Baruch Marzel with Itamar Ben Gvir
Baruch Marzel with Itamar Ben GvirIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Activists from the far left demonstrated in Jerusalem on Tuesday and called to give land in the Har Nof and Givat Shmuel neighborhoods to Arabs.

The activists, from the Zochrot organization, called to give Arabs the land on which the Arab village of Deir Yassin once stood.  The villagers of Deir Yassin were expelled by pre-state military groups in a battle controversially termed the “Deir Yassin massacre” due to the large number of Arab civilians killed.

Right-wing activists held a counter-protest at the scene. “We joined the march held by the extreme-left anarchist group Zochrot, in which Jews and Arabs are taking part… they are going between the homes that survived the War of Independence,” activist Baruch Marzel told Arutz Sheva.

“We wish them more ‘Nakbas’ and more Deir Yassins,” he said. “Nakba” (literally “disaster”) is the term commonly used in the Arab world to refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel.

“They want the state of Israel to be destroyed,” Marzel accused. “They won’t tell me that we need to return to the homes in Hevron that Jews were expelled from, but they do want to return Arabs to Deir Yassin, a village whose residents were expelled while fighting Jews.”

“Those who expelled them and killed the terrorists and murderers who came from here and who disturbed traffic to Jerusalem before the War of Independence deserve respect,” he added.

Police were called to the scene after some right-wing activists ripped up signs carried by left-wing activists. Officers arrested several right-wing activists and ordered the two sides to separate.