RAMALLAH, Sunday, April 2, 2023 (WAFA) – Palestinians in Israel are observing a one-day general strike today in protest of the cold-blooded murder on Friday night of a Palestinian citizen of Israel by Israeli police in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Mohammad Khaled al-Osaibi, 26, from the town of Hura in the Naqab desert, was shot and killed in cold blood by Israeli police around Friday-Saturday midnight at the Chain Gate plaza, one of the gates leading to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Israeli police refused to publish CCTV footage documenting the lynching of al-Osaibi, although the police claimed that he was shot dead after trying to snatch a police officer’s rifles, a claim that was dismissed by eyewitnesses.

The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens in the 1948-occupied Lands said yesterday at an emergency meeting in Hura, the hometown of al-Osaibi, that the strike would include all the municipalities and educational facilities in the Arab cities and towns in Israel. The strike also includes all private businesses and shops in the Arab-majority towns and cities.

The Committee also called for massive turnout to the funeral of the slain Palestinian young man at his hometown of Hura, and called for rallies and vigils to be held in the Arab towns to express resentment at the Israeli forces’ use of lethal force against the defenseless Arab population.

Arabs in today's Israel are Palestinians who stayed on their land following the creation of the occupying state in 1948 and their descendants. They make up about 20 percent of the country's nine million people.

By law, their rights are equal to those of Jewish citizens. But in practice they are subject to discrimination in almost all walks of life, including employment, housing, policing and other essentials.

M.N