Israel Druze protest against "state discrimination"

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Several hundred Druze demonstrators clashed with police outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office Sunday during a protest against what they said was state discrimination against their community.

Demonstrators hurled eggs, sticks and bottles at riot police. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said two policemen and several protesters were injured in the violence.

Druze community leaders say that government funding for their villages falls short of allocations for Jewish communities in Israel.

"Our soldiers serve at the front but there's no state support at home" read one of the placards at the protest.

Druze men are conscripted into Israel's military and the native Arabic speakers are a prominent force in the paramilitary border police, often at the front line of confrontations with Palestinians. The Druze religion is an offshoot of Islam.

Netanyahu later met some of the protest leaders. A statement issued by his office said he told them he was aware of the financial problems facing Druze municipal authorities and that he would make a "supreme effort" to help them.

"The prime minister told them he was sitting among them thanks to an Israeli hero -- a Druze soldier who saved his life," the statement said, without elaborating.

Netanyahu is a former Israeli army commando.

More than 100,000 Druze live in Israel and another 18,000 live in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, territory captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Lin Noueihed)