13 Palestinians Killed During Protests Along Israel’s Borders
May 16th, 2011Do you really think that this was coordinated over open social networks and Israel didn’t know about it? I don’t know what the point of this is, but there is no chance that Israel was “surprised” by it.
Via: Toronto Star:
The popular uprisings that swept the Mideast this year reached Israel’s doorstep Sunday as thousands of Palestinians staged an unprecedented series of marches on its borders and clashed with the army.
At least 13 Palestinians were killed, and dozens were also wounded, as they marked the Nakba, or catastrophe — the anniversary of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 and the war in which hundreds of thousands lost their homes through expulsion and flight.
It’s been marked every year but this was the first time that Palestinian refugees and their supporters, inspired by the recent protests around the Arab world, tried to physically breach Israel’s military border from all sides.
“These protests aim to undermine the very existence of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “It is important that we see the reality and know who and what we are dealing with.”
In a move Israeli officials fear could be a new strategy of opposing the Israeli occupation, thousands of Palestinians marched from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. Surprised Israeli soldiers scrambled to push them back, in several cases opening fire with live ammunition.
Arab affairs analyst Ehud Ya’ari said he believed there would be more demonstrations on Israel’s borders and they would become a growing challenge to the Israeli army.
“This is something that has been talked about for a long time,” he told Israel Television. “The fact that several dozen Palestinians managed to cross the border from Syria into Israel means that they succeeded. They will keep trying with larger numbers.”
Like the uprisings in other parts of the region, plans for the wave of coordinated protests were spread over social media.
if the “existence” of the Zionist apartheid state is “threatened” then they are permitted (by the boss: the Zionist-lobby-loving political class in the US) to do anything. anything. nothing is disproportionate when their state’s existence is threatened. natch.