It was the first coordinated, simultaneous, united (though under different leaderships) attempt by Palestinian refugees to return to the land of their origin (if not birth, as up to three generations have been now born outside, in the worldwide diaspora since 1947-48).
In the West Bank, the May 15 Qalandia checkpoint event was planned as non-violent.
The coalition of Manara (Ramallah’s Central Square) + Mar15 youth groups insisted on that, and appealed to the Qalandia youth not to throw stones in order to avoid provoking a forceful IDF response.
Qalandia on a good day – the photo that needs no caption
taken on 4 May by Tamar Fleishman of Machsom Watch:
In the hours ahead of the planned 11 am start of the event, IDF troops and Border Police units and special forces arrived at the checkpoint. One group of about 12-15 soldiers wearing olive green uniforms moved out of the staging area and lined up along the entrance on the Jerusalem side of Qalandia as cars were passing by. They all pointed the barrels of their black automatic rifle-sized weapons up to the sky, and in unison they cocked the triggers several times, in a group ritual that was also an intimidating display.
Plenty of IDF troops on the scene at Qalandiya checkpoint were armed with weapons that could only use live bullets — but reports of the use of live ammunition, or of any injuries resulting from live ammunition, remained unconfirmed.
In any case, the stone-throwing started within an hour of the start of the demonstration…
Demonstrators say the tear-gassing began first.
Photos posted by Sawt al-Manara on Facebook
the start of Nakba Day demonstration at Qalandia
Fadi Quran, one of leaders of Manara youth coalition, in black beret:
and
Israeli activist Joseph Dana said at a press briefing on IMEU’s Blogtalk radio on Tuesday afternoon that the Israeli military “immediately opened fire with tear gas”, and noted that “there was a solid hour, or hour-and-a-half, at the start of the demonstration when not a single stone was thrown, yet there were dozens of injuries caused to demonstrators [by the IDF]”…
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights [PCHR], based in Gaza, reported Monday that “The demonstrators threw stones and empty bottles towards Israeli soldiers, who had been heavily deployed near the checkpoint beginning in the early morning. Israeli forces immediately fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the demonstrators”…
The truth is that almost nobody had a complete view of everything that happened.
The Israeli white security blimp, which is normally used for surveillance and filming over the Old City of East Jerusalem when confrontations are expected, was in operation, hovering somewhere over the IDF Central Command in Neve Yaakov. on the edge of the Jerusalem side of Dahiet al-Bariid.
This blimp provides important operational guidance for IDF command coordination, and it was one of the factors that apparently made it possible to keep the Qalandia checkpoint open, as the military had ordered, by using the unusual and apparently new tactic of sending the Israeli soldiers out of the “protection” (for them) of the checkpoint zone with all its reinforcement.
But, a highly unusual move of the Israeli forces out of the checkpoint area and into the Palestinian side of Qalandia, among Palestinian small shops and businesses, and homes, is probably the main precipitating factor of Sunday’s confrontation.
The move was almost certainly coordinated in advance with Palestinian Authority security, who had an extremely minimal and unarmed presence in the Qalandia area on Sunday. [PA security officers were allowed by Israeli military decision to be in Qalandia for the first time in recent memory during the Fridays in Ramadan 2009, and only to help direct traffic. For months afterwards, they were again absent. Subsequently, two unarmed older men are often there to help direct traffic coming into Ramallah, but only during regular office hours…]
U.S. State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said to journalists at the daily briefing in Washington on Monday that the U.S. “would like to commend the Palestinian security forces for their work in helping to keep order in the West Bank”.
A stun grenade fired within the first ten minutes was the first sign of confrontation that I witnessed. One Palestinian mini-bus driver shouted “Allahu Akbar” in ironic joke in sardonic admiration of the power of the loud noise that sounded like the start of a major-league firework display.
Surprisingly, Qalandia checkpoint was open for vehicular traffic — in both directions — almost all the time throughout the day, and pedestrian traffic through the inspection terminal was non-stop.
Israeli soldiers said that their orders were to keep the checkpoint open all day — unlike the four Fridays in Ramadan, for example, or during ordinary stone-throwing protests there.
Just after 11 am, the scheduled start of the demonstration, Israeli forces advanced about 100 meters out of the checkpoint, up the road in the direction of Ramallah, where they confronted the demonstrators.
Photos of Palestinians burning tires posted on Facebook by Sawt al-Manara:
Qalandia on Nakba Day 2011 – Israeli soldiers firing teargas in formation without using gas masks or any other apparent protection
photo taken on 15 May by Tamar Fleishman of Machsom Watch:
The Manara + Mar15 youth were quickly — almost immediately — outnumbered and outmaneuvered by another type of demonstrator, readily available in that location and in those circumstances: spectator-observers who become participants, angry young men with kuffiyehs wrapped around their heads and across their faces who “hurled” stones and burned tires and confronted very large doses of strong teargas, stun grenades, rubber bullets — and ran only when undercover Arabic-speaking Israeli units in jeans and t-shirts began selectively arresting the demonstrators… The number of arrests has not been announced, yet.
