Sabah al-Salibi collected dozens of small stones with her daughters, Susan, 22, and Rawand, 24. She said she wanted to pass them to the demonstrators whose eyes were blurry from teargas “to save them time by finding suitable stones” to throw at Israeli snipers hidden behind earthen berms at the Gaza – Israel fence.
Even though she was hit in the chin by shrapnel from an explosive bullet when the rallies reached their peak on May 14, Sabah, 50, insisted on participating with the thousands of demonstrators who protested during the ninth Friday of the March of the Great Return, which began on March 30.
“Although these stones are small and few, but are stronger than their bullets and gas canisters,” al-Salibi said. These stones were a source of frenzy for the Israelis when they were occupied Gaza in the 1987 uprising. The army used to impose a general cordon in Gaza in search of young men throwing stones at army.
Meanwhile, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, nine women and four children were among the 109 Palestinians who were wounded by Israeli gunfire while participating in the continuing protest along the border.
The latest round of protests came after hours of Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously rejected two petitions presented by human rights organizations demanding Israel’s troops avoid using live ammunition against Gaza’s protests. On Thursday, the panel of three justices sided with the Israeli military, which argued that the protesters constituted a real danger to Israeli troops. Israel maintains its forces use of live fire is in line with both domestic and international law, arguing the demonstrations are part of the country’s conflict with Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.
“The Israeli Court completely ignored the broad factual basis presented to it by the petitioners, which includes multiple testimonies of wounded and reports of international organizations involved in documenting the killing and wounding of unarmed protesters in Gaza,” the human rights groups said.
On Twitter, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman welcomed the ruling and criticized the rights organizations for challenging the military.
Since the demonstration began, Israeli army killed at least 115 demonstrators, and wounded more than 13,000.
After running behind Sabah who was rushing to around 150 meters from the fence to share her remaining stones, she yelled twice: “We will not give up!” Participating here weekly is a powerful message that we refuse what they did against our fathers and grandfathers 70 years ago. She told Mondoweiss.
Not far away, Suhaila Abu Riash, 65 was also protesting in her own style.
She was spraying protesters’ faces with a homemade yeast and water mixture, that she believes might help alleviate the effects of tear gas.
I met the 65-year-old Abu Riash, while she was waiting another round of gas canisters dropping down from an Israeli drone. She said: “Nine weeks are not enough to express long years of anger.”
I gave a martyr in 2014’s war and ready to scarify by more sons if this protest needs. She told Mondoweiss. “No problem, but we will return and Israel will be vanished at the end, as we say: ‘Injustice cannot last.'” Abu Riash, a mother of seven children, and her parents were displaced from Hiribya – located 14 kilometers northeast of Gaza.
At the other side of the border, Gazans have been using burning kites to torch Israeli fields and forests as part of the March events.
A large scale fire broke out in the lands near Kibbutz Nir Am on Friday evening, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The Kibbutz is covered by heavy smoke, the cause of the fire is suspected to be a burning Palestinian kite flown in from Gaza.
The largest blaze yet sparked by the firebomb-bearing kites happened Wednesday near Kibbutz Be’eri, an Israeli community located some 4.3 miles east of Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp. The fire took over six hours to extinguish and consumed dozens of dunams of grasslands and agricultural fields in the area.
In recent weeks, Gazans have been flying flaming kites into Israel outfitted with containers of burning fuel, setting fire to large swaths of fields.
I guess all those videos of unarmed Palestinians being brutally killed by snipers, will make the zionists want to cover their crimes, in every way.
“The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PCJ) released a statement on Saturday condemning the proposal of a new bill in the Israeli Knesset that would criminalize the photographing or recording of Israeli soldiers while on duty.
The bill was proposed on Thursday with the support of right-wing Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and if passed, those found in violation of the law could face a prison sentence of up to five years.”
https://www.juancole.com/2018/05/palestinian-journalists-criminalizing.html
Israel will be vanished at the end, as we say: ‘Injustice cannot last.’
Does this mean “Israel will be vanquished” or “Israel will vanish”?
Nothing lasts forever, but there is ample historical evidence that injustice can last for millennia.
If the demonstrations did indeed include a lot of stone throwing then they cannot be described as non-violent, even if none of the stones hit their targets. The political benefits of nonviolence are thereby jettisoned. It’s a free gift to Israeli propaganda.
In some mystical sense pebbles thrown by hand or slingshot may be stronger than bullets fired by guns, but what purpose do they serve in the world of mundane reality? Beyond expressing anger? What is the strategy to which they contribute?
BDS is the only answer. Everything else has been tried, and the occupier clings to the status quo to keep the occupation going, so that they can keep building illegal settlements, and kill at will. They should be hit where it hurts most, the economy.
https://boycottisraeltoday.wordpress.com/boycott-israel/
Some good news from Canada:
http://elizabethmaymp.ca/publications/2018/05/16/statement-condemning-the-targeting-of-civilians-in-gaza/
Elizabeth May, Leader of Canada’s federal Green Party: Statement condemning the targeting of civilians in Gaza – May 16th, 2018 in Press Releases, Publications
(OTTAWA) — “Since March 30, Israeli Defence Forces have targeted and killed 110 Palestinians, including 12 children, with more than 12,000 injured. Today marks the final day of the Palestinians’ mass protests demanding their right to return to their original homes.
“’Targeting civilian protesters is in direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which both Israel and Canada are signatories,’ said Elizabeth May (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands). ‘We call on the Liberal government to join us in demanding that Israel immediately stop targeting civilians.’
“’We again call on the government to cease all arms shipments to Israel, and to join with the international community in demanding an independent investigation into the recent killings. If we want to see international law respected, we must hold those who violate it accountable.’
“Palestinians around the world mark today as their ‘day of catastrophe,’ commemorating the displacement of over 700,000 people from their homes and properties leading up to and following the creation of Israel.
“The rights of all people in the region must be respected in the context of two viable states — Israel and Palestine — living side by side in peace and prosperity.”
@Stephen Shenfield
“But there is still a long way to go to the tipping point at which governments will have to change their policies, especially here in the US. The movement would be faster without this play-acting at war.
I think that this is a microcosm of the harmful political effect that these antics are having”
I think your choice of words to put it mildly is inappropriate.To describe what the trapped inmates of the Gaza ghetto have done and continue to do as “play acting at war” or “antics” is simply condescending.
What sort of “non antics” options are available to them. And please ask yourself if someone is repeatedly kicking you in the head in order to stop you from reclaiming what they have stolen from you and you fight back can that be described as “antics”.
Please remember Stephen what Israel Zios fear most are not firecracker rockets or Kites of Mass destruction or even kitchen knives – what they fear most is peaceful protest ” terror” and they will use every trick in their loathsome book to provoke “violence” by the peaceful protests and spin it as evidence of the ongoing Second Holocaustally threatening terrorist war against mankinds greatest ever victims.Sob.
Besides which the scumbags really have developed a lust for killing and blood.The good old Chosen Land would no longer simply be a rewarding place to colonise and live in without the opportunity for regular untermenschen killing.