Eric Burdon cancels gig in Israel "under increasing pressure"/ Sainsbury's BDS Day of Action across the UK

1..Eric Burdon performs in Scotland (Edinburgh) tonight in the only UK leg of a tour that was to have included a gig in Tel Aviv, Israel, on August 1^st.  Palestine solidarity activists welcome yesterday’s announcement that he has pulled out of the Tel Aviv engagement "under increasing pressure" to cancel, according to his Manager.

According to Israeli daily, Haaretz, "he was pressured not to perform in Israel and ultimately chose to cancel the concert, which was to take place August 1.  "We are under increasing pressure, including many threatening emails that we are receiving on a daily basis."

The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign was among many who wrote, and invited others to write, to Eric Burdon before he came to Edinburgh asking him to remain true to his long-term hostility to racism and Jim Crow in the US South.

Regarding alleged threats, the Independent notes that “the nature of the threats is unclear”. The extreme vagueness of alleged “threats” made to Burdon is certainly suspicious, and SPSC is unaware of any being made during the weeks that public, legitimate political and moral pressure was brought to bear on Burdon in support of the Palestinian call for boycott of Israel.  

We restricted our campaigning to positive exhortation to Eric Burdon to stay true to anti-racist principles.  We urge Burdon’s manager, Marianne Burdon, to specify the nature of the “threats”, to make them public, and report them to the police since threatening behaviour is a crime in the UK. Otherwise, doubts will remain since similar unfounded and anonymous accusations have been levelled in the past against pro-Palestine campaigners. 

We welcome Eric Burdon’s decision to follow in the tracks of Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Carlos Santana, Gil Scott-Heron, Annie Lennox, the Pixies, Massive Attack and many others in refusing to perform in apartheid Israel.   This is another small crack in the wall that imprisons the Palestinian people.

He will now be unreservedly welcome in Edinburgh tonight.

Appeal from many Scots and others to Eric Burdon to boycott Israel.
http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php/solidarity/boycott/cultural/music/1586-eric-burdon-don-t-play-in-tel-aviv-on-august-1st

There is currently a wave of violent Israeli state-enforced ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and ongoing brutal military repression.

2..Palestine activity at your local Sainsbury’s on the first Saturday of every month
Stop Trade with Occupation Profiteers
Israel is accelerating its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, both Palestinian citizens of Israel and others living under Israel’s illegal military occupation. ‘Peace talks’ will generate illusory hopes while Israel continues to drive Palestinians from their homes and build more Jewish-only settlements.

Last year the Co-op UK adopted a policy of refusing to do business with any company, Israeli or otherwise, complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation.  This policy, much broader in scope than banning produce from Israel’s settlements, was secured by grass-roots cooperation and campaigning across all seven Co-op regions. 

This campaign aims to mobilise public pressure on Sainsbury’s across the UK to follow the Co-op and to refuse to trade with companies complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestine. On the first Saturday of every month there will be activities at Sainsbury’s stores across the UK.  An up-to-date record of stores in Scotland being covered on August 3^rd is maintained on a map here.  For information on actions taking place in the rest of the UK visit www.sainsburyscampaign.orgFind attached final versions of materials for use at Sainsbury’s to gather signatures:

o   leaflet

o   postcard

o   placard

o   banner

STOP = Stop (Sainsbury’s) Trade with Occupation Profiteers (in Palestine) is the interim name for the Scottish campaign.  We aim to build a coalition in Scotland for everyone to cooperate in this modest but sustained effort to support the Palestinian people. Ask trade unions, churches, campaign groups and other bodies to get involved and support the monthly Sainsbury’s events.

What you can do:

·        Let us know if you can organise around your local Sainsbury’s for this long-term, all-UK campaign.  Order some of the attached materials, £2 per 100 leaflets and postcards.

·        In Scotland, order an 8ft x 3ft full colour banner for this and future Sainsbury’s events (£32 – collect from Edinburgh or postage extra).

·        Take and share photos of each store activity.

·        If you live in the UK, ask your friends, family and contacts to sign the postcards to Sainsbury’s. Send them to your local SPSC group if you live in Scotland, and contact http://www.sainsburyscampaign.orgelsewhere in the UK.

