Scores of Palestinians demonstrated on Saturday in the Arab cities of Sakhnin and Shefa-Amr in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948 to protest Israeli policy of home demolitions targeting the indigenous Palestinian-Arab communities in the country.

During the two vigils, held ahead of the Palestinian Land Day, the participants waved banners denouncing Israel’s demolition of homes and the discrimination faced by Arab Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Arabs in today's Israel are Palestinians who stayed on their land following the creation of the occupying state in 1948 and their descendants. They make up about 20 percent of the country's nine million people.

By law, their rights are equal to those of Jewish citizens. But in practice they suffer discrimination in employment, housing, policing and other essentials.