Some 20,000 people, including Arab community leaders and politicians, turned out Tuesday for a rally in the northern city of Sakhnin, as Israeli Arabs and Palestinians marked a “Day of Rage” to protest purported planned changes to the status quo on the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Speaking to the crowd, Joint (Arab) List MK Jamal Zahalka lambasted restrictions imposed by Israel at the Temple Mount as violence has flared in Israel and the West Bank. Three Israelis were killed and some 30 injured in a series of Palestinian terror attacks earlier Tuesday.

Claims that Israel planned to change the delicate balance at the site — where Jews are currently allowed to visit, but not pray — are seen as a key trigger in the recent clashes and attacks. Israel has repeatedly denied that it intends to alter the decades-long agreement at the compound, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and is revered by Jews as the site of the two Jewish Temples.

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“Our demands are an immediate end to entry of right-wing lunatics into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and a removal of all restrictions on the entry of Arabs and Muslims,” Zahalka said.

Some demonstrators chanted, “Down with Israel,” Arab Israeli news site Panet reported, while the al-Arab website said that a speech by MK Ahmad Tibi was interrupted by a group of young men yelling, “Leadership, get out.”

All businesses and educational institutions in Arab communities across Israel shut down, with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip holding a parallel strike. Leading Arab Israeli politicians had called on municipalities and local authorities to participate in the Tuesday strike.

The decision to strike came at a Sunday meeting of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, an umbrella organization of various Arab Israeli groups. The meeting, held in the Arab town of Kafr Qara in northern Israel, explored various forms of protest before calling the strike. The strike was to be launched over what the group called “the efforts by the Netanyahu government to separate Muslims from al-Aqsa Mosque.”

On Monday, Joint (Arab) List chairman MK Ayman Odeh said his party members would refrain from visiting al-Aqsa Mosque for the time being so as not to spark any additional unrest. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a blanket ban on lawmakers’ visits to the compound due to the ongoing tensions. The Israeli Arab MKs had intended to visit the Temple Mount on Sunday, despite the ban but later postponed the trip.

The decision to issue the Temple Mount ban was made in late September, but police only began implementing it last week. It originally only included Jewish lawmakers, but was extended to all MKs after protests from cabinet ministers.

Not all Arab Israelis expressed enthusiasm for the strike; Nazareth Mayor Ali Salem criticized the decision and called on the Joint (Arab) List Knesset members to instead take steps to calm the recent violence.

“I blame the leaders; they are destroying our future, they are destroying coexistence,” Salem told Army Radio on Sunday.

A representative of Arab business owners in the mixed city of Acre said the town’s Arab business owners “honor the decision of the High Follow Up Committee but do not decided for business owners whether to open or not. Each person decides as they think.”

The representative, Hanni Asadi, told Ynet that a grassroots Israeli countermeasure aimed at identifying which businesses are owned by Arabs and boycotting them after the strike ends was the effort of “inciters trying to destroy Jewish Arab relations.”

“Extremists are trying to ruin the good atmosphere. In this racist decision of theirs, they show how stupid they are. They will not deter us because we answer to no one but God. We all hope this wave will pass and tourism and security will return to what they were,” he said.

An Arab journalist from Haifa, Shahin Nassar, told Ynet many business owners in the city were taking the Jewish threats seriously: “Many of their clients are Jewish residents of the city. Like every time when tempers flare because of the security situation, there are calls for sanctions against Arab citizens. Some business owners were threatened with sanctions if they closed up shop and joined the strike. This is pure racism. Every person has the right to their political opinions and such calls are a threat to Israel’s democracy. Business owners want the police to investigate who is behind the threat [of sanctions].”