·        Wherever you live, share the link to the online letter to Sainsbury’s at www.coordin8.org.uk with friends, family and contacts.

3..From SPSC website

Ethnic Cleansing of the Naqab in 2013: Is the Wood Group powering the ‘Prawer Plan?
Church of Scotland General Assembly slams Israeli apartheid and land theft - suggests BDS needed
UN condemns Israel's widespread use of torture
Scotland: 'little or no antisemitism' is coupled with 'rise of anti-Zionist political activity'
Settler Colonialism in Palestine.
Speaking tour by author of 'Gaza: when the sky rained white fire'
Divestment workshop 19 & 20 October, Edinburgh

Select the campaign you wish to support:

Mick Napier

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
c/o Peace & Justice Centre
Edinburgh EH2 4BJ

www.scottishpsc.org.uk
00 44 131 620 0052
00 44 795 800 2591
Skype: michaelnapier

Mass Palestinian grave found in Tel Aviv

mwcnews.net

MWC Nnews

The remains of dozens of Palestinians killed by Israelis in fighting during the war of 1948 which led to the creation of the state of Israel have been found in a mass grave in Tel Aviv's Jaffa district.

An official at the Muslim cemetery there told AFP news agency that the grisly find occurred on Wednesday when ground subsided as workers carried out renovations, revealing six chambers full of skeletons.

Jaffa fisherman Atar Zeinab, 80, says that as a teenager during the final months of fighting in 1948, he helped to collect the Arab dead in the area south of Jaffa and bring them for hasty burial in the cemetery, the area's main graveyard.

"I carried to the cemetery 60 bodies during a period of three or four months," he told AFP. "We used to find the people in the street and most of the time we didn't know who they were."

He said that the danger of being hit by flying bullets or grenade fragments was such that bodies were dumped one on top of the other in existing family crypts in the cemetery, contrary to Muslim custom.

"We carried them early in the morning or in the night," he added. "We put women, children and men in the same place...nobody prayed for these people."

Jaffa was at the time a Palestinian town, but there was a forced exodus of most of its Arab population when it fell to the fledgling Israeli army and rightwing Jewish armed gangs.

In 1950 it was incorporated into the city of Tel Aviv which was renamed Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

Today it has a mixed Arab and Jewish population.

Around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in what they call the "Nakba" or "catastrophe" of 1948.

Yawm an-Nakba

image source GazaYBO

Nakba day violence on the Israel-Lebanon border

Nakba Day Killings: One More Reason to Boycott Bibi

Dear Milena,

Above: Protesters gather along the Lebanese-Israeli border in Maroun al-Ras, Lebanon, to mark the anniversary of the Nakba. Photo: Mahmoud Ramsey. (click image to enlarge).

On Sunday Israel killed at least 12 unarmed Palestinian refugees and injured hundreds more. The refugees were commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe," as Palestinians call their dispossession and expulsion by Israel before, during, and ever since its founding in 1948.

These Palestinian refugees, inspired by the "Arab Spring" to act as their own agentsfor achieving their fundamental human rights, sought to exercise their internationally recognized -- but long-denied -- right of return to their homes.

Israel's lethal response with live ammunition provides a stark reminder of the extent to which it will go to maintain its apartheid policies against Palestinians.

While Israel allows Jewish people from anywhere in the world automatically to attain citizenship, it forcibly forbids the return of Palestinian refugees whom it exiled from their homes. Such a policy -- discrimination based on religious or ethnic differences -- is the very definition of apartheid.
Israel's latest atrocity adds one more reason why our petition to Members of Congress -- to boycott Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's upcoming address to a joint meeting of Congress on May 24 -- is important. Thank you for signing!

Thanks to you, we've almost reached two thirds of our goal of 10,000 signatures, after which we'll deliver your signature to House Speaker John Boehner, who invited Netanyahu to speak.

Our message is starting to be heard. There's evidence that if Bibi comes to Congress to deliver more of the same tired arguments -- about why Israel should continue its apartheid rule over Palestinians -- then perhaps his reception won't be so warm.

