At least 22 people have been seriously injured during the Nakba protests that have been organized all over the West Bank by the Higher Committee to Commemorate the Nakba, which includes various political forces and grassroots forces, including Stop the Wall. 67 years after the start of the Nakba when 700 thousand Palestinians where ethnically cleansed from their land, the catastrophe for the Palestinian people is ongoing.
Expulsion of entire communities, repression, massacres and Israeli colonization are continuing while the Palestinian people maintain their struggle for the right of return of our refugees.
Over the last days in different districts, protests have been organized within the refugee camps located inside and outside of Palestine and in various places where Israel is currently working to expel the population from its land. A short summary of protests and repression is following below. Stop the Wall insists again, that repression is not a natural prize to pay for defending human rights and justice but an additional crime committed by the Israeli occupation.
Ni'lin (Ramallah district)
The Israeli occupation forces tried to drown the popular protest at Ni’lin village in repression. A young Palestinian was injured with a live bulled and 8 Palestinians were injured with rubber-coated metal bullets. Many people suffered from the tear gas that the Israeli occupation forces shot at the protestors. Significantly, these injuries happened after the central protest that started from the village main square was almost over. As a form of collective punishment to the village and to ensure that people from outside could not join the Nakba event in Ni'lin, the Israeli occupation forces closed the main enterance of the village with checkpoints, isolating Ni'lin completely from the rest of the area around it. Nevertheless, the protest was successful and saw the participation of thousands of residents and representatives from different political and social forces.
Bil'in (Ramallah district)
In the village the weekly Friday protest was dedicated to the Nakba commemoration and Israeli troops used this occasion to destroy Bil'in's lands. The march saw the participation of villagers and international activists that carried Palestinian flags and shouted slogans calling for the Right of Return and the end of the Nakba. However, soon Israeli military attacked the demonstration and many people suffered from inhalation of tear gas.The tear gas bombs set as well many olive trees on fire and burned severla dunams of land belonging to Jabeer Mohammad Abu Rahmah and Khalil Abu Rahmah. The Israeli Occupation forces fired as well rubber-coated metal bullets and, once subdued the protest, invaded the village from the Western side.
Betunia (Ramallah)
Another protest has been organized in Ramallah and demonstrators marched towards the Israeli prison Ofar. The prison holds hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners. 3 Palestinian youth were injured with live bullets at the lower body parts when Israeli miltiary forces attacked the protest.
Nabi Saleh (Ramallah district)
In Nabi Saleh, during this week's protest particicipants went out in the streets carrying Palestinia flags and wearing black shirts to commemorate the Nakba. Slogans calling for an end to the Israeli occupation and for the Right to Return where filling the air. As all over the West Bank, Israeli military repressed the march and fired huge amount of tear gas into the crowd and fields. This lead to the burning of a significant amount of land owned by the people of Nabi Saleh.
Jerusalem
In Jerusalem, clashes centered around the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City, where protestor where carrying Palestinian and black flags to commemorate the Nakba. The protest denounced the attempts by Israel to threaten the foundations of the Al Aqs Mosque and to take over the Holy Compound and called for Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. After the protests that had been held in there were over, Israeli Occupation forces attacked the protest’s participants using battons. The people were surrounded and held by Special Forces. However, the Israeli police was not able to control the situation and clashed extended throughout the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Kufr Quaddoum (Salfit district)
The Nakba protest in the village focused not only on the call for the Right of Return but as well on the ongoing illegal Israeli settlement expansion on the people's land. It further called for the re-opening of the village road that the Occupation forces hold closed since 13 years in order to isolate Kufr Quaddoum from the surrounding villages and services.
The repression against this protest of hundreds of residentswas particularly violent and the Israeli military used large amounts of live bullets. Four Palestinians have been injured with live bullets shot at their lower body parts by the Israeli troops. The youth where respectively, Anass (24 years old), Bilal (23 years old), Odai (24 years old) and Yousef (23 years old). In addition, one child, 5-year old Muhammad, got injured as he was hit directly by a tear gas granade.
Gaza Strip
3 Palestinians got injured by the Israeli live bullets during a Nakba protest that started after Friday prayer . The reporter Mohammad Yaseer got injured in his leg while covering the protest. Yaseer works at the Palestinian Network for Media and Journalism.
