MK Ayman Odeh Calls for Successful General Strike and Demonstration on Tuesday

Knesset member Ayman Odeh from Hadash, the chairman of the Joint List, Monday urged Arab-Palestinians in Israel to participate in the general strike being staged the following day, April 28, to protest the demolition of Arab homes by Israeli authorities. The strike was initially called by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel.

MK Ayman Odeh, left, and the owner of a house demolished in the unrecognized village of Dahamash, near Lod, last week.

MK Ayman Odeh, left, and the owner of a house demolished in the unrecognized village of Dahamash, near Lod, last week. (Photo: Al Ittihad)

“We call upon our supporters to make the general strike a successful one,” Odeh wrote on his Facebook page last week. He also urged people to join the mass demonstration to be held in Tel-Aviv on Tuesday the 28th from 17:00 in culmination of the strike protesting a recent spate of demolitions which targeted Arab-owned houses. “We call on all citizens, Arabs and Jews alike, anyone who identifies as a supporter of democracy and seeks truth and justice to join this struggle by participating in Tuesday’s demonstration in Tel-Aviv,” he said.

In a statement issued Monday, April 27, the committee organizing the morrow’s strike and demonstration said: “Through a recent, systematic escalation of house demolitions under the pretext of unlicensed construction, it has become clear, that the Israeli regime and its current fascist government have declared war.” In recent weeks Israeli authorities have razed homes in the southern region of the Negev, in Kafr Kanna in the north, and in Dahamash in the center of the country, stirring angry reactions from the Arab community.

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