Last Friday, the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv cited U.S. sources stating that if Bibi's speech doesn't contain "real content," then "he would bebetter off canceling italtogether... a speech before Congress is not a ritualistic matter -- he must lay out his vision for peace."[1]

While in Washington, DC, Netanyahu also will be speaking to the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the largest and most influential lobby supporting Israeli occupation and apartheidagainst Palestinians.

To coincide with AIPAC's conference, the US Campaign Steering Committee, Advisory Board and staff are gearing up to participate in the discourse-challenging panels and workshops of "Move Over AIPAC," a US Campaign-endorsed event, May 21-24.

Learn more about this seminal event, organized by US Campaign member group CODEPINK, and how you can get involved in efforts to challenge U.S. support for Israeli occupation and apartheid. Join us as we continue our work to change U.S. policy to support freedom,justice and equality as we help to Move Over AIPAC.

We hope to see you in Washington, DC this weekend!

In solidarity,
Josh Ruebner
National Advocacy Director


PS -- We do all of our work to challenge U.S. policy with just 0.4% of AIPAC's budget. If it were an even struggle, then we'd be sure to win. Help make that possible by sending your generous, tax-deductible contribution to us today. Thank you!
[1] Thanks to Israeli human rights activist Didi Remez for thetranslation of this article.

n Pictures: 'Ahead of the Nakba'

A Palestinian demonstrator jumps in the air amid tear gas fired by the Israeli riot police in Issawiya on Friday. [GETTY]

Palestinian Nakba: Forever a memory

Many Palestinians fled their homes in 1948, taking only their door key with them. It has since become a powerful symbol of refugees' right to return, even though most of the buildings have long since been destroyed - or had Israeli families move in [GALLO/GETTY] Palestinians around the world are marking the anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe that occurred when the state of Israel was established in 1948. The scale of the devastation was overwhelming: four in five Palestinian villages inside the borders of the new state were ethnically cleansed, an act of mass dispossession accompanied by atrocities. Around 95 per cent of new Jewish communities built between 1948-1953 were established on the land of expelled, denationalised Palestinians. Referring to these refugees, Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion famously said that "the old will die and the young will forget". In fact, rather than "forgetting", the Nakba has become one of the central foundations for activism by Palestinians - and their supporters - around the world. Why is the Nakba such a strong framework of analysis and action? Because rather than being an isolated historical event, it is an ongoing process of dispossession and colonial settlement. Over 60 years ago, actions taken by Israel's military and policies adopted by the legislature were designed to effect the transfer of land from Palestinian to Jewish ownership, removing as many of the former as possible. Since then, right up to today, this is the same logic at work in Israel's regime over Palestinians between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Just recently it was revealed that Israel had denied residency rights to 140,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, in what Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz described as a "demographic policy" whose "sole purpose is to thin out the Palestinian population". One of the mechanisms Israel used to expropriate Palestinian land was the British Mandate-era "Land (Acquisition for Public Purposes) Ordinance". In 2010, the Knesset passed an amendment to this law that "confirms state ownership of land confiscated under this law, even where it has not been used to serve the original confiscation purpose". The Nakba is not finished. The Nakba continues as Bedouin Palestinian citizens watch their homes demolished to make way for Jewish settlement and forests, and as Palestinians are kept off 77.5 per cent of the Jordan Valley, part of what Human Rights Watch has called a "a two-tier system for the two populations". This continuation of policies informed by the "spirit" of 1948 (in the words of Gideon Levy) is how Palestinians understand what is happening to a fragmented population, from al-Arakib to the hills of the West Bank. A Nakba-shaped analysis is a corrective to the discourse promoted through the official peace process, a framework of "negotiations" between "two parties" over a territorial "conflict". Liberal Zionists too, ignore the Nakba - beyond patronising displays of "empathy"; they need the Green Line of 1967 "so as to render all that lies beyond it as temporary conquest", exempting them from having to confront "the historic legacy" of the ethnic cleansing in 1948. The centrality of 1948 is being embraced as part of a language and mode of resistance by Palestinians around the world. The fight of Palestinian citizens of Israel as a discriminated, segregated minority has evolved over the years - from emphasising "rights" to challenging the very legitimacy of a Jewish state. The BDS call, endorsed and driven by Palestinians under military occupation, aims to bring an end to the injustices that began with the Nakba. This is what makes the Israeli government, and its apologists, so nervous: they know that 63 years on, contrary to Ben-Gurion's prediction, not only have subsequent generations of Palestinians remembered the Nakba, but their ongoing struggle for justice and equality is now understood and supported by growing numbers around the world. Ben White is a freelance journalist and writer, specialising in Palestine and Israel. His first book, Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide, was published by Pluto Press in 2009, receiving praise from the likes of Desmond Tutu, Nur Masalha and Ghada Karmi. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

