Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Today is the Day of the Naqba, or Day of the Catastrophe, as the Arab world refers to the creation of the state of Israel. Anti-Israel demonstrations are taking place in Israel's neighboring countries, and violence has erupted inside the country as well.
In a particularly aggressive move, hundreds of pro-Palestinian Syrians broke through the fence separating Syria from the Israeli Druse village of Majd-al-Shams in the Golan Heights in an attempt to infiltrate Israel en masse. The IDF opened fire, reportedly killing eight and wounding several dozen more.
Thousands also gathered at Maroun a-Ras in Lebanon for Naqba Day. Waving Palestinian flags and shouting "We want our land back," they attempted to surge forward toward the border fence with Israel. Most were stopped by the Lebanese army, but about fifty got through, where they threw rocks at the Israeli soldiers on the other side. The Israelis shot tear gas at them and eventually opened fire. Four are reported dead in that incident, although it is unclear as yet whether they were killed by Israeli or Lebanese soldiers.
The IDF is referring to these events jointly as an Iranian maneuver. "The radical axis of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas is very clear," Brig.-Gen. Yoav "Poli" Mordechai told Channel 10 News. "We have one incident in Maroun a-Ras area on the Lebanese border and a second one at Majd-al-Shams, where we see fingerprints of Iranian provocation aimed at creating friction." (Whether or not these events were orchestrated from Teheran, they serve the interests of Bashar al-Assad, who would like nothing better than for the world's already waning attention to be diverted from Daraa and Homs to images of Israeli soldiers and bleeding Arab protesters.)
Inside Israel, in what appears to have been a one-man protest, a 22-year-old resident of the Arab village of Kafr Kassem plowed a truck in a zigzag down a crowded street in the Hatikva neighborhood of south Tel Aviv this morning, killing a 29-year-old man and wounding seventeen. He was shouting "Allahu Akbar" and "Death to the Jews" while deliberately striking cars, a bus, mopeds, a motorcycle, and pedestrians. He is under arrest and denies attempting to cause an accident.
There have been clashes elsewhere in Israel throughout the day, including a riot of about 100 Palestinians in Qalandiya and Molotov cocktails thrown at Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. Updates to come.
- Comment (26)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (4)
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
Comments :
Feb '11
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
As far as I am concerned, the only surprises about any of this are that it has stayed so predictable (on the day it was expected, with police at hand) and that they haven't sent a hundred thousand marchers at Kefar Sava or Netanya.
Aug '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Two things I don't understand:1)why was lethal force used by the IDF against stone-throwers? 2)why did the Lebanese use lethal or any force?
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
It's not that you're missing something--I can't figure out what happened, either.
Feb '11
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Feb '11
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
They really need to come out with more information because to a certain audience, this would just look like the IDF indiscriminately shooting into a crowd. We don't need the focus moving from Syria and onto the mean Israeli occupiers.
Aug '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
With sincere respect Israel P. what I would like is information to help me to challenge the storm of hostility that is bound to follow these events. Thus far, all I'm getting is that the IDF blames Iran and says it fired in the air and at legs (thereby apparently accepting that killing was not proportionate). That is not good enough. I wait in hope for better.
Edited on May 15, 2011 at 8:52amFeb '11
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Charles Mark: With sincere respect Israel P. what I would like is information to help me to challenge the storm of hostility that is bound to follow these events. Thus far, all I'm getting is that the IDF blames Iran and says it fired in the air and at legs (thereby apparently accepting that killing was not proportionate). That is not good enough. I wait in hope for better. · May 15 at 8:50am
Edited on May 15 at 08:52 am
I cannot give you specifics. I was not there. Nor do I have a security or military background other than the routine reserve duty. I have never been involved in crowd control.
Dec '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Charles, consider that the 2006 Lebanon War was sparked by the "kidnapping" (actually a body-snatching) of Israeli soldiers across the border. Israel is under no obligation to avoid lethal force in defending against cross-border incursions. What may appear to be stone-throwers may be Hezbollah fighters concealing weapons or even suicide bomb vests.
Compare and contrast with Israel's treatment of illegal Sudanese border-crossers at its southern border, where the IDF sometimes must rescue unarmed illegal immigrants from the Egyptians shooting to kill. In fact, compare and contrast with the non-lethal arrest of an Israeli Arab on a deadly vehicular rampage.
Edited on May 15, 2011 at 9:10amRe: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Charles Mark: With sincere respect Israel P. what I would like is information to help me to challenge the storm of hostility that is bound to follow these events.
Edited on May 15 at 08:52 am
Quick reactions: 1) I'm looking for, but not immediately seeing, a storm of hostility. I'm confused about what happened and I'm obviously not the only one. 2) There are Syrians on Twitter who are furious that this is taking the attention off of Assad's crackdown. For what that's worth. 3) I have no idea how to assess this report that some of the people coming across the border were not infiltrators but defectors. I suppose that's possible.
Obviously this has something to do with what's happening in Syria--but what, exactly, I couldn't possibly say.
Feb '11
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Charles Mark: With sincere respect Israel P. what I would like is information to help me to challenge the storm of hostility that is bound to follow these events.
Edited on May 15 at 08:52 am
Quick reactions: 1) I'm looking for, but not immediately seeing, a storm of hostility. I'm confused about what happened and I'm obviously not the only one. 2) There are Syrians on Twitter who are furious that this is taking the attention off of Assad's crackdown. For what that's worth. 3) I have no idea how to assess this report that some of the people coming across the border were not infiltrators but defectors. I suppose that's possible.