Qalandia on Nakba Day 2011 – Israeli soldiers arrest demonstrators
photo taken on 15 May by Tamar Fleishman of Machsom Watch:
Estimates were that hundreds of Palestinians were present at the start of the Nakba Day event at Qalandia checkpoint — and, as the confrontations continued, the number of young men drawn to the site grew to at least 1,000.
Israeli forces confront Palestinian demonstrators in downtown Qalandia
photos posted on Youtube by Sawt al-Manara:
and Israeli forces advance into downtown Qalandia on May 15 to confront Nakba Day demonstrators 2011
and demonstrators pull back and try to escape attacks from Israeli forces advancing into downtown Qalandia
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, who decided a few days earlier to join the Qalandia demonstration with his Al-Mubadara [Palestinian Initiative] organization, and who has run as a candidate in presidential elections held by the Palestinian Authority, provided emergency first aid at Qalandia with his ambulances and mobile clinics, said in mid-afternoon that 91 Palestinians had been given medical care by his teams, and ten Palestinians had been taken to Ramallah hospital.
The IDF accused Palestinian stone-throwers of launching attacks while hiding behind one of the Palestinian ambulances for cover. The Palestinians said that the IDF attacked a Palestinian ambulance.
Injuries — some apparently severe — were attributed to tear gas and rubber bullets, and the numbers continued to rise in the late afternoon and evening.
(My colleague, the VOA Bureau Chief in Jerusalem, and I — as well as Israeli soldiers and border police and private security contractors and Palestinians civilians and others crossing the checkpoint — were also affected by the tear gas, even at a distance, because it was carried by the winds. An Israeli private security contractor who approached me said it would get worse later. When I asked what they did to ward off the effects, he shrugged and said he had gotten used to it in the Army.)
But, the conditions in family homes close to the action, including many in Qalandia refugee camp, were reportedly very bad.
Hamas, too, had decided in the days before the event to join the demonstration at Qalandia, according to one of the organizers on the eve of Sunday’s protest.
Both Dr. Barghouthi and Hamas were asked to participate in the Qalandia event without their own flags (orange for Dr. Barghouthi, green for Hamas) — but instead only with Palestinian flags, because after all it was Nakba Day, commemorating the dispossession, starting in 1947-48, which has affected almost every Palestinian family.
It was almost impossible to verify under the conditions, but from what we observed, all groups did comply with this decision.
The stated intention was to go, peacefully and en masse, to — and then through — the huge checkpoint installation, to enter Jerusalem and “1948 areas” without permits and without military challenge or inspections, just on the basis of “people power” alone. The reasoning was that Israel defenses would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and this would cause the Israeli leadership and people to realize that they would have to adopt a different tactic and come to a better solution than massive military force…
A small number of Palestinians. including many students, went to the Atara checkpoint north of Bir Zeit (see our post via Machsom Watch about “The checkpoint that no longer exists”), and were tear-gassed by soldiers there.
An even smaller number of Palestinians attempted to head to the Beit El settlement (it’s unclear whether this was via the road past Jalazon Refugee Camp, or on the other side of the settlement, via the DCO and IDF military courts and “Civil Administration” side, where a previous demonstration in support of the Arab Spring and Palestinian unity was blocked by PA security forces before getting near the Beit El DCO checkpoint. Going out through the Beit El checkpoint at the end of the day, we saw Israeli soldiers with weapons in the new parking lot there, but the checkpoint was very relaxed — as, indeed, Qalandia was, on the Jerusalem side.
Palestinian Preventive Security spokesperson Adnan Dimeiri reportedly told Israel radio in an interview two days or so before the May 15 event that the Palestinian Authority was determined to stop any Palestinian demonstrations going from Areas A to any Israeli settlements or checkpoints…
At a May 15 protest at Walajee, near Bethlehem, five people, including Dr. Mazen Qumsiyeh, were arrested by Israeli forces — [photo via IMEMC]:
There were also clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians in various East Jerusalem neighborhoods living under very difficult and tense conditions, including Silwan, Abu Tur, Issawiya, Shufat Refugee Camp, and Anata.
[But, there were no clashes along The Wall which divides Dahiet al-Bariid in two, about 100 meters from the IDF Central Command offices — an area where residents had won their appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court to stay within Jerusalem instead of being excluded by the construction of The Wall.
There were no deaths at Qalandia or elsewhere in the Ramallah area on Sunday, nor at Israel’s Erez terminal at the northern entrance to Gaza, where Palestinian protesters passed the Hamas checkpoint against instructions and penetrated the outer perimeter of the massive installation there, though one Palestinian was killed near the Nahal Oz kibbutz, accused by the IDF of planting an explosive, but Palestinians said that he was may have been trying to put a flag.
There were no fatalities in Jordan, where some 5,000 Palestinian refugees had assembled on the eve of the May 15 events, as close as they could get to the border — which they were not allowed to approach closely, due to strong Jordanian military control. [Sawt al-Manara has now posted a video on Facebook of protesters clashing with Jordanian forces and sustaining injuries, yesterday.]
