Palestinians mark Nakba Day in East Jerusalem

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=284491

200 Palestinians mark Nakba Day in East J'lem

The sign reads
"Palestinian Refugees:
One Indivisible Struggle
for Return"

Bethlehem - Ma'an - Some 200 Palestinians led by Palestinian Knesset members marked Nakba Day in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood on Saturday, Israeli media reported.

Protesters arrived to the rally carrying signs reading "Judaization of Jerusalem – The new Nakba," the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Led by members of the Balad party within the Israeli parliament, a host of Palestinian dignitaries, including Fatah Jerusalem Affairs Chief Hatem Abdul Qader, rallied in the flashpoint neighborhood, the site of Palestinian evictions.

"There is an attempt to undertake a transfer of people. According to statistics, more than 60,000 people live under the threat of house demolition, and hundreds of houses face razing plans," Abdul Qader told the daily.

"Should Barkat, Aharonovitch and Netanyahu will try to implement the orders, it will be like tossing a match into a field," he warned. "If they try to implement the mad demolition plan there will be a third intifada," he said. "I'm calling for Palestinian unity on the defense of Jerusalem. This is every Palestinian's responsibility."

According to Balad MK Hanin Zuabi, Sheikh Jarrah symbolizes the injustice cause to Palestinians, the daily wrote.

"This is a political atrocity and human tragedy. People who were expelled from their original villages in 1948 came to Jerusalem and now Israel is persecuting them again. This is a second Nakba for them."

The MK also said that Palestinians are protesting against the plan to Judaize Jerusalem, "Which Netanyahu wishes to complete by the end of his term," Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

"We are the non-silent victim who doesn't agree with the Zionist project's core of a Jewish state," she said.

Earlier this week, Balad activist Omar Said was arrested on suspicion of espionage along with Amir Makhoul, both prominent leaders of Palestinians living in Israel.

In March, the Israeli Knesset passed what some termed a "softened Nakba Law," which forbids marking Israel's independence day and the founding of Israel with mourning ceremonies and vandalizing or acts of disdain toward the flag or state symbols, effectively criminalizing Nakba Day.