Palestinians get repression at Nakba commemoration

Submitted by WW4 Report on Tue, 05/13/2008 - 00:49

Israeli troops attacked a peaceful march commemorating the 60th year of the Nakba in the West Bank city of Tulkarm May 10, injuring ten, including a journalist who was hit with a bullet in his hand. Participants, including international activists, raised Palestinian flags and wrote graffiti on the face of the separation wall protesting the enclosure of village lands at Shofa. Soldiers opened fire and threw tear gas. (WAFA, May 10) Four were injured two days later in a similar scene at Na'lein village, west of Ramallah. (WAFA, May 12)

See our last post on Israel/Palestine.

Nakba commemorations banned in Jordan

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Wed, 05/14/2008 - 04:32

From the Jerusalem Post, May 9:

Jordanian authorities have banned all events marking the "Nakba," or Catastrophe, as Arabs refer to the creation of Israel 60 years ago.

Several pro-Palestinian groups and Jordanian opposition parties has been planning to hold a rally in Amman on Friday.

But the authorities informed the organizers of the decision to ban the event, as well as other "illegal public gatherings."

The Islamic Labor Front, which was planning a major rally in the capital, condemned the ban as unconstitutional.

The party expressed outrage over the decision, noting that the Jordanian government had allowed the Israeli Embassy in Amman to celebrate Israeli Independence Day.

Earlier this year, Jordan banned relatives of Ala Abu Dhaim, the Palestinian who killed eight students and wounded eight at Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva on March 6, from mourning him in public.

The relatives were warned against receiving mourners in a public place or erecting a monument to commemorate the gunman, who was killed in the attack.

The family expressed outrage at the decision, pointing out that Israel had allowed their relatives in Jerusalem's Jebl Mukaber neighborhood to hoist Hizbullah and Hamas flags and to identify publicly with the gunman.

See our last post on Jordan.