In a well-coordinated assault supported by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, thousands of Palestinians marked the 63rd anniversary of Israel’s independence by storming the borders that separate the Jewish state from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians refer to the founding of Israel as the ‘Nakba’, their term for catastrophe.
Israeli troops fired on the Palestinians who attacked them with rocks and gasoline bombs as they tried to cross the borders. Over a dozen of the attackers were killed and many more were wounded.
Expect the international community to condemn Israel for firing on ‘unarmed civilians.’
Here are some excerpts from Ethan Bronner’s report in the May 15 issue of The New York Times:
JERUSALEM — Israel’s borders erupted in deadly clashes on Sunday as thousands of Palestinians — marching from Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank — confronted Israeli troops to mark the anniversary of Israel’s creation. More than a dozen people were reported killed and scores injured.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the protests had been aimed at destroying Israel, not creating a Palestinian state alongside it.
“The leaders of these violent demonstrations, their struggle is not over the 1967 borders but over the very existence of Israel, which they describe as a catastrophe that must be resolved,” he said. “It is important that we look with open eyes at the reality and be aware of whom we are dealing with and what we are dealing with.”
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, saluted the protesters in a televised speech, referring to the dead as martyrs. “The blood of the nakba fatalities was not spilled in vain,” he said. “They died for the Palestinian people’s rights and freedom.”
Officials and analysts have argued that with peace talks broken down and plans to request the United Nations to declare Palestinian statehood in September, violence could return to define this conflict, relatively quiet for the past two years.
“This is war,” said Amjad Abu Taha, a 16-year-old from Bethlehem who joined the protesters in Ramallah, a rock in one hand and a cigarette in the other. “We’re defending our country.”
Palestinian activists have called on the Internet for a mass uprising against Israel to begin on May 15. A Facebook page calling for a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising, had gathered more than 300,000 members before it was taken down in March after complaints that comments posted to it advocated violence.
Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948. Israelis celebrate the anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar, which this year was last Tuesday.
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