I bet you thought this blog was dead. It is not. I've just been writing other things, like this and this and a spec pilot for German TV (long story) which have kept me really busy. But now I'm back! And today is Nakba Day in Palestine.
Why is this Nakba Day unlike any other Nakba Day? Because the Arab Spring has begun. There are always protests in Palestine around May 15, when the state of Israel marks its independence and Palestinians commemorate the expulsion and dispossession of some 750,000 indigenous people to create that state. It's a day to remind their colonial masters that Palestinians still exist, they have not forgotten, and they will return.
But this year, in the spirit of revolutionary direct action that is sweeping the Middle East, some Palestinians and their supporters decided to take that message literally and marched on the borders of Israel/Palestine from all directions, demanding to return, now, as is their right.
In Gaza, protesters marched to the Erez crossing with Israel. The response: sniper shots, an Apache helicopter, and tank shells. 2 dead, 80 wounded. Ken O'Keefe filmed it:
In Lebanon, somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 Palestinian refugees and their supporters marched to the border. Israeli soldiers hid in the trees and cold-bloodedly opened fire on unarmed protesters as they approached the border of their own country. 10 dead, 112 wounded. My friend Alex saw the whole thing.
Jordan and Egypt obliged by cracking down on the protests on Israel's behalf before they even reached the border...although a few Egyptians managed to slip through the dragnet and reach the Rafah crossing, still not open despite promises from the new Egyptian government.
Meanwhile, East Jerusalem is a tinderbox after a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed at a demonstration on Friday. There was a day-long protest near Kalandia checkpoint that looked like a scene from the First Intifada. And Palestinian flags flew in Tel Aviv, for the first time since 1948:
But perhaps the most amazing scene happened at the "border" of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied by Israel in 1967 and then illegally annexed in 1981. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Palestinian and Syrian protesters walked through a mine field and poured over the border fence into the village of Majdal Shams. The video has to be seen to be believed. I'm pretty sure this is what Netanyahu's nightmares look like. Oh yeah, the Israeli army opened fire there too, killing 8 people.
Why is this Nakba Day unlike any other Nakba Day? Because the Arab Spring has begun. There are always protests in Palestine around May 15, when the state of Israel marks its independence and Palestinians commemorate the expulsion and dispossession of some 750,000 indigenous people to create that state. It's a day to remind their colonial masters that Palestinians still exist, they have not forgotten, and they will return.
But this year, in the spirit of revolutionary direct action that is sweeping the Middle East, some Palestinians and their supporters decided to take that message literally and marched on the borders of Israel/Palestine from all directions, demanding to return, now, as is their right.
In Gaza, protesters marched to the Erez crossing with Israel. The response: sniper shots, an Apache helicopter, and tank shells. 2 dead, 80 wounded. Ken O'Keefe filmed it:
In Lebanon, somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 Palestinian refugees and their supporters marched to the border. Israeli soldiers hid in the trees and cold-bloodedly opened fire on unarmed protesters as they approached the border of their own country. 10 dead, 112 wounded. My friend Alex saw the whole thing.
Jordan and Egypt obliged by cracking down on the protests on Israel's behalf before they even reached the border...although a few Egyptians managed to slip through the dragnet and reach the Rafah crossing, still not open despite promises from the new Egyptian government.
Meanwhile, East Jerusalem is a tinderbox after a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed at a demonstration on Friday. There was a day-long protest near Kalandia checkpoint that looked like a scene from the First Intifada. And Palestinian flags flew in Tel Aviv, for the first time since 1948:
But perhaps the most amazing scene happened at the "border" of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied by Israel in 1967 and then illegally annexed in 1981. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of Palestinian and Syrian protesters walked through a mine field and poured over the border fence into the village of Majdal Shams. The video has to be seen to be believed. I'm pretty sure this is what Netanyahu's nightmares look like. Oh yeah, the Israeli army opened fire there too, killing 8 people.
No comments:
Post a Comment