This incident occurred inside Israel near the site of two ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages, Kafr Bir’im and Iqrith. The Palestinian Israeli protestors originally made plans to meet up with Palestinian refugees coming from Maroun al Ras, Lebanon. After being prevented from traveling to that meeting place they took their protest to Kafr Bir’im and Iqrith.
These are Israeli police and unarmed Israeli protestors.
Below is a description of the demolition of Iqrit from The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East by David Hirst (Nation Books)
“In July 1951 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of another Christian village, Iqrit, whose inhabitants had been ordered, three years earlier, to leave their homes ‘for two weeks’ until ‘military operations in the area were concluded.’ After this judgement the Military Government found another justification to prevent them from returning. The villagers once more appealed to the Supreme Court, which decided to consider the case on 6 February 1952. But a month and a half before that date, on Christmas Day to be precise, the Israeli Defense Forces took the mukhtar of this Christian community to the top of a nearby hill and forced him to watch the show—the blowing up of every house in the village—which they had laid on for his benefit.”
The village of Bir Am was similarly demolished on September 16, 1953 while an appeal for the residents to return was pending.
More information about the protest in the video and photos @ Arabs48 (Arabic).
Update: Thanks to bijou in comments for providing context and a link to Ami Kaufman over @ +972.
you can see Kobi Bachar, deputy commander of the Galilee District Police, slapping an Arab lawyer roughly in the face after she asked him why he was arresting protesters.
IMHO, the best quote in Kaufman’s the article is from ynet:
forces were forced to use reasonable force
