Occupied Jerusalem: Israel’s Palestinian citizens observed a general strike on Tuesday that was to climax with a rally in Tel Aviv to protest against a wave of demolitions of Palestinian homes inside the Green Line.

In Palestinian towns in the north, schools, colleges, public institutions, banks and most shops remained closed, Arab media outlets reported.

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee, which represents indigenous Palestinian communities in Israel, said it was a protest against growing racism as well as the acceleration of house demolitions.

“This strike is a response to the increased action by the Israeli authorities against Arab homes and the ongoing harsh policy of incitement to hatred against Arabs which was launched by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the elections,” it said.

It was referring to an incident on March 17 when Netanyahu played the race card, warning right-wing Jewish voters to turn out because Palestinian citizens were going to the polls “in droves.”

His remarks drew a rebuke from US President Barack Obama, and were widely criticised abroad.

The strike and the rally are backed by the Joint List, which groups the main Palestinian political parties and won third place in last month’s general election.

Palestinian citizens of Israel are natives of the land who remained on their land when the Israeli regime was established in Palestine in 1948.

Together with their descendants they number around 1.3 million, or a fifth of Israel’s population.

There has been a string of demolitions of their homes in northern and central Israel, as well as in the southern Naqab (Negev) desert. Campaigners say tens of thousands more have demolition orders against them.

Palestinian citizens complain that discrimination by the regime makes it impossible for them to obtain planning permission to expand their communities.

The result is that many families resort to building homes without permission, leaving them liable to demolition.

Although Palestinians make up 20 per cent of the population, only 4.6 per cent of new homes are built in their areas, figures provided by rights group Adalah show.