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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
4 soldiers injured as Palestinians mark Nakba Day
2013-05-16
Services and protests were held across the West Bank Wednesday to commemorate the 65th Nakba Day, the "catastrophe" of Palestinian displacement resulting from the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
No mention that they brought it on themselves, of course...
Sirens blared at noon for 65 seconds, in line with the 65th year of commemoration, and services were held in Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Bethlehem, Jericho, and other locations. Israeli police on horseback dispersed hundreds of Palestinian protesters in east Jerusalem. In Ramallah, thousands marched from the grave of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to the city center. Many wore black in a sign of mourning, holding Palestinian flags and large keys symbolizing the homes they left behind.

"The right of return will not die," chanted the protesters, referring to the demand for millions of descendants of Palestinians who lived in what is today Israel to return to their homes -- a move that would spell the end of the Jewish state. Schools closed at midday and parents brought their children to the demonstration.
Of course it can't die. The UNHCR and UNRWA would both be put out of business. We certainly can't have that...
Rallies were also held in other cities across the West Bank and smaller protests were held in Gaza, which has been under control of the Hamas terror group since it ousted Palestinian Fatah forces in the territory in 2007. About a thousand marched to the UN headquarters in Gaza City.

"We shall return. We will never give up or compromise over our land," chanted the marchers, members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian factions.
They then rolled their eyes, grimaced most fiercely and made faces...
The Israeli military said Palestinian protesters across the West Bank threw rocks at soldiers who responded with tear gas. Palestinians hurled a fire bomb at a military vehicle near Hebron, causing it to overturn, injuring four soldiers.

In east Jerusalem, Israeli police used water cannon and officers on horseback to disperse an "illegal march," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Fourteen protesters were arrested, as was a Palestinian suspected of attacking a Jewish man as he walked near the Old City, he said.

In Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority set up a stage near Manara Square in the center of the city, where artists performed traditional dances and songs.

Demonstrators also protested outside Ofer Prison, where many Palestinian security prisoners are held. The site is a common spot for mass rallies.

Several people were injured, including medics, after the IDF fired tear gas and rubber bullets during confrontations with protesters, according to reports on social media sites.

Dozens of Palestinians also threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli security forces in Bitunia and Qalandiya, north of Jerusalem. The IDF retaliated by using riot dispersal techniques and no one was injured, Israel Radio reported.
Predictably the Israelis are criticized for firing rubber bullets but the rock-throwing Paleos get a pass...
Posted by:Steve White

#2  Predictably the Israelis are criticized for firing rubber bullets but the rock-throwing Paleos get a pass...

So the Israelis should collect up the rocks that are thrown at them, put them in cannons, and 'throw' them back.
Posted by: Glenmore   2013-05-16 10:16  

#1  An interesting background piece on the origins of the Nakba:

But just three short paragraphs into the Wikipedia article [on Nakba Day] comes this intriguing historical titbit: “Prior to its adoption by the Palestinian nationalist movement, the ‘Year of the Catastrophe’ among Arabs referred to 1920, when European colonial powers partitioned the Ottoman Empire into a series of separate states along lines of their own choosing”.

The footnote there quotes The Arab awakening: the story of the Arab national movement by George Antonius: “The year 1920 has an evil name in Arab annals: it is referred to as the Year of the Catastrophe (cĀm al-Nakba). It saw the first armed risings that occurred in protest against the post-War settlement imposed by the Allies on the Arab countries. In that year, serious outbreaks took place in Syria, Palestine, and Iraq”.
Posted by: trailing wife   2013-05-16 09:41  

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