Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html
A normally quiet Galilee village turned into a battleground at dawn today as police officers clashed with rioters from the Druse community, police officials and community leaders said.
Among the injured were at least 16 police officers and a similar number of medics and residents. One resident was in serious condition after being shot in the stomach, according to emergency service officials. One policeman was hospitalized with serious head wounds, a police spokesman said.
The episode, in the northern Israeli village of Pekiin, was all the more unusual because it involved the Druse, a tiny and peaceful minority of 130,000 people, less than 2 percent of Israel’s total population of just over 7 million. The Druse practice a secret religion and are known for their loyalty to the states in which they reside, including Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Israeli Druse men serve in the army, and many join the police force.
The clashes erupted after a large force of more than 100 police officers entered the village at 4 a.m. with the intention of arresting five men suspected of having previously vandalized a cellphone antenna installed in the neighboring community of New Pekiin, the police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said. The villagers believe that radiation from the antenna causes cancer.