Palestinians Killed in 'Nakba' Clashes 

Several killed
and scores wounded in Gaza, Golan Heights, Ras Maroun
and West Bank, as Palestinians mark Nakba Day.

Published on Sunday, May 15, 2011 by Al-Jazeera-English

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/2011515649440342.html
[Video]

Several people have been killed and scores of others
wounded in the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Ras Maroun in
Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as
Palestinians mark the "Nakba", or day of "catastrophe".

Scores of Palestinians have been injured in clashes on
the 63rd 'Nakba Day'. (AFP) The "Nakba" is how
Palestinians refer to the 1948 founding of the state of
Israel, when an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or
were expelled following Israel's declaration of
statehood.

At least one Palestinian was killed and up to 80 others
wounded in northern Gaza as Israeli troops opened fire
on a march of at least 1,000 people heading towards the
Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

A group of Palestinians, including children, marching
to mark the "Nakba" were shot by the Israeli army after
crossing a Hamas checkpoint and entering what Israel
calls a "buffer zone" - an empty area between
checkpoints where Israeli soldiers generally shoot
trespassers, Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston reported from
Gaza City on Sunday.

"We are just hearing that one person has been killed
and about 80 people have been injured," Johnston said.

"There are about 500-600 Palestinian youth gathered at
the Erez border crossing point. They don't usually
march as far as the border. There has been intermittent
gunfire from the Israeli side for the last couple of
hours.

"Hamas has asked us to leave; they are trying to move
people away from the Israeli border. They say seeing so
many people at the border indicates a shift in politics
in the area."

Separately in south Tel Aviv, one Israeli man was
killed and 17 were injured when a 22-year-old Arab
Israeli driver drove his truck into a number of
vehicles on one of the city's main roads.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the
driver, from an Arab village called Kfar Qasim in the
West Bank, was arrested at the scene and is being
questioned.

"Based on the destruction and the damage at the scene,
we have reason to believe that it was carried out
deliberately," Rosenfeld said. But he said he did not
believe the motive was directly linked to the
anniversary of the Nakba.

West Bank clashes

One of the biggest Nakba demonstrations was held near
Qalandiya refugee camp and checkpoint, the main secured
entry point into the West Bank from Israel, where about
100 protesters marched, Al Jazeera's  Nisreen
El-Shamayleh reported from Ramallah.

Some injuries were reported from tear gas canisters
fired at protesters there, El-Shamayleh said.

Small clashes were reported throughout various
neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem and cities in the West
Bank, between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli
security forces.

Israeli police said 20 arrests were made in the East
Jerusalem area of Issawiyah for throwing stones and
petrol bombs at Israeli border police officers.

About 70 arrests have been made in East Jerusalem
throughout the Nakba protests that began on Friday, two
days ahead of the May 15 anniversary, police spokesman
Rosenfeld said.

Tensions had risen a day earlier after a 17-year-old
Palestinian boy died of a gunshot wound suffered amid
clashes on Friday in Silwan, another East Jerusalem
neighbourhood.

Police said the source of the gunfire was unclear and
that police were investigating, while local sources
told Al Jazeera that  the teen was shot in random
firing of live ammunition by guards of Jewish settlers
living in nearby Beit Yonatan.

'Palestinians killed'

Meanwhile, Syrian state television reported that
Israeli forces killed four Syrian citizens who had been
taking part in an anti-Israeli rally on the Syrian side
of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights border on Sunday.

Israeli army radio said earlier that dozens were
wounded when Palestinian refugees from the Syrian side
of the Golan Heights border were shot for trying to
break through the frontier fence. There was no comment
on reports of the injured.

There have also been reports that Israeli gunfire
killed up to 10 people and injured scores more in the
Lebanese town of Ras Maroun, on the southern border
with Israel.

Matthew Cassel, a journalist in the town, told Al
Jazeera that he saw at least two dead Palestinian
refugees.

"Tens of thousands of refugees marched to the border
fence to demand their right to return where they were
met by Israeli soldiers," he said.

"Many were killed. I don't know how many but I saw with
my own eyes a number of unconscious and injured, and at
least two dead.

"Now the Lebanese army has moved in, people are running
back up the mountain to get away from the army."

'End to Zionist project'

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the
events of "Nakba Day" in a televised statement on
Sunday, particualrly referring to attempts to
infiltrate Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon and the
Gaza Strip, saying "we are determined to defend our
borders".

Netanyahu said that he instructed Israeli forces to act
with restraint, but to stop all attempts at
infiltration and challenges to Israel's sovereignty.

He said that the "Nakba Day" protesters were not
fighting for the 1967 borders as they claim, but were
denying Israel's right to exist.

"We must understand who and what we are up against,"
Netanyahu said.

Earlier on Sunday Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of
Hamas-controlled Gaza, repeated the group's call for
the end of the state of Israel.

Addressing Muslim worshippers in Gaza City on Sunday,
Haniyeh said Palestinians marked this year's "Nakba"
"with great hope of bringing to an end the Zionist
project in Palestine".

"To achieve our goals in the liberation of our occupied
land, we should have one leadership,'' Haniyeh said,
praising the recent unity deal with its rival, Fatah,
the political organisation which controls the West Bank
under Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas' leadership.

Meanwhile, a 63 second-long siren rang midday in
commemoration of the Nakba's 63rd anniversary.

Over 760,000 Palestinians - estimated today to number
4.7 million with their descendants - fled or were
driven out of their homes in the conflict that followed
Israel's creation.

Many took refuge in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt
and elsewhere. Some continue to live in refugee camps.

About 160,000 Palestinians stayed behind in what is now
Israeli territory and are known as Arab Israelis. They
now total around 1.3 million, or some 20 percent of
Israel's population. (c) 2011 Al-Jazeera-English

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate