Land Day protests are 'political terrorism,' says Ayalon

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called the annual Land Day protest that Palestinians mounted over the weekend “political terrorism.”

Speaking on Saturday in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, Ayalon said that Land Day protests are, “a continuation of the diplomatic terrorism Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is using against Israel in international forums. Israel will continue to successfully compete against the attempts of the Palestinians to force unilateral steps in the U.N. or on our sovereign territory upon us.”

Ayalon also said that, “a new form of diplomacy has been gaining strength in recent years: ‘e-diplomacy’ (electronic diplomacy), to try to replace traditional face-to-face diplomacy. Israel is happy to pursue this direction because this kind of diplomacy would increase Israel’s advantage, using technology, marketing and ideas to compensate the automatic Arab majority. Israel can reach many millions of people around the world directly, without mediation.”

Palestinians have held Land Day demonstrations for the past 36 years, marking the anniversary of the March 1976 general Palestinian strike to protest Israel’s announcement that it would expropriate land for settlements. Land Day observance has evolved into a mark of solidarity with the Palestinians.

On Friday about 2,000 Israeli Arabs demonstrated in northern Israel, where much of Israel’s Arab minority lives. Israeli troops killed one protester in the Gaza Strip, and other supporters marched in Jordan and Lebanon.

Another 200 activists marched Saturday in Jaffa, the ancient Arab city that officially became part of Tel Aviv in the years following the Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. Demonstrators in Jaffa accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of trying to “Judaize” cities with mixed populations.

Israeli-Arab MK Hanin Zoabi, of the National Democratic Assembly, participated in the demonstration, saying that, “The state of Israel is trying to complete what started on the Nakba [the Arab word for catastrophe, which Palestinians use to refer to the establishment of Israel], which is to take control over our homeland.”

MK Dr. Ahmad Tibi (Ra’am Ta’al) accused the Netanyahu government of alienating the Israeli-Arab population: “Their attempts to detach Arabs from their national identity will fail. The state’s racist legislative policy will explode in its face.”

Demonstrators near Beaufort

In the Jerusalem area, 17 demonstrators were arrested for throwing stones at Israel police forces near the Damascus gate of the Old City. One of the arrested was Fatah member and former Palestinian Authority Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Hatem Abdel Qader. Stone-throwing also occurred in the village of Issawiya, near Mount Scopus in east Jerusalem.

On Friday morning at the Qalandia checkpoint, clashes erupted between protesters and security forces. Thirty people were lightly injured, including Palestinian Parliament member Mustafa Barghouti, who was hit by an IDF rubber bullet and stones being thrown past him by other demonstrators.

Other protests took place near the Rachel Passage, not far from Bethlehem, in Bil’in and in Nabi Salah. IDF forces dispersed all of them.

Clashes also developed on the border with the Gaza Strip near the Erez crossing. Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated, but were removed from the fence by Hamas police after IDF forces shot tear gas and shock grenades at the demonstrators. Another demonstration took place in the Khan Yunis refugee camp. Twenty people were injured in the Gaza demonstrations and one was killed by crossing the “red line” set by the IDF and thus being hit by sniper fire. Other demonstrations took place in Palestinian cities, but Palestinian security forces prevented them from reaching areas guarded by IDF forces.

Land Day was marked in other Arab countries as part of the “Global March to Jerusalem” campaign against the Israeli occupation. Security forces in Israel prepared for border approaches by demonstrators in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, as happened on Israel’s northern border during last year’s demonstrations, however this did not occur. In Jordan, the 20,000 demonstrators did not move far from the Jordanian side of the Allenby border crossing, being prevented by Jordanian forces. In southern Lebanon, 5,000 people protested near the Beaufort Castle, but they also were prevented from contact with the IDF. No protests were recorded in Egypt.

Brig. Gen Yoav Mordechai, from the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, said over the weekend that, “overall, there were no dramatic events.” According to statements, on all fronts, soldiers acted according to instructions for opening fire, including calling out to approaching demonstrators in a loud voice, which served to disperse demonstrations as necessary, or firing in the air. Mordechai added that, “the next challenges will be Nakba day and Naksa day [when Palestinians mark the creation of the state of Israel and the capture of east Jerusalem, respectively] as well as the prisoner hunger strikes, which have garnered public attention recently.”

Neturei Karta

Meanwhile, among the thousands of demonstrators in Jordan and Lebanon, there were a few hundred rabbis from the radical ultra-Orthodox group Neturei Karta, who are vehemently anti-Zionist. A representative of the group said that, “We are here to say that what is happening to the Palestinians brings great shame to Judaism. The suffering that Zionism causes to the Palestinians is against the Torah’s values. Zionism is not Judaism and it is important that [the Palestinians] know that.”

Neturei Karta representatives were also present at demonstrations in Lebanon. One claimed that they are against the state of Israel because, “true Judaism in the world will never recognize the state of Israel. We have to end the Zionist regime.”

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