2011 Israeli border demonstrations
Encyclopedia
The 2011 Israeli border demonstrations started on 15 May 2011, to commemorate what the Palestinians observe as Nakba Day
Nakba Day
Nakba Day is generally commemorated on May 15, the day after the Gregorian calendar date for Israeli independence day...

. Various groups of people attempted to approach or breach Israel's borders from the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...

, West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...

, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 and Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

. At least a dozen people were killed. On 5 June 2011, there were further protests on the border with Syria and, according to Syrian authorities, 23 protesters were killed and 350 wounded by live fire from Israeli forces, though Israeli sources suggested these figures were exaggerated.

15 May

Inspired by the uprisings and revolutions taking place in the Arab world
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...

, Palestinians used Facebook to call for mass protests throughout the region on 15 May 2011 Nakba Day. A page calling for a "Third Palestinian Intifada" to begin on 15 May was started on 9 March 2011, garnered more than 350,000 "likes" before being taken down by Facebook managers at the end of March after complaints from the Israeli government as well as a counter group which repeatedly requested Facebook to block the page on the grounds that it incited violence. The page called for mass marches to Palestine from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan to commemorate the Nakba and demand the right of return
Palestinian right of return
The Palestinian right of return is a political position or principle asserting that Palestinian refugees, both first-generation refugees and their descendants, have a right to return, and a right to the property they or their forebears left or which they were forced to leave in what is now Israel...

 for all Palestinian refugees.

Egypt

Organizers in Egypt had been preparing for weeks to implement the calls made on Facebook for a mass march to the border. On Saturday 14 May, thousands were planning to make their way toward the Rafah crossing with Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...

 in convoys set to depart from Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Damietta, North Sinai. Gharbiya, Beni Suef, Assiut, Qena and Sohag. However, an order from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces consists of a body of 20 senior officers in the Egyptian military. As a consequence of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Council took the power to govern Egypt from its departing President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.The junta meets regularly, as...

 to tourism companies not to send buses to the convoy organizers left them without sufficient transportation and the few buses they did manage to procure were stopped by the army
Egyptian Army
The Egyptian Army is the largest service branch within the Egyptian Armed Forces and holds power in the current Egyptian government. It is estimated to number around 379,000, in addition to 479,000 reservists for a total of 858,000 strong. The modern army was created in the 1820s, and during the...

. The blockage of access by Egyptian forces
Military of Egypt
The Egyptian Armed Forces are the largest in Africa, and the Arab World, and is the tenth largest in the world, consisting of the Egyptian Army, Egyptian Navy, Egyptian Air Force and Egyptian Air Defense Command....

 to the Sinai Peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...

, meant that only about 80 activists managed to reach the border with Rafah.

Jordan

In Jordan, 200 Palestinian students attempted to march towards the Israeli border, but were restrained by Jordanian security forces resulting in the injury of six people. They were part of a larger group of 500 who were stopped at the Allenby Bridge
Allenby Bridge
The Allenby Bridge , also known as the King Hussein Bridge , is a bridge that crosses the Jordan River, and connects Jericho in the West Bank to the country of Jordan...

. Jordanian authorities said a total of 25 people were injured, including 11 police officers. The political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...

 in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front
Islamic Action Front
The Islamic Action Front is a political party in Jordan. It is the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan....

, condemned police actions which they described as "shocking" stating: "We condemn the attack, which is part of government policies to impose its will on the people, and we demand an end to such policies that have harmed Jordan's image."

Lebanon

11 Lebanese protesters were killed trying to cross into Israel during a Nakba Day demonstration held on the border. Lebanon claims they were shot by Israeli soldiers, while Israel says most of them were killed by Lebanese troops trying to keep the crowd away from the fence. Activists had organized an event on a mountaintop in the village of Maroun al-Ras
Maroun al-Ras
Maroun al-Ras is a Lebanese village nestled in Jabal Amel in the district of Bint Jbeil in the Nabatiye Governorate in southern Lebanon...

 that overlooks the border with Israel. Some 30,000 people, including Palestinian refugees from various Palestinian refugee camps across Lebanon attended. After walking up the mountain to the protest site, many decided to descend the opposite side, and continued on towards the border. Lebanese Army
Lebanese Armed Forces
The Lebanese Armed Forces or Forces Armées Libanaises in French, also known as the Lebanese Army according to its official Website The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) (Arabic: القوات المسلحة اللبنانية | Al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥa al-Lubnāniyya) or Forces Armées Libanaises in French, also known as the...

 soldiers fired into the air in a failed effort to deter them. Crossing through a minefield that was laid by Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War, they reached the border fence, and threw stones over it, chanting for their right of return. The Lebanese army intervened and began firing M16 assault rifles and tear gas, which sent protesters fleeing back up the mountain.

