the israeli incorporation regime67 Mass Protests of October 2000 The Al-Aqsa Intifada began on September 28, 2000 after Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to Haram al-Sharif, the site of Al-Aqsa mosque, sparked mass demonstrations in the OPT. The violent suppression by the entirety of the Israeli security apparatus resulted in many Palestinian deaths and injuries, and led to a set of demonstrations inside Israel by Palestinians, which were severely repressed in early October 2000. Mass demon­ strations among Palestinian citizens throughout Northern Israel were immediately met with violence by the Israeli police in the form of live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas, resulting in the death of ten Palestinians in the course of three days. By the end of ten days of violence, thirteen Palestinian citizens of Israel had been killed, hun­ dreds injured, and more than one-thousand arrested by Israeli police.42 Over the course of the next few months, human rights organizations reported trends of arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as inhumane treatment by Israel of Palestinians in custody. For months after the demonstrations had ended, the police continued to arrest Arab citizens, many of whom were held without bail, denied legal counsel, and forced into making false confessions. Israel’s response to the deaths of thirteen of its Palestinian citizens in October 2000 was immensely hesitant, and led to the Or Commission of Inquiry on September 29, 2000 to investigate the October clashes.43 In the end, testimonies given before the Commis­ sion by police officers and commanders, as well as Palestinian citizens and community leaders consistently confirmed that the Palestinian demonstrators were unarmed and posed no threat to the lives of the Israeli ­security forces present; that Israeli police provided inadequate protec­ tion for Palestinian citizens under attack from Jewish vigilantes and mobs; and that the use of physical force, beatings and live ammunition by the police was widespread and indiscriminate.44 Yet, and as Adalah explains: 42 Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Inequality Report, 55. 43 The official title was the “State Commission of Inquiry into the Clashes between Security Forces and Israeli Citizens in October 2000.” 44 There are, however, numerous criticisms to be made against this Commission including its problematic depiction of Arab protesters, implication of Arab culpability and failure to reprimand and even absolving Israeli security officials and political leaders, failure to include Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of the investigation, and the language it has adopted throughout the report, among others. All of this places the objectivity and intention of the inquiry into question. For a detailed account of the criticisms posed against the Commission, see Sultany (2004, 85–90).