http://english.aljazeera.net

Matt Cassel reports from Lebanon

Palestinians in Lebanon mourn dead protesters

Palestinian camps across Lebanon declared a day of mourning on Monday as the families of 10 people killed when Israeli troops opened fire on protesters at the border prepare to bury their dead.
"Today is a day of general strikes in the camps in mourning for the victims who were killed by the enemy," Fatah commander in Lebanon Munir Maqdah, based in the refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, told AFP.
Funerals will be held Monday in the Palestinian refugee camps of al-Bass, Burj al-Shemali, Mieh Mieh and Ain al-Hilweh, all located in South Lebanon.
Maqdah said talks were underway for a "Martyrs' Friday" to honour the victims.
"This will not end here," he said. "We may hold a 'Martyrs' Friday' but what the program will entail has not been finalized and we are still holding talks with our comrades here and abroad."
The 1948 formation of Israel is known in Arabic as the "nakba," or "catastrophe".
Israeli troops shot dead 12 people on Sunday and wounded hundreds more as Palestinians marking the "nakba" marched on Israel’s borders with Gaza as well as Lebanon and Syria. These regions are home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were driven out in 1948.
The Lebanese army said that 10 of those killed were approaching a barbed wire fence at Lebanon's border with the Jewish state. More than 100 more were wounded when the crowd of thousands of refugees, who were throwing rocks at Israeli troops from the Lebanese town of Maroun al-Ras, came under fire.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon



To read more: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=271481#ixzz1MVRtE8eV
Only 25% of a given NOW Lebanon article can be republished. For information on republishing rights from NOW Lebanon: http://www.nowlebanon.com/Sub.aspx?ID=125478 

Gaza: Israel's use of force on Nakba protesters shows helplessness

[ 15/05/2011 - 08:29 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian government in Gaza has declared that Israel's use of force against peaceful protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and along occupied Palestinian borders implies a state of confusion and helplessness. ”The crowds we've seen in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan suggest the divine promise of victory and sovereignty and the return to the homes and holy sites is near,” said government spokesman Tahir al-Nunu. He said that the government ”condemns the brutal Zionist attacks on peaceful protesters, and considers that the new crime that led to the injury of dozens suggests [the Israeli occupier's] confusion and its deep concern over popular movements”. ”[Israel] has been defeated from within and lacks any human ingredient to survive besides resorting to violence and force and killing to impose their forced presence on the region and world.” In a related development, the secretary-general of the Palestinian Cabinet Dr. Mohammad Ascol has said that the Palestinian government will use full force to address suspected attempts to marginalize the Palestinian refugees' right of return. The statement came during Nakba Day on Sunday. He said the government would not renounce its responsibility to preserve the right of return and would do everything in its power to promote it. Palestine-info Center

Ramallah medics put injured count at 150 during Nakba Day protests

[ 15/05/2011 - 06:58 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Medics have put the count of those injured during Nakba Day protests in Ramallah and Al-Bireh in Ramallah province at 150. 20 of them were injured critically, 30 were hit by gunfire, and dozens suffered severe breathing difficulties after inhaling tear gas, sources in the Ramallah central hospital have said. Dozens have been arrested by Israeli special units. Witnesses said that the most volatile clashes took place at the Kalandia military crossing south of Ramallah, the main entrance leading to Jerusalem. Violent clashes erupted there as Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinians. Several areas across the West Bank are inflamed with clashes as Israel has deployed more than ten thousand soldiers and imposed a tight military cordon on the West Bank. Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Sunday in Ramallah to mark the 63rd Nakba Day carrying Palestinian flags and banners emphasizing the right of Palestinian refugees to return. The march began at the tomb of late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and headed for Manara Square downtown Ramallah, where vast ceremonies were held. Palestinian Info Center

