Ramallah, occupied Palestinian Territory—Every fifth of June since the year 1967, Palestinians in the occupied territories and within the surrounding Palestinian refugee camps scattered throughout the Middle East have congregated to commemorate Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Tuesday, 5 June 2012, Palestinians gathered once again for the 45th consecutive time to memorialize Yom al Naksa (The day of the Setback).
Akin to previous years, commemorative demonstrations protesting Israel’s continued occupation were planned throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.
A demonstration of approximately 70 people took place in front of Israel’s Ofer prison on the outskirts of Ramallah, where protestors were roughly repelled by mass amounts of tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets. Over ten protestors, in addition to several journalists, were injured after being directly struck by rubber bullets.
Photo By Lazar Simeneov
Although lasting over five hours, the demonstration was much smaller than expected and many activists were disappointed due to the lack of turn out.
In the old city of Hebron, a march, arranged by the popular committee against the wall, departed from the Zahda area toward the infamous Shuhada Street (a street under Israeli military closure). Consisting of upwards of 100 protestors (a mixture of both Palestinian and international activists), the march was almost immediately quashed by the Israeli military.
At the Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem, the protest was typically violently put down by Israeli mounted police, and in Gaza City, a march was organized from the Square of the Unknown Soldier to one of the UN’s main office buildings. Both demonstrations were of a much smaller size than years past.
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