IDF officials monitor Palestinian protests on Friday. Photo: screenshot via AP.

Seventeen demonstrators were arrested in the Jerusalem area on “Land Day” March 30 for throwing stones at Israel police forces near the Damascus gate of the Old City, reported Israel Hayom. Among the perpetrators was Fatah member and former Palestinian Authority Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Hatem Abdel Qader.

About 2,000 Israeli Arabs demonstrated in northern Israel, with other protests taking place near the Rachel Passage, not far from Bethlehem, in Bil’in and in Nabi Salah. Other Land Day supporters marched in Jordan and Lebanon. In Jaffa, demonstrators accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of trying to “Judaize” cities with mixed populations.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called the annual Land Day protest “political terrorism.”