Nine killed, scores injured as Nakba commemoration gains momentum

[ 15/05/2011 - 05:15 PM ]

GOLAN, (PIC)-- Nine people were killed and scores others were left injured during the commemoration of the 63rd Nakba along the border between Lebanon and Golan Heights. Those killed include Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese. Media reports say that five Palestinian refugees were killed and more than 30 others were shot as the Israeli occupation force cracked down on protests in Maroun al-Ras village along the Lebanese-Palestinian border. Hundreds of Arabs headed for the border on the sidelines of a Nakba ceremony held in the village and hurled stones at the IOF soldiers stationed on the border before they were shot at. The Israeli army declared the border area across from Maroun Al-Ras a closed military zone, as thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon crowded in the area demanding the right of return to their occupied lands. Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera reported that four were killed and dozens of Syrians were injured near the Magdal Shams village in the occupied Golan Heights. That was after several Palestinians and Syrians tried to cross borders towards Golan. IOF soldiers responded with gunfire. According to Israeli daily Yediot Ahranot, some 30 Syrians tried to cross the security fence when the army opened fire at them. Around 20 were injured, some of them seriously. The IOF has declared a state of alert in the region. Many ambulances are on the way to the village. Israel's Maariv gave mention to some ten thousand Palestinians and Syrians who took part in a march that tried to cross Syria's borders with occupied Palestine. More than 45 Palestinians were shot wounded by Israeli occupation forces on Sunday as they marked the Nakba near the Beit Hanoun border crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, medics in Palestine said. Wide-ranging events have begun in refugee camps in occupied Palestinian territories in memory of the national catastrophe known as the Nakba in 1948. Palestine Info Center

Dozens badly injured, one killed in deadly attack on peaceful march east of Gaza

[ 15/05/2011 - 05:17 PM ]

BEIT HANOUN, (PIC)-- An 18-year old Palestinian young man was shot dead at noon Sunday east of Gaza city in Shujaiya district. 90 other citizens, mostly children, also sustained different injuries when the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) opened intensive fire and shelled a peaceful march held on the Nakba anniversary near Beit Hanoun crossing. Doctors said most of these citizens were moderately wounded and one of them is in critical condition. A reporter for the Palestinian information center (PIC) said the IOF fired five artillery shells and machine guns at the march which led to this number of casualties, while ambulances rushed to the scene to transfer the wounded to hospitals. Thousands of Palestinians participated in this peaceful march and raised Palestinian flags and symbolic keys to indicate their determination to return to their homes in the 1948 occupied lands. Dozens of Italian peace activists were also in the march.

Palestinians wounded in 'Nakba' clashes

A Palestinian teen died during Friday's clashes in East Jerusalem [REUTERS]

Dozens of people have been injured in the Gaza Strip as thousands of Palestinians and activists marched to mark "Nakba Day", or Israel's 1948 founding, amid tight Israeli security.
A group of Palestinians, including children, 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 correspondent Nicole Johnston reported from Gaza City.
Johnston said tank shelling and artillery fire were also heard from the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip.
Reports said at least 45 Palestinians were 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.
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. He did not believe the motive was directly linked to the anniversary of the Nakba.
West Bank clashes
One of the biggest 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 correspondent Nisreen El Shmayleh reported from Ramallah.
Some injuries were reported from tear gas canisters fired at protesters there, El Shmayleh 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  Ayyash was shot in random firing of live ammunition by guards of Jewish settlers living in nearby Beit Yonatan.
Lebanon and Syria
About 20,000 people are expected to gather by the end of Sunday at Ras Maroun, a Lebanese border town.
Matthew Cassel, a journalist en route to Lebanon's southern border with Israel, tweeted that dozens of buses were departing Nahr al-Bared and Baddawi refugee camps in northern Lebanon.

