Clashes have erupted between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Israeli police today in a northern Israeli town. Israeli police fired tear gas at Palestinian demonstrators protesting a right-wing Israeli march through the town of Umm al-Fahm. Some of the Israeli marchers carried signs reading that Israel will be “cleansed” of its Arab residents. The march follows a number of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian olive groves in the occupied West Bank. On Tuesday, the UN coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned the attacks.

Robert Serry: “The urgency of ending the occupation and establishing the state is plain from the ugly facts apparent here in Tormos Ayya. In recent weeks in this village alone, settler extremists have destroyed hundreds of trees by poison or by knocking them down.”

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad: “The youngest of those olive trees is more deeply rooted in this land than the largest settlement in this neighborhood or any area in the country. It’s more deeply and firmly rooted than that wall, which will come down.”