Obviously this has something to do with what's happening in Syria--but what, exactly, I couldn't possibly say. · May 15 at 10:00am
Syrians don't generally defect to Israel. (Maybe they are infiltrators playing defector.)
Dec '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
You would think that the Arab world would be happy to have consolidated its Jewish ghettoes out of its own countries and into one little corner of the Middle East. However, not content to have cleansed their own countries of their Jewish communities, they now seek to conduct a coordinated pogrom against the residents of the last Jewish ghetto in the Arab world.
Simply stated, the Arab world's position (joined and even exceeded by the Persian position) is that Jews are unfit to live anywhere under their own sovereignty and can only be tolerated as dhimmi under the sovereignty and laws of Arabs, whether secular or Islamicist.
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Israel P. Syrians don't generally defect to Israel. (Maybe they are infiltrators playing defector.) · May 15 at 10:03am
Syrians are not usually facing the kind of crackdown they're facing right now. But I don't want to argue this case because I have no clue--I'm just noting the report with puzzlement. I can't figure out from initial reports whether the people trying to cross the border were Syrians, Palestinians, Druze--or how many there really were or what they were doing. .
My gut says that this was a screwup: The IDF was so focused on the West Bank and East Jerusalem that it didn't occur to them that resources needed to be diverted to the north. Does that sound plausible to you? There's something about this that has a Mavi Marmara feeling. But I stress that I'm guessing and that this isn't worth much.
Jul '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Charles Mark:
what I would like is information to help me to challenge the storm of hostility that is bound to follow these events. Thus far, all I'm getting is that the IDF blames Iran and says it fired in the air and at legs (thereby apparently accepting that killing was not proportionate). That is not good enough. I wait in hope for better.
I once heard chutzpa described; “the quality in a man that he would murder his parents then demand the Mercy of the Court because he is an orphan.”
Well these folks have chutzpa to spare. The whole purpose of these actions is to generate an Israeli response that they can then have a “Storm of Hostility" in respons to. The U.N. and MSM will forget the original incident of course. And if Israel doesn’t respond, they’ve got infiltrators into the country. Wow, Win Win!
And, Oh, By the Way: Name one other culture that boasts a holiday dedicated to anger over a country’s existence! (Is there really a secret British day on 4th of July dedicated to anger over the U.S.?)
Edited on May 15, 2011 at 11:10amDec '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Claire, what possible reason could a crowd of 20,000 on the Syrian side of the border have for marching into Israel - across an international frontier between two warring countries - that Israel could conceivably regard as lacking hostile intent? Do you really suppose that Syrians seeking to defect to Israel would choose this day and this context to do so? The IDF didn't screw up: they held fire until the border was breached and then used sufficient force to repel the invaders. The fact that the death toll was so small indicates that the IDF did a commendable job.
Dec '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Seems that plenty of Syrians are defecting - to Lebanon. http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=220652
Dec '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=220647 Naqba Day protests in Ankara, Istanbul, Athens, Sidon....
Aug '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
I agree that the reaction so far has been tentative-at the equivalent phase post Mavi Marmara there were reports of 19 deaths, talk of piracy on the high seas (on the part ofthe IDF that is) and protesters on the main street of my home town.I think it's partly because it's a Sunday, partly because events occurred at a variety of locations and maybe just a little hesitation about jumping to conclusions.I also suspect that unlike the flotilla,these protesters weren't media-savvy and didn't have their narrative pre-cooked for international media consumption.The storm will come tomorrow I fear. How long before there are calls to arrest Netanyahu when he turns up at Congress (or to bar him from entry to the US?).
Dec '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Charles, you still aren't getting it. This isn't Israel preventing a ship from running a blockade into (nominally) another country. This is Israel stopping a mass invasion of hostile foreigners into its own territory across an international border from an enemy country in wartime. On the Lebanese border, the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL did next to nothing to keep the crowds from the border. Not did the Syrian Army keep its people away from the border. Israel did what was right and proper to defend its border - think what Turkey would have done to 20,000 Kurds marching I'm from Iraq, or even what Greece would have done to 20,000 Turks marching in and tearing down its nice new fence on the Turkish-Greek border.
Dec '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
This is rich:
"Syria condemned on Sunday Israel's "criminal activities" in the Golan Heights,Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon where Israeli forces had fired to disperse pro-Palestinian protests.
"State news agency SANA quoted the foreign ministry as saying it called on the international community to hold Israel responsible for the incidents, the deadliest such confrontation along the borders in years."
It'd take a hundred years of Nakba days like this one to equal the death toll of Syrians murdered by Assad Jr's regime for the crime of demanding freedom.
Dec '10
Re: Naqba Day Marked By Violence
Jaydee_007
And, Oh, By the Way: Name one other culture that boasts a holiday dedicated to anger over a country’s existence! (Is there really a secret British day on 4th of July dedicated to anger over the U.S.?) · May 15 at 10:23am
Edited on May 15 at 11:10 am
I can name two:
1) Activist Native Americans who are demanding that Columbus Day be abolished in favor of Indigenous People's Day.
2) "Aztlan" activists who want Cinco de Mayo celebrated as a holiday demanding the return of "Aztlan" (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) to its "rightful" owner, Mexico.
(One might include St. Patrick's day for some of the Irish, if one counts Northern Ireland as a country within the UK.)