About 80 Egyptian demonstrators, marching in support of the Palestinian Nakba Day events, managed to get across the Sinai to Rafah, the city that straddles the Egyptian-Gaza border, and no fatalities or injuries were reported there.
Injuries were reported in Cairo, where pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched to the Israeli Embassy, and burned an Israeli flag.
The most lethal violence was at the Syrian-Israel lines, and on the Lebanon-Israel boundary — where the Palestinian Nakba Day demonstrators came closest to achieving the stated goals of the events, which was to return.
The IDF — and some Israeli officials and media outlets — called all the May 15 demonstrators were “rioters”.
Ali Abunimah found discovered extraordinary footage of the crossing of Israeli military lines on the Golan Heights, posted on Youube here:
As Ali Abunimah wrote on his blog here, “New video published by the website jawlany.com shows Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights attempting to prevent hundreds of marchers crossing across the border fence from the Syrian-controlled side on 15 May 2011. Hundreds of residents of the occupied Golan Heights watch and cheer the marchers on, and some chant ‘Filastin Arabiyeh wal Jawlan Suriyeh‘ (‘Palestine is Arab and the Golan is Syrian‘). About nine minutes into the video a large group of marchers who have just crossed the border fence can seen taking cover while gunfire is heard. The gunfire continues as Israeli soldiers approach the group. Israeli military vehicles start to move toward the group but the Israelis appear to be unsuccessful in stopping many marchers crossing into the Israeli-occupied side”…
Footage shot from the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan Heights [seized from Syria and occupied in the 1967 war, then annexed in 1980 in a move that UN resolutions have deemed “null and void”] is also available, and was posted both by Sawt al-Manara [Voice of al-Manara] on Facebook and by Ali Abunimah on his blog, here:
Ali Abunimah wrote on his blog that: “A dramatic video published by the website baladee.net shows the moment when hundreds of Palestinian refugees and Syrians break through the border fence from Syria into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights (part of Syria occupied by Israel in 1967 and illegally annexed in 1981). The video, which appears to be taken from the Israeli-occupied side shows a group of hundreds or perhaps thousands of marchers carrying Palestinian flags heading toward the boundary fence. Spectators on the Israeli-occupied side – apparently worried about the safety of the marchers – call on them to go back because of the danger of land mines. However, undeterred, the marchers continue, and break through the border fence as people on both sides call for the liberation of Palestine. As the marchers break through there are scenes of joy, high emotion and embraces”…
At least 9 people — and perhaps even double that number — were killed by the IDF on the Syrian and Lebanese lines.
The bodies were reportedly sent back across the lines within hours.
A number of Palestinian and Druse protesters — who appeared to be all men, mainly young, and who were immediately called “infiltrators” by Israeli government officials who pronounced the word with emphatic distaste — made it across the Israeli lines to enter the town of Majdal Shams. Most were rounded up by IDF forces and transported in groups back across the lines as well, in the direction of where they started the day (but not from where they came…)
But, Israeli forces conducted house-to-house searches through the night, looking for “infiltrators”, and the search reportedly continued on Monday.
Israeli officials said they were “surprised” by the events on the Syrian border.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that this was a threat against the state of Israel, and said that he had “instructed the IDF to act with restraint”, though it was necessary to defend Israel’s borders and sovereignty…
The U.S. State Department spokesperson, Mark Toner, said in response to a journalist’s question on Monday that “We obviously have been following events there and are aware that protestors were killed and injured in border clashes there with Israeli defense forces. Clearly, we regret these deaths and injuries. To avoid an escalation of the situation, we encourage all parties to exercise restraint and to maintain the integrity and security of border areas. Israel, like any other country, has the right to secure its borders. We also would like to commend the Palestinian security forces for their work in helping to keep order in the West Bank”…
UPDATE: And, what did the “infiltrators” really want? We get an idea from the case of one “Syrian”, as he is described in a Reuters report in Haaretz Monday night, who managed to get across the Israeli lines in the Golan, into Majdal Shams … and then all the way to Jaffa to see his family’s home. The Reuters report said: “A man identifying himself as a Syrian civil servant said on Monday he hitch-hiked and rode a bus alongside Israeli soldiers to Tel Aviv after pushing through an Israeli frontier fence with Palestinian demonstrators. ‘It was my dream to reach Jaffa’, Hassan Hijazi, 28, said on Channel 10 TV, from the biblical city now a section of Israel’s commercial hub, 130 miles from the Golan Heights where he had penetrated from Syria on Sunday … Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that in addition to Hijazi who has turned himself in, three more Syrian nationals were arrested on Monday in the vicinity of Majdel Shams, the Golan Heights frontier village near where most had infiltrated. The channel said that Hijazi had gone to Jaffa in search of what had been his parents’ home before they joined the ranks of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee or be driven away during a war over Israel’s founding in 1948”. This report is published here.