismiss the other and out of racist motives, the Arab sector will also know how to break his hand," Barakeh said at a rally marking three years since Jewish terrorist Eden Natan-Zada opened fire inside an Egged bus in the northern town of Shfaram, killing four Arab residents and wounding 20 others.

Hundreds of people participated in the Shfaram rally Monday, carrying pictures of the victims and Palestinian flags. The commemoration was to include speeches by politicians and relatives of the victims in addition to the march.

The State Prosecutor's Office and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz recently decided to charge seven suspects with violent assault, not murder, in Natan-Zada's death. Natan-Zada was lynched by a mob who entered the bus following the shooting.

After eight months of investigation - under a court-ordered media blackout - the police and representatives of the State Prosecutor's Office announced that they had arrested seven suspects from Shfaram who allegedly took part in the lynch and assaulted police officers.

Ahmed Hamdi, a member of the Shfaram council and of the local committee established after the attack, called the decision to prosecute the suspects "unfortunate."

In the past he has said that even if the prosecution reduces the charges, the committee rejects the indictments out of hand because Shfaram residents are the true victims in the case.

Attorneys for the suspects requested that a hearing about their involvement in the lynch be postponed, in order to give the defense time to review the thousands of pages of evidence in the case.