Palestinian ‘Naksa Day’ protests come amid heightened Gaza tensions
(Worthy News) – Palestinians are gearing up for Tuesday’s “Naksa Day” . The day is commemorated as the “setback” when Israel took over the West Bank and Gaza as well as East Jerusalem during the Six Day War. Along with Nakba Day and Land Day it makes up one of the key Palestinian protests of the spring and summer every year. This year the events come after months of protests along the Gaza border in which more than one hundred Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded in clashes.
Over the years Naksa Day has seen limited protests among Palestinians, but some of them have turned violent. In 2011 the Bashar Assad regime and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Yarmouk camp in Damascus encouraged thousands to march on the Golan border. In clashes with Israel security forces up to thirty of the protesters were killed and the UN’s human rights chief Navi Pillay reminded Israel that it had a “duty to ensure that its security personnel avoid the use of excessive force.”
To mark the day in 2016 Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah claimed Israel was perpetuating a “dangerous cycle of violence.” In 2017 the US based Palestinian Community Network wrote that “we focus on the 1967 territories today, but we always continue organizing for liberation and return, and freedom for all our people on all our land.” [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]