Some activists tweeted that the Lebanese and Jordanian authorities were prohibiting protesters from nearing the borders. The information could not be independently verified.
Israeli army radio said dozens were wounded in a shooting incident on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, an area bordering with Syria.
Palestinian refugees from Syrian side of the border were shot for trying to break through the frontier fence, the radio report said.
Israeli army spokepersons' office said an Israeli army patrol shot in the air in an effort to desist "people trying to cross into Israel and trying to damage the fence." There was no comment on reports of the injured.
'End to Zionist project'
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned Sunday's demonstrations.
“I regret that there are extremists among Israeli Arabs and in neighbouring countries who have turned the day on which the State of Israel was established, the day on which the Israeli democracy was established, into a day of incitement, violence and rage", Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting.
"There is no place for this, for denying the existence of the State of Israel. No to extremism and no to violence. The opposite is true", he said.
Earlier 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 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.


source: al-Jazeera

Israel tightens security measures to disturb 63rd Nakba anniversary

[ 14/05/2011 - 08:37 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have intensified tight security measures in the occupied city of Jerusalem and at its entrances to the West Bank to prevent the Palestinians from organizing marches on the 63rd anniversary of the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe). The Hebrew radio said thousands of policemen and troops were deployed throughout the holy city and at the gates of the Aqsa Mosque. The IOF also set up military checkpoints inside the city and barred the entry of Palestinians from the West Bank. The Israeli security apparatuses expressed fears that the marches on the Nakba anniversary would turn into an uprising like what happened in some Arab countries. Palestinian youth groups had announced their intention to organize events and marches on the Nakba anniversary in all occupied territories and neighboring Arab countries. On Friday, the IOF kidnapped 13 Palestinian young men in occupied Jerusalem on allegation they wanted to cause riots on the eve of the Nakba day which falls on Sunday. In this regard, Palestinian movements and organizations in the 1948 occupied lands invited the Palestinians to participate on this occasion in a massive march to be organized on Saturday. In a meeting on Thursday, they said the march would start from Bab Al-Amoud square, one of Jerusalem's oldest gates, and pass through Sultan Suleiman and Salahuddin streets towards the Palestinian homes that extremist Jewish groups seized or intend to take them over in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in central Jerusalem.

The Arab world rises up in support of Palestine

[ 13/05/2011 - 03:49 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, ARAB CAPITALS (PIC)-- PIC correspondents reported on Friday that more than a million Arab people rallied on Friday in support of the Palestinian cause in Palestine and a number of Arab countries. Our correspondents reported that the largest such rally was the one held at the Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital Cairo. Participants in the Tahrir Square rally started gathering there before dawn and the rally culminated at the Friday prayers in the afternoon. Participants called for opening the Rafah crossing, and called on the Palestinian resistance not give up armed resistance. They called for Egyptian national unity and not to fall in the trap of those who are trying to sow discord between the Muslims and the Christians. Similarly, huge demonstrations took place in Lebanon and Jordan to mark the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948 when Israel was created for immigrants from Europe who uprooted the indigenous Palestinians from their land, committed around 70 massacres and destroyed over 500 Palestinian villages in the process. In the West Bank, the IOF was on high alert and carried out numerous arrests to try and prevent any rallies marking the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba. In occupied Jerusalem, IOF troops took stern measures to prevent large numbers from reaching the Aqsa Mosque by preventing Palestinian people under the age of 45 years from passing through roadblocks on their way to the Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli occupation premier, Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered that all possible measures should be taken to prevent the marking of the anniversary by Palestinians. Meanwhile, Palestinians in 1948-occupied Palestine, marked the Nakba anniversary at the same time the Israelis marked what they call “independence”. Activities marking the anniversary will continue. Marches towards the borders of occupied Palestine will take place on Sunday prompting fears of the occupation government that matters can get out of control. The Israeli occupation asked the PA and its president Mahmoud Abbas to control the Nakba marches that Palestinians intend to hold. The 63rd anniversary of the Nakba came at a time in which great changes are taking place in the Arab world rekindling hope for Palestinian refugees that their return to the homes they were thrown out of is getting closer. Palestine Info Center

