Nazareth inside 1948 Palestine: March of Return.
It was the 11th annual march of Return - marching from Nazareth to the destroyed/de-populatedvillage of Sufurriyya which is only one of over 500 Palestinian villages that were ethnically cleansed and/or destroyed in 1948. So we arrived late in Sufurriya for the rally at the location of the old village way up on a forested hill - there were speeches, and there was music, poetry, and there were thousands of people. It is a really breathtakingly beautiful area covered with trees looking over towards Nazareth. You can see the ruins of walls of houses and courtyards and gardens. There was a powerful scene of youth sitting on part of a wall holding a massive Palestinian flag. Then the rally closed with everyone singing the Palestinian national anthem. When the crowd walked down the hill to the main road, they were met bya large Israeli presence of police telling people to take down their banners and flags. The police proceeded to fire tear gas and run through the crowd with horses. There was a clash and some people were hit on the head or were arrested. People were just tryingto leave the rally - they were literally on the way to their vehicles to drive home - they were blocked from exiting.
This is 1948Palestine - Israel proper. Most of these people are technically citizens of the State of Israel. A small sign of how Israel treats Palestinian citizens. 60 Years of apartheid - happy birthday Israel.
No comments:
Post a Comment