Wednesday, November 16, 2011

From the archive, 16 November 1988: Troops stifle West Bank rejoicing

Palestinian boys wave Palestinian flags during a demonstration against Israel's controversial barrier, near Jerusalem September 16, 2005. Photograph: MAHFOUZ ABU TURK/ REUTERS


The Guardian,

Originally published in the Guardian on 16 November 1988

Independent Palestine spent the day of its birth behind closed doors yesterday, as Israel poured in thousands of troops to stop the people of the occupied territories from openly celebrating their new claims to statehood and to keep the press out. Ian Black reports from Ramallah

Forty years after the United Nations decree that there should be an Arab and a Jewish state in the Holy Land, the Israelis were taking no chances yesterday. At the first army roadblock on the road to Ramallah, just north of the Jerusalem city limits, the soldiers were stopping all cars with the tell-tale blue West Bank licence plates. From there, an hour's drive to the outskirts of Nablus, it was the same story, except that the roadblocks came thicker and faster and the old journalistic lie about visiting Jewish settlements did not wash. Free Palestine was out of bounds to the press, and there were written orders to prove it....READ MORE

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