Palestinians again mark the Israel ‘catastrophe’

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Palestinians marked on Saturday another day of remembering the anniversary of what they call the Naqba, the “catastrophe” of Israel’s creation in 1948, demanding the right of return of refugees.

Some 4,000 people marched in Gaza City in response to a joint appeal by Hamas and Fatah, the two principal Palestinian political parties that are normally at loggerheads with each other.

In the West Bank, sirens wailed through the Israeli-occupied territory as residents marked a minute’s silence.

Speaking outside Gaza’s UN headquarters, where the march ended, Hamas official Ismail Radwan said “the right of return is sacred.”

Meanwhile, Fatah official Zakaria al-Agha said a letter from all the Palestinian movements to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had been presented at the UN office.

It asked him to “act as soon as possible to lift the injustice against the Palestinian people.”

More than 760,000 Palestinians — estimated today to number 4.7 million with their descendants — were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict that followed Israel’s creation 62 years ago.

On Friday, the actual anniversary, protests were staged in Hamas-ruled Gaza and in Lebanon, home to about 400,000 Palestinian refugees, as chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat blasted Israel for its “disregard of international law.”

Nearly 2,000 Israelis also staged a demonstration in Jerusalem on Saturday “for Zionism but against settlements,” an AFP photographer witnessed.

Demonstrators, brought together by the Peace Now movement, carried Israeli flags and placards denouncing Jewish settlements, particularly in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

Also Saturday, Lebanese and Palestinian activists also marked the “catastrophe” by setting a record for the world’s largest keffiyeh, the iconic Palestinian head-dress popularised by the late leader Yasser Arafat.

The 6,552-metre (21,496-foot) chain of scarves was laid out on the grounds of Beirut’s Sport City Stadium in a feat overseen by a Guinness World Records official.

More than 100 volunteers placed the giant scarf to form the number 194, signifying the 1948 UN Security Council Resolution that grants Palestinians the right to return to their homes in Israeli-occupied land.

“On the anniversary of the Naqba we want to affirm that Resolution 194… calling for the return of Palestinians to their land must be implemented,” said Jamal Kurdi, of the Campaign 194 group that organised the event.

Israeli governments have refused to allow Palestinian refugees to return to homes they fled in 1948 over fears a massive return would threaten the state of Israel and its 5.7 million Jewish population.

In a sign of the tensions that have gripped both sides, Israeli troops on Saturday shot dead an elderly farmer and wounded another Palestinian near Gaza’s northern border with Israel.

Fuad Abu Matar, 75, died after being “hit with several bullets fired by Israeli occupation soldiers,” Muawia Hassanein, head of the Gaza Strip’s emergency services, told AFP.

An army spokesman told AFP soldiers had detected a man approaching the security barrier near the Nahal Oz road crossing and opened fire after warning shots.

“The whole sector near the security barrier is considered a combat zone,” he said, accusing the Palestinians of “many provocations and attempted attacks.”

On Friday an Israeli settler, whose car had been stoned, shot dead a 16-year-old Palestinian youth in the West Bank and hours later the army said Palestinian gunmen raked a car with gunfire wounding two Israelis.