Eleven participants were killed and 100 injured by gunfire before the protesters retreated. There were conflicting reports of who shot them. Media reported that the protesters were shot by the IDF. The IDF said most of those killed were likely shot by the Lebanese Armed Forces
Lebanese Armed Forces
The Lebanese Armed Forces or Forces Armées Libanaises in French, also known as the Lebanese Army according to its official Website The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) (Arabic: القوات المسلحة اللبنانية | Al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥa al-Lubnāniyya) or Forces Armées Libanaises in French, also known as the...

 (LAF) and that they had a video that established this, but would not release it on the grounds that it might cause embarrassment to the Lebanese Army.

Gaza Strip and West Bank

Between 500 to 600 Palestinians marched towards the Erez Crossing
Erez Crossing
The Erez Crossing is a pedestrian/cargo terminal on the Israeli Gaza Strip barrier. It is located in the northern end of the Gaza Strip, on the border with Israel.It is part of a complex formerly including the Erez Industrial Park....

, a border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip on 15 May. IDF forces fired on the group intermittently over the course of a couple of hours with tanks, machine guns, gas canisters and sound bombs, killing one demonstrator and wounding more than 80.

In the West Bank, Palestinians from a burgeoning new youth movement convened seminars on strategies for non-violent resistance to prepare for a 15 May march on the Qalandia checkpoint separating Ramallah
Ramallah
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...

 from Jerusalem, and several of them were arrested by Palestinian Authority police in the month before the protest date. On 15 May, more than 1,000 protestors marched through the Qalandia refugee camp until they reached within 100 metres of the checkpoint separating Ramallah
Ramallah
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...

 from Jerusalem where Israeli forces used tear gas to disperse most of them. Around 100 Palestinian protesters engaged in a standoff with Israeli forces over the next seven hours, throwing stones, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets. More than 80 protestors, including three paramedics, sustained injuries and twenty were hospitalized; a doctor at the hospital said the last time he saw so many casualties in one day was during the Second Intifada.

Syria

In Syria, the events were organized by phone and internet by Palestinian refugees, most of them university students independent of any political faction, in response to the call for a "Third Palestinian Intifada" on Facebook. Demonstrators gathered near the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire line waving Palestinian flag
Palestinian flag
The Palestinian flag is based on the Flag of the Arab Revolt, and is used to represent the Palestinian people , and the Palestinian Authority.-Description:...

s, and then marched toward and breached the fence, entering the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The first wave of demonstrators to move toward the fence were stopped by Syrian police who were later overtaken when a second group arrived. The sole Israeli patrol present was similarly overwhelmed and opened fire on the demonstrators. Four demonstrators were killed and dozens injured. The dead were Palestinian refugees: Qais Abu Alheija from Houd, Bashar Ali Shahabi from Lubya
Lubya
Lubya was a Palestinian Arab town located ten kilometers west of Tiberias that was captured and destroyed by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War...

, Samer Khartabeel from Tiberias, and Abadah Zaghmout from Safsaf
Safsaf
Safsaf was a Palestinian village located 9 kilometres northwest of Safed, present day Israel. Its villagers fled to Lebanon after the Safsaf massacre in October 1948, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.-History:The village was called Safsofa in Roman times...

.

The Israeli military stated that it only fired warning shots when about 1,000 demonstrators approached the fence, and some 300 children among them, rushed toward the fence. More than a hundred managed to bypass the fence and enter the Arab Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...

 town of Majdal Shams
Majdal Shams
Majdal Shams is a Druze village in the northern part of the Golan Heights, in the southern foothills of Mt. Hermon. Since the June 1967 Six-Day War, the village has been controlled by Israel, first under martial law, but since 1981 under Israeli civil law, and incorporated into the Israeli...

. About a dozen members of Israel's security forces were injured in clashes in Majdal Shams. Two demonstrators were arrested and detained, but were returned to Syria.

Gaza Strip and the West Bank

In the northern Gaza Strip, dozens of demonstrators tried to march towards the Erez border crossing with Israel. Hamas police had erected checkpoints to stop protesters from reaching Israel's border and clashed with protestors, arresting around a dozen who had left a rally organized in the northern town of Beit Hanun.

At the Qalandia checkpoint in the West Bank, around 300 demonstrated in a protest that began with about 10 people forming a human chain in front of Israeli soldiers who responded with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets. After they sat on the ground refusing to leave, they were forcefully removed by soldiers in riot gear and youth at the back of the crowd began throwing stones. Over the course of several hours, 120 were injured, mostly by tear gas, but also by rubber bullets, sound bombs, and a new stink spray being used for crowd control purposes. Dozens of protesters from the northern West Bank village of Deir al-Hatab
Deir al-Hatab
Deir al-Hatab is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank, located east of Nablus. The village's built-up area consisted of 330 dunams in 2000. Prior to 1993, it was less than 200 dunams...

 also tried to march to the nearby Elon Moreh
Elon Moreh
Elon Moreh is an Israeli settlement located in the Samarian hills of the West Bank northeast of Nablus on the slopes of the Mount Kabir ridge....

 settlement.

