WHILE Israel on Wednesday celebrated 75 years of its creation, Palestinians in Israel commemorated 75 years of their dispersion and what is known as the Nakba, or catastrophe.
Thousands of Palestinians in Israel took part on Wednesday in what they called the March of Return which took them to villages they were forced out from in 1948 when Israel was created on their land and in their homes.
Marchers carried the Palestinian flags and brandished names of the villages they were forced to leave and became abandoned since then, as they were banned by the Israeli authorities from returning to their villages.
Usually, the Palestinians commemorate the Nakba on May 15, when hundreds of thousands of the indigenous Arab population were forced out of their villages, towns and cities at gunpoint when Britain ended its mandate over Palestine and turned over the Arab land to the Jewish emigrants leaving its poorly-armed native Palestinian citizens an easy prey to the well-armed Jewish settlers and gangs.
However, since Israel marks its creation according to the Hebrew calendar, which coincided on Wednesday, the Palestinians also decided to mark their dispersion at the same time the Israelis celebrate their creation to remind them that Israel was created at the expense of Palestine’s indigenous Arab population.
Also on Wednesday, the official spokesman for the Palestinian presidency Nabil Abu Rudeineh said that the Israeli occupation authorities are dragging the region into a square of violence, escalation, tension and instability, through its insistence on continuing the policy of collective punishment, killing, attacks on the al-Aqsa Mosque, continuing Israeli settlers’ terrorism against Palestinians under protection from the Israeli forces.
Abu Rudeineh added that extremist settlers’ storming of al-Aqsa Mosque and raising the occupation flag in its courtyards as well as storming of the occupation police into Bab Al-Rahma chapel and damaging the electricity power grids inside it, confirms that the extremist Israeli government is looking for ways to escalate the situation, holding it responsible for these dangerous policies seeking to destroy any regional or international effort to provide stability and prevent the deterioration of the situation.
He stressed that Palestinian people won’t allow the occupation authorities to harm the al-Aqsa Mosque, and that the ongoing attacks on Bab Al-Rahma’s prayer area in al-Aqsa Mosque are ‘playing with fire’, as it’s an integral part of al-Aqsa Mosque.
He pointed out that the siege imposed on Palestinian cities as well as storming of cities, villages and camps, are collective punishment against Palestinian people, stressing that this policy won’t bring security and stability to anyone, but will push the region to further escalation and tension.
Abu Rudeineh called on the US administration to intervene immediately to stop these dangerous practices, and to put pressure on Israel to stop all its unilateral measures.
- Israeli settlers and soldiers on Wednesday uprooted dozens of trees and razed land in different parts of the occupied West Bank for the benefit of illegal Jewish settlements.
In the town of al-Khader, south of the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, settlers uprooted around 100 grapevine plants in a privately-owned Palestinian land located near the illegal settlement of Sedi Boaz, west of al-Khader, Ibrahim Mousa, mayor of al-Khader, told WAFA.
In the north of the West Bank, Israeli army bulldozers levelled land on Wednesday in the village of Haris, west of Salfit, and uprooted dozens of olive trees, said the head of Haris village council, Omar Samara.
He said the bulldozers have been razing village land for the benefit of the Israeli water company, Mekorot, to extend water lines to the illegal settlements in that area.
He said this project is costing local landowners heavily because it destroys agricultural land in addition to uprooting dozens of olive trees, which are an important source of income for many Palestinian households.
Israeli settlers stoned Palestinian-owned vehicles in the town of Bazaria, north west of Nablus, according to local sources.
Ghassan Douglas, who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said that a group of Israeli settlers hurled stones at Palestinian-owned vehicles in the town near the evacuated colonial outpost of Homesh, causing damage to some.
He said that the settlers have escalated their attacks against Palestinian civilians and their proprieties in that area and in the north of the West Bank in general.
Israeli police on Wednesday again raided Bab al-Rahma prayer area for the fourth day in a row and carried out inspection operations inside its yards.
The Israeli forces raided the Bab al-Rahma prayer area and confiscated the ID cards of worshippers.
The police broke into the prayer area last Saturday and Monday and damaged the electrical power grid of Bab al-Rahmeh prayer area.
Also on Wednesday Israeli forces issued a demolition notice against residential structures in the northern Jordan valley, according to sources.
Aref Daraghmeh, a human rights activist, said that Israeli forces raided several communities in the northern Jordan Valley and ordered the demolition of several residential structures owned by local Palestinians under the pretext that they were built without a permission.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers caused damage to agricultural crops in Sakot Plain in the northern Jordan Valley.
The settlers set up a barn in Sakot plain, which is usually a prelude to building a new illegal settlement.
- Amid growing fears over his life, Palestinian prisoner Kader Adnan entered on Wednesday day-81 of the hunger strike he staged in protest against his arbitrary detention.
Recently, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) warned that prisoner Khader Adnan could die any moment after his health reached a critical stage as a result of his prolonged hunger strike.
PPS pointed out that Adnan, who is under security camera surveillance in the Ramla prison’s infirmary, refuses to take any kind of intravenous fluids and medication or even undergo medical tests.
A few days ago, an Israeli court rejected a request filed by Adnan’s lawyer to consider his health condition and give him an early release.
Randa Mousa, Adnan’s wife, confirmed on Tuesday that there was no new information about her husband after he was transferred to an Israeli hospital following a sharp decline in his condition.
In a related context, PPS said that the Israeli prosecution authority filed an indictment with an Israeli court asking to jail Adnan for four years.
PPS warned of Israeli intents to liquidate him through ignoring the hunger strike he staged to demand an end to his illegal detention, with no trial or indictment.
- Two members of the UNRWA staff union started on Wednesday morning an open-ended hunger strike in protest at the refugee agency’s reluctance to respond to its employees’ demands.
These members, Salah Rashid and Ibrahim Zawahra, declared their hunger strike in Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in east Jerusalem and Ramallah City to pressure UNRWA to end what they called its negligence, procrastination and arrogance regarding its employees’ demands and its disregard for the initiative that was recently put forward by the Palestinian Authority.
In this regard, the UNRWA staff union held the agency’s administration fully responsible for the lives of Rashid and Zawahra, affirming that other members would join the hunger strike soon.
The UNRWA employees have been on strike for more than two months due to the agency’s failure to respond to their demands, including their need for a pay rise.
- Palestinian Authority Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Riyad al-Maliki, on Wednesday met and briefed the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Csaba Korösi on the overall developments in the Palestinian arena.
During the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the Security Council meeting at the ministerial level devoted to the Middle East and the Palestinian cause, in New York, al-Maliki updated Korösi on the ongoing crimes of the Israeli occupation and settlers against Palestinian people and their sanctities.
He said that the statements regarding the Palestinian cause are good, but without obtaining anything tangible or practical steps for the Security Council to carry out its mandate to maintain peace and security, and to end the Israeli colonial occupation.
Al-Maliki noted that the involvement of many countries in this meeting is an indication of the importance of the Palestinian cause to the international community.
The foreign minister stressed that justice and peace will be achieved when the Palestinian people obtain their inalienable rights, foremost of which is the right to return, self-determination, independence for the State of Palestine and the end of the Israeli occupation.
In turn, Korösi affirmed that the Palestinian cause and the rights of the Palestinian people receive great support from the General Assembly.
