Palestinians Rise Up Against Organized Zionist Crime, Police Complicity

Date: 06 March 2021 - 21:51

News ID: ۸۸۲۷۲

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied territories marched on the northern city Um Al Fahem city on Friday to protest against spiraling levels of crime by the Zionist regime in their communities.
Um Al Fahem residents have been holding weekly demonstrations against violence and organized crime for the past two months. The turnout on Friday was, however, significantly higher.
Some reporters described Friday’s protest as the largest staged by Palestinians in the occupied territories since the 1980s.
Demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and placards condemning the occupying regime’s police racism and complicity with criminal gangs. They accuse the police of refusing to crack down on the powerful organizations.
Organized crime is widely seen as the main cause for the spread of violence in Palestinian cities and towns.
Despite the closure of main roads leading to Um Al Fahem, protesters still managed to converge on the city.
Head of the Joint List Ayman Odeh told reporters, "Police are preventing people from coming to Um Al Fahem because they are scared by both the protestors and the criminal organizations.”
Since the beginning of 2021, 22 Palestinians have died violently inside the occupied territories.
The protest comes days after the International Criminal Court announced it was officially launching a probe into the occupying regime’s crimes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinians urged the ICC to push ahead with the newly announced war crimes investigation in Palestinian territories which the occupying regime has rejected.
Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing the court of anti-Semitism, described its decision to launch an investigation as "outrageous,” telling Fox News, "I am going to fight this in every place.”
The court’s outgoing prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said on Wednesday her office will formally investigate the regime’s war crimes after the court accepted jurisdiction last month.
Bensouda has identified the regime’s military’s use of lethal and non-lethal force against Palestinians demonstrating near the fence separating the Gaza Strip from the occupied territories after 2018 as one possible focus of the investigation.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement on Thursday, calling the investigation a defense of "rights and freedoms” and saying it also covered the Zionist regime’s 2014 war and settlement building in the occupied West Bank.