Lebanon

Palestinian organizers in Lebanon planned for a march along the Lebanese-Israeli border for 5 June, but following a decision by the Lebanese Army to ban all protests along the border, the "Palestinian preparatory committee of the return march" canceled the protest on 3 June. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon held strikes instead. Groups independent of the Return to Palestine March Committee still attempted to reach the border, and the Lebanese army stopped a group of 20 youths in the border town of Kfar Kila
Kfar Kila
KafarKila is a small village in Southern Lebanon.Kafarkila name comes from 'Kfar' and 'Kila' meaning the Bride Village....

.

Syria

On 5 June 2011 Palestinian and Syrian protesters moved towards the Golan Heights line of control near Quneitra
Quneitra
Quneitra is the largely destroyed and abandoned capital of the Quneitra Governorate in south-western Syria. It is situated in a high valley in the Golan Heights at an elevation of 1,010 metres above sea level...

 and Majdal Shams
Majdal Shams
Majdal Shams is a Druze village in the northern part of the Golan Heights, in the southern foothills of Mt. Hermon. Since the June 1967 Six-Day War, the village has been controlled by Israel, first under martial law, but since 1981 under Israeli civil law, and incorporated into the Israeli...

. According to Syrian officials, 23 people were killed and 350 people were injured by Israeli snipers as they attempted over the course of several hours to breach the barbed-wire border. Among the dead was also reportedly an unarmed 12-year old boy. According to Israeli officials, they counted 10 dead, none of whom were killed by Israeli fire. The New York Times said that, either way, this clash produced the greatest loss of life in the Golan since the Yom Kippur War
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to 25, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria...

 in 1973.

Palestinians from the suburbs of Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

 were reportedly bussed into the area and massed the border without interference from Syrian troops. The IDF described this as a provocation by President Basher Assad that was designed to distract world attention away from the ongoing slaughter of protesters in Syria by Assad’s troops.

Israeli soldiers shouted warnings in Arabic via loudspeakers asking the Palestinians to refrain from trying to cross the frontier, adding that those who did so would endanger their lives. Israeli forces were under orders to prevent the protesters from crossing the line of control. Although no protesters managed to cross the border, the protesters thought the day was a success, as they believed that there would be outrage against Israeli troops for firing on unarmed protesters. In response the US State Department said that it was "troubled" by the loss of life, but noted that Israel has the right to defend its sovereign borders. In the aftermath, thousands began a sit-in near Golan, resulting in the Syrian government creating a security buffer zone for humanitarian purposes.

Paramedics on the Syrian side of the border asked that the IDF grant them cease-fires to clear the wounded. The army agreed to the request, but then saw activists exploiting the quiet to try to cut the border fence, bringing the truce to an end.

One of those killed, Ezzat Maswadi, was a Palestinian born in Jerusalem in 1977, who grew up in al-Eizariya
Al-Eizariya
Al-Eizariya or al-Izzariya , sometimes referred to by its medieval name of Bethany, is a city in the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it is the second largest Palestinian city in the Jerusalem Governorate , with a population of 17,606 inhabitants.Located on the...

. His father, who lives in al-Eizariya, could not procure a permit to travel to Damascus to attend his funeral.

The Syrian Reform Party issued a statement accusing the Syrian regime of hiring Syrian protesters to storm the border to deflect attention from its own crackdown against the 2011 Syrian uprising
2011 Syrian uprising
The 2011 Syrian uprising is an ongoing internal conflict occurring in Syria. Protests started on 26 January 2011, and escalated into an uprising by 15 March 2011...

. The statement claims that protesters were paid about 1000 dollars for protesting, with 10,000 being offered to their family if the protester was killed.
Also Syrian State TV reported 6 hours live from the incident, whilst not reporting on Syrian crackdowns at all.

Clashes broke out at a funeral for the dead in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk
Yarmouk
* Yarmouk River* Battle of Yarmouk* Yarmouk University in Jordan* Yarmouk , an upscale neighborhood in Iraq* Al-Yarmouk Hospital * Yarmouk , an unofficial Palestinian refugee camp in Syria...

 in Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

 on the day following the Naksa protests. A group of mourners accused the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...

(PFLP), who organized the Naksa day protest, of inciting young people to put themselves in the firing line; slogans were chanted against the leaders attending the funeral and attempts were made to damage their vehicles. There were also reports of gunfire, with up to 14 people killed, and the PFLP headquarters in the camp was burnt down.
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