Politics and Government
The growing influence of fundamentalist Islam has been noted by several scholars.
In 1999, 500 residents were hurt in riots protesting government expropriation of lands. In September 2000, rioting at the onset of the Second Intifada left three dead and over 100 wounded. Since the 1990s, the municipality has been run by the Northern Islamic Movement. Ex-mayor Sheikh Raed Salah was arrested in 2003 on charges of raising millions of dollars for Hamas. He was freed after two years in prison. Sheikh Hashem Abd al-Rahman was elected mayor in 2007, and replaced in November 2008 by Khaled Aghbariyya.
In a survey of Umm al-Fahm residents conducted by and published in the Israeli-Arab weekly Kul Al-Arab in July 2000, 83% of respondents opposed the idea of transferring their city to Palestinian jurisdiction.
Read more about this topic: Umm Al-Fahm
Famous quotes containing the words politics and, politics and/or government:
“Our family talked a lot at table, and only two subjects were taboo: politics and personal troubles. The first was sternly avoided because Father ran a nonpartisan daily in a small town, with some success, and did not wish to express his own opinions in public, even when in private.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)
“Man made one grave mistake: in answer to vaguely reformist and humanitarian agitation he admitted women to politics and the professions. The conservatives who saw this as the undermining of our civilization and the end of the state and marriage were right after all; it is time for the demolition to begin.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)
“I’d wish the government took honest people into consideration, it shows enough consideration for scoundrels.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)