The focus of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict suddenly shifted May 18 from Gaza and Jerusalem to Haifa, Israel’s third largest city. A pro-Palestinian demonstration attended by about 200 Arab Israelis was violently repressed by Israeli police. Nineteen protesters were arrested, among them the director of the Mossawa Center in Haifa, Jafar Farah. According to the human rights organization’s website, Farah had come to the demonstration to search for his son when he “was caught up in police interventions and arrested.”

Mossawa reported that when Farah “asked the police officers how [his son and others] came to be [bleeding], he was himself beaten and had his knee broken when a police officer kicked him in the leg.”

His injury was only the beginning of his trouble. According to Mossawa's website, “Mr. Farah along with several other detainees was taken to the hospital to receive medical treatment as a result of police brutality. He was diagnosed with a broken knee and given a cast. While the medical team originally stated that Jafar would need to remain in the hospital for observation, they later reversed this decision after police coercion and allowed him to be taken back into police custody on Saturday night [May 19]. While under police custody in the hospital, Mr. Farah was handcuffed by his uninjured leg to the bed and no one from his family nor even his personal doctor was allowed to see him. His personal lawyer was only allowed to see him on Sunday.”

Protests by Arab Israelis have become the subject of anti-Arab incitement by leading Israeli officials. When the head of the Joint List, Ayman Odeh, protested the Haifa police’s “brutal” dispersal of demonstrators, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman attacked Odeh on his personal Twitter account May 20, calling him and his associates “terrorists” who belong in jail.