ABSTRACT
At the beginning of October 2000, immediately following Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a wave of severe riots spread through the Palestinian territories and inside the State of Israel, particularly among the Israeli Arab minority. Brutally violent confrontations erupted between the police and Israeli Arabs, with some Arab protesters venting their rage by sabotaging police stations. The result of eight days of confrontation was devastating: 12 Arab citizens (and a resident of the Palestinian territories who was in Israel at the time) were killed in the turmoil – all of them by police gunfire.2 These events were considered atypical even by Israeli society, which has had its share of political violence. However, above all, the tragic confrontations of October 2000 spotlighted the tense relations between the Arab minority and the police in Israel.
