Middle East Monitor / June 6, 2020
Palestinian demonstrators were marking the 53rd anniversary of the ‘Al-Naksa‘ (The Setback).
Israeli occupation forces cracked down on Friday on Palestinian demonstrators marking the 53rd anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Anadolu Agency reported.
Hundreds of Palestinians took part in demonstrations in the villages of Bal’in, Na’lin, Kafr Qaddoum, Hares and the Qusin neighbourhoods, Hebron and the Jordan Valley.
The protesters raised placards condemning the Israeli occupation and Israeli violations against the Palestinians and their rights.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Palestinian Red Crescent dealt with six cases of protesters wounded by the Israeli occupation during the protests.
In 1967, Israel launched a war against its neighbours and took control of the parts of Palestine which it had failed to capture during its 1948 “War of Independence.
On 5 June 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria. After knocking out the air defences of these countries, it occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Thus, it had taken control of the final 22 per cent of historic Palestine that it wasn’t able to occupy in 1948.
Nearly 400,000 Palestinians were added to the hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced in 1948 and their homes and villages were razed to the ground by the Israelis. Around half were being displaced for the second time in less than 20 years.
The Naksa commemorates this tragic setback in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination.
