Israeli cabinet wants to ban Naqba commemoration
The Israeli cabinet has voted yesterday (Sunday, May 24, 2009) in favour of a racist proposal to ban Naqba commemorations. Many Arab-Palestinians commemorate the proclamation of the state of Israel as Naqba, the Arabic word for disaster.
In the proposal, anyone participating in the commemoration of 15 May 1948 could face a three-year prison sentence. The proposal has been made by the racist coalition party Yisrael Beitenu. It still has to go through the Knesset.
The Communist Party of Israel and Hadash (The Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) have sharply criticised the proposal and call it an act of an apartheid regime. Hadash chairman, MK Mohammed Barakeh said the fact the cabinet "ratified the delusions and lack of historical and factual knowledge of a single MK shows the stinking sewers to which government discourse has sunk, as is very much to be expected." Barakeh said Arabs would continue to commemorate the Nakba, adding that the commemoration was not meant "to threaten the existence of Israel, but to correct a historic wrong to the Palestinian people." The proposed bill "is no less severe than the laws enacted by the Third Reich," added MK Afo Agbaria (Hadash). "The State of Israel has declared jihad on the Arab population. Israel is gradually becoming an apartheid state. I won't be surprised if in the future the Netanyahu-Lieberman government imposes additional restrictions on Arab citizens, including forbidding the use of the Arabic language."
The Civil Rights Association also attacked the draft law.
"For the past year we have witnessed a worrying deterioration in Israel of the right to expression and other democratic rights," association chairman and well know author Sammy Michael said in a statement. "Commemoration of the Naqba does not threaten Israel at all. It is a legitimate expression of the feelings of individuals and an entire people," he said.
Tel-Aviv, May 25, 2009
[The fired employee] Shapira said Yad Vashem chooses to examine only some of the events that took place in the War of Indpendence. "It is being hypocritical. I only tried to expose the visitors to the facts, not to political conclusions. If Yad Vashem chooses to ignore the facts, for example the massacre at Dir Yassin, or the Nakba ["The Catastrophe," the Palestinians' term for what happened to them after 1948], it means that it's afraid of something and that its historic approach is flawed," Shapira said.
Hebron – Ma'an – Thirty-eight Palestinians were injured when armed Israeli settlers, backed by soldiers, rampaged through the West Bank village of Safa, north of Hebron on Wednesday morning.
According to medics at Al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron 11 Palestinians were shot with live bullets, five with rubber-coated metal bullets and another 15 were treated for the effects of teargas.
One Palestinian, 18-year-old Tha'er Aadi, is in critical condition after being shot in the neck. After undergoing surgery at Al-Ahli, he was transferred to the public hospital in the city of Ramallah.
One eyewitness said that some 25 settlers from the nearby settlement Bat Ayin approached Palestinian houses and began shooting randomly. He said that Israeli military patrols were present, and watched the settlers shooting without stopping them.
Soldiers fired gunshots and tear gas canisters in order to prevent local youths from confronting the settlers, one witness said.
Neighboring villages called on for help
Calls were heard through mosque loudspeakers in the neighboring Palestinian towns of Beit Ummar and Surif asking residents to head to Safa and help protect its people from the rampaging settlers. Hundreds of youths responded to the call.
When the youth arrived Israeli troops intervened and restrained the settlers, making sure they returned their settlement unharmed. Local sources said that the settlers stole cattle as they left Safa.
Medics at Al-Ahli Hospital named some of the injured:
31-year-old Ammar Abu Dayya who was shot in the thigh,
26-year-old Suheil Abu Dayya, shot in the foot,
26-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil, also shot in the thigh,
35-year-old Walid Khlayyil, shot in the foot, and
24-year-old Muhammad Khlayyil
The mayors of nearby Hebron and Beit Ummar arrived in Safa to check on residents. According to mayor of Beit Ummar Nasri Sabarna, all of those injured in the day's events were harmed by the soldiers supporting the settlers, and not by the settlers themselves.
Revenge attack
On Thursday in Bat Ayin a man, reportedly Palestinian, killed a teenage settler and wounded another 7-year-old boy in the settlement with an axe.
The settlement is also the origin of a militia called the Bat Ayin Underground. The father of the 7-year-old victim of last week's attack is Ofer Gamliel, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempting to bomb a Palestinian girls' school in Jerusalem in 2002. Two other men from the settlement were also jailed for the attempted attack.
On Wednesday night, the Israeli news agency Ynet reported that Gamliel was to be released for 48 hours this week in order to visit his son.
The Israeli military has refused to comment on the incident.
Tulkarem – Ma'an – Israeli soldiers forced Palestinian teenagers to strip naked in full view of other Palestinians waiting at a military checkpoint near the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Monday afternoon.
Witnesses told Ma'an that three soldiers forced the youths to remove their clothes, and were verbally mocking them.
The witnesses also reported long waits at the checkpoint.
"Israeli forces herded village youth into local school, stormed and searched several houses and imposed a curfew on the village of Haris north of Salfit Thursday morning.
Eyewitnesses saw at least 150 youth taken from their homes and herded into a middle school with their heads covered with sacs. The youth later reported being 'roughed up' and questioned."
(flag counter added Feb 26, 2009)