Palestinian refugees prepare for the march of return

[ 13/05/2011 - 11:34 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Ahmad Al-Zeer, the spokesman of the preparatory committee of the "return march", said Thursday that the march is peaceful and wants only to confirm the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. In a press conference he held in the Manara news agency in Gaza on Thursday, Zeer said that the 15th of May will be the start of a continuous and broad popular action that would escalate with time and would take different forms. He also held the international community responsible for failing to help the Palestinian refugees return to their homeland and described the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland at the hands of the Israeli occupation as the "crime of our time", urging the international community to protect the march and to secure the return of the refugees to their homeland. Furthermore, Zeer called on every Palestinian individual to participate in the march being a national duty, and urged Friday preachers to stress the importance of the march and to dedicate the Friday sermons for the occasion. For their part, the bureau of national action and the popular committee for refugees in the northern Gaza Strip said they were well-prepared for the march, urging all participants to raise the Palestinian flag only. Mohammed Shamaa' member of the national supreme committee for commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, said that the right of return is sacred and that couldn’t be dropped with the passage of time. "The right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes is firm and constant because rights couldn’t be waived with the passage of time,” Shamaa' said stressing that  the person to whom the right belongs sticks to it more than the person who usurped that right. He further said that the Israeli occupation wagered that the old Palestinian generation would die and the new generation would forget their right and the Nakba, but the new Palestinian generations proved the falsity  of such an assumption. Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip are expected to gather at the Beit Hanon crossing point, north of Gaza Strip. Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt are also expected to march toward the borders of occupied Palestine. Palestine Info Center

Thousands of Palestinians in Israel march to return

Jillian Kestler-D'Amours

The Electronic Intifada

13 May 2011

Palestinian citizens of Israel participate in the annual March of Return, 10 May 2011.

(

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours

)

As nationalist parties and festivals were held throughout Israel to mark the country’s Independence Day on 10 May, several thousand Palestinians and their supporters held a commemoration of their own in the Galilee, demanding the right to return to their ancestral villages and homes.

“This day is the Independence Day of the country, but it is also the day of the Nakba of the Palestinian people,” explained Wakim Wakim, the General Secretary of the Committee for the Rights of the Internally Displaced in Israel, the group that organized the march.

Participants in the March of Return, now in its 14th year, walked between two former Palestinian villages, al-Damun and al-Ruways, located not far from Acre (Akka) in northern Israel. Both villages were destroyed during the Nakba.

The Palestinian Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe, refers to the forced exodus of approximately 750,000 Palestinians from their homes during and before the time that Israel was founded in 1947-48.

Raising awareness of refugees’ rights

Wakim explained that the march was meant to draw attention to the continued plight of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, and as a way to demand that their right of return be implemented.

“It’s impossible to have real peace in the area without the return of all the Palestinian refugees and displaced people to their original villages and lands. [The Israelis] must return the right to the Palestinians to return to their houses and lands that they were displaced from,” Wakim said.

Badil, the resource center for Palestinian residency and refugee rights, finds that “Palestinian refugees and [internally displaced persons] continue to constitute the largest and longest-standing unresolved case of refugees and displaced persons in the world today.”

In its 2008-09 Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, Badil writes that at the end of 2008, there were approximately 7.1 million displaced Palestinians. This number accounts for 67 percent of the entire Palestinian population worldwide and includes 6.6 million refugees and 427,000 internally displaced Palestinians, the report finds (“Survey of Palestinian Refugees and IDPs (2008-2009)“ [PDF]).

The right of return of all refugees and internally displaced persons is enshrined in international law. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

United Nations General Assembly resolution 194, which was passed in December 1948, also states that, in the specific case of Palestinian refugees, “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property.”

According to Wakim, the increasingly discriminatory way the Israeli government is treating its Palestinian citizens — who make up roughly 20 percent of the population — and the passing of a variety of racist Israeli laws in recent months, has fueled this year’s Nakba commemoration ceremonies.

“There is a policy of discrimination and state oppression, and racial discrimination continues in all of its forms. It’s increasing recently and its goal is to squeeze the Palestinians and describe them as strangers and dangerous for the country,” he said.

“But we will not break and we will continue to increase the message and the flag for all the people and leaders that effect local politics, to remind them that without taking [on] the issue of the refugees, [there] never will be permanent and just peace in the area.”

