Editor Palestine Monitor
Today protests ignited throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem, jumpstarting the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba on 15 May. 63 years ago, approximately 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes to make way for the creation of the state of Israel with a Jewish majority.
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Clashes on Al Quds Street right before Qalandiya checkpoint.
Qalandiya, Ramallah
At Qalandiya checkpoint, youth from the Qalandiya refugee camp entered the Al Quds Street after Friday prayer finished. Setting tires on fire and flinging rocks at the mammoth Qalandiya checkpoint, which separates Qalandiya from Occupied Jerusalem, the young men engaged in clashes with the Israeli Border Police until nightfall, at around 8:30 pm. The checkpoint was closed to cars coming from Ramallah from the early afternoon onwards.
“We will be here today, tomorrow and on Sunday,” one boy said.
Yaher Fayyad, 20, who was working at a sweet-shop during the clashes told the Palestine Monitor that he would be in the streets on Sunday, for the Nakba, “We hope there is something big on Sunday, to change it all to something good, not to something bad.”
Thaera Awwed, 22, who was working with Yaher said, “63 years we are trying, but nothing changed. We will have our change, inshahallah.”
Silwan/Ras el-Amoud, Jerusalem
Also this afternoon, clashes erupted in the besieged city of Silwan in East Jerusalem. The Wadi Hilweh Information Center, silwanic.net, reported that a 16-year-old from the Ras el-Amoud neighborhood was shot with live ammunition in the stomach. Silwanic.net details that the bullet entered his stomach and exited through his back. The young boy, Morad Ayyash, reached the Muqassed hospital in critical condition, with no pulse.
Also in Ras el-Amoud, Silwanic.net has reported that an additional three Palestinians were injured with rubber bullets.
According to a report by the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, 19 protesters were injured in clashes between residents of Silwan and Israeli forces and a total of 11 were arrested.
As the night fell, Jerusalem police began raiding Silwan houses detaining residents.
Nabi Saleh, Ramallah
Nabi Saleh, whose weekly Friday demonstrations have become the target of escalated Israeli military aggression, also erupted in violence after the protest came to a close. According to eye-witnesses, the protest had been relatively calm before the Border Police officers clashed with villagers and protesters. According to PSCC’s report, the Israeli Border Police began dispersing the peaceful demonstration by shooting ample tear gas and beating protesters with batons.
PSCC reported that approximately 25 protesters were injured. One Palestinian woman in her fifties was beaten by the Police to the point of hospitalization; her condition was critical enough that she was moved from the Salfeet Hospital to the better equipped Rafidiya Hospital in Nablus.
In addition, a 25-year-old American protester endured a serious head injury and one Israeli activist suffered two open fractures in his hand. All injuries were caused by the Border Police shooting tear-gas projectiles from short-frange, directly at the demonstrators, in direct contravention of the IDF’s open fire regulations.
The PSCC is also reporting that four protesters were arrested.
Nabi Saleh, a village outside of Ramallah, holds non-violent weekly demonstrations in protest of the Apartheid Wall’s confiscation of its land.
Elsewhere in the West Bank
According to PSCC, Ma’asara, a village south of Bethlehem Israeli forces shot tear-gas into a peaceful demonstration, arresting two protesters, including a member of the village’s popular committee.
http://palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1808
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