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   Vol.66/No.17            April 29, 2002 
 
 
Palestinian activist describes
daily protests inside Israel
 
BY DOUG COOPER  
Diaa Hadid, an activist with Ittijah, an umbrella group for Arab community-based organizations, told the Militant in an April 14 telephone interview from Haifa that protests among Palestinians living inside Israel are continuing. "They are not being reported," she said. "There are daily protests in all the main towns inside the Green Line with large Palestinian populations, like Nazareth. They can be 5,000 people."

The Green Line refers to the borders of Israel prior to its occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and other areas as a result of the 1967 war. Today more than 1 million of Israel's people, or 20 percent of the population, are Palestinians. Many are engaging in protests for the first time in response to the rising brutality of the Israeli occupation. One protest on March 31 in Nazareth involved 30,000, Hadid said.

On April 3, Israeli cops attacked peaceful protesters at the Qalandia checkpoint near the West Bank town of Ramallah, using batons and throwing tear gas indiscriminately into crowds. Around 30 people were injured. Three Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, including Ahmad Tibi and Mohammad Barakeh, were among those hurt, Hadid said.

Hadid described another peaceful protest on April 4. "Police beat protesters with batons and sticks, claiming the Palestinian flag was provoking them." Half a dozen needed immediate medical attention. Two were denied treatment and were arrested. Twenty more had less serious injuries, she reported.

Hadid joined a protest of 300 in front of the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv on April 12 to mark the arrival of U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell. The demonstration was organized by Tayush, a joint Palestinian-Jewish group whose name translates as coexistence, and Gush Shalom, an organization of Jews opposed to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

"Some Palestinian protesters formed a tight circle and then a man stood on the shoulders of some of them and raised the Palestinian flag," Hadid said. "Raising the Palestinian flag is illegal here," she explained, "because the Israeli government doesn't recognize it as the flag of a people but of an organization they have banned."

Hadid also joined an April 13 solidarity march of 3,000 from the village of Salem to a military checkpoint near Jenin. The peaceful protest accompanied 31 trucks and cars taking food and other aid to Palestinians in the besieged town. The caravan succeeded in passing the checkpoint. The protesters decided to stop short of it, Hadid explained, so as not to give the Israeli forces a pretext to prevent the aid getting through.
 
 
Related articles:
Palestinians resist U.S. blackmail
 Actions in Europe, U.S., condemn Israeli war
  
 
 
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