“Nakba Law” fails to dissuade commemoration

The March of Return was the first of many activities planned this year to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba inside Israel. This is despite the fact that the Israeli parliament (Knesset) recently passed the controversial, so-called “Nakba Law,” which aims to criminalize any commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba.

More specifically, the bill would cut state funding from any body or institution that the Israeli government determines is working against the “Jewish and democratic” nature of Israel, commemorates Israeli Independence Day as a day of mourning, or violates the symbols of the state, such as the Israeli flag.

The Israeli government would also be allowed to fine these organizations if they violate any of the above provisions.

“It is an unconstitutional law since it violates our constitutional rights. Basically and most importantly, [it violates] freedom of speech, because it limits any institution that is funded by the state from doing any activity that relates or commemorates the Nakba,” explained Sawsan Zaher, an Attorney with Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.

Adalah — along with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, five parents of children studying at a bilingual, Palestinian-Jewish school in Israel, an nongovernmental organization of alumni from the Arab Orthodox school in Haifa and Israeli university professor Oren Yiftachel — submitted a petition to the Israeli high court on 4 May demanding that the law be overturned.

Zaher explained that the most troubling aspect of the law is how it specifically targets Palestinian citizens of Israel by targeting “their legitimacy, their status in the state of Israel” and “the collective memory and the collective history of what happened in 1948.”

“We do perceive this law as a racist law, but unfortunately it is not the first racist law against the Arab minority [in Israel]. It is part of a chain of discriminatory and racist laws that has been targeting the Palestinians in Israel for the past few years,” she said.

Still, according to Razi Nabulse, a 22-year-old economics student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and one of the March of Return organizers, the Nakba Law has had little to no real impact on the ground for organizers or participants in Nakba commemoration ceremonies in Israel.

“Judging by what we saw yesterday in the march [of return], the good presence of people, we can say that even after the Nakba Law you have more people who actually wanted to participate in the commemoration,” Nabulse said.

“So this shows that no matter how many laws they issue, the Palestinian struggle will always continue.”

Palestinian youth leading the way

Palestinian children held signs during the March of Return displaying the names of the more than 400 Palestinian villages that were destroyed in 1947-48. Indeed, the vast majority of participants in the march were young people.

Nadim Nashif, the director of Baladna, a Palestinian youth empowerment organization in Haifa, says this can be attributed to the uprisings taking place throughout the Arab world.

“I think it was a reflection of what’s happening in the Arab world. Young people feel more powerful and able to influence,” Nashif, who participated in the March of Return, said. “Of course it’s important because we want the future generation to remember and understand what happened and keep asking for the rights of the people who were deported and became refugees.”

Nashif explained that educating young Palestinians about the history of the Nakba is crucial since the Israeli state is actively attempting to silence the Palestinian narrative.

“It’s very important because we are facing punishment by the state, and a policy of making young Palestinians in [Israel] ignorant by the Ministry of Education. All the issues of refugees and the Nakba are not accepted inside the school system. Most grow up without knowing the facts,” he said.

Razi Nabulse agreed.

“At the educational level, I remember as a school kid, we never spoke about the Nakba,” Nabulse, who is originally from the Palestinian town of Ibillin in northern Israel, told The Electronic Intifada. “Through education and anything Israel has, they attempt to eliminate the memory of the Nakba because [Israel] tries to destroy everything that is Palestinian, which includes history.”

Nabulse said that teaching younger generations about Palestinian history, and about the Nakba specifically, could be used as a tool to fight against Israel’s violent and discriminatory policies towards Palestinians.

“It’s very important for our generation and the future generations to learn about the Nakba because it forms an integral part of our history. Teaching the new generations about the Nakba in fact constitutes an instrument of struggle against forgetfulness and Israeli colonization,” he said.

He added that the large number of participants at the march on 10 May signals that people haven’t forgotten about Palestinian refugees and their right of return.

“It shows that the people have not forgotten about the Nakba of ‘48 and that the refugees will return. It encourages you to continue working because it shows you that the people have not forgotten the Nakba.”

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours is a reporter and documentary filmmaker based in Jerusalem. More of her work can be found at http://jkdamours.com/.