ISRAELI OCCUPATION SOLDIERS ATTACK ANTI-PRAWER PLAN PROTESTS IN WEST BANK
West Bank, 12 Ramadan 1434/20 July 2013 (MINA) – Palestinians organized marches across the West Bank Friday in protest of an Israeli plan to displace tens of thousands of Bedouins from the Negev desert.
Demonstrations took place in the villages of Nabi Saleh and Kafr Qaddum, where they were attacked by Israeli soldiers with rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas, activists reported on social media.
Three activists, including an Israeli citizen were injured in Nabi Saleh area, Occupied Palestine and al-Akhbar reported as monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
Israeli forces also attacked protesters in Kafr Qaddum, although there were no reports of injuries.
Israel’s Prawer Bill, which has passed a first reading at the Knesset in June, seeks to force 40,000 Arab Bedouin from their villages and into permanent outposts.
A Knesset committee was formed on July 15 to complete the approval process, with a second and third reading scheduled for Fall 2013. If the measure passes, Palestinian Bedouins could see 35 of their villages destroyed in an attempt to squeeze the whole Arab population onto 1 percent of the desert.
About half of the roughly 160,000 Palestinian Bedouins residing in the Negev live in unrecognized villages.
Unrecognized villages receive no basic services from the state and the chances of getting them legalized are slim.
The Israeli government maintains that the Bedouins do not own the land and claims they live there illegally.
Photographer shot with rubber bullet
Israeli soldiers shot and injured a photographer with a rubber bullet at a protest in Nabi Saleh on Friday.
Around 60 protesters marched through Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, and burned tires to block the main road. Soldiers confronted the demonstrators on foot and fired tear gas and rubber-coated bullets.
A photographer working for the Israeli organization B’Tselem was shot in the leg with a rubber-coated steel bullet, a Ma’an reporter said. She was taken to hospital in Tel Aviv.
Two people were hit by tear gas canisters and an olive grove caught fire.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said around 80 Palestinians hurled rocks at security forces. She told Ma’an that soldiers responded with “riot dispersal means” but said no rubber bullets were fired.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces shot 22-year-old Mahmoud Tamimi with live fire during a protest in the village.
He has undergone surgery and is in a stable condition in hospital, his relatives told Ma’an on Friday.
An Israeli military spokesman said soldiers sensed an “imminent danger to their lives” at the protest on Tuesday after demonstrators threw rocks and rolled burning tires toward them.
He said soldiers “fired towards a main instigator, registering a direct hit.”
Since 2009, residents of Nabi Saleh and international activists have been protesting every Friday against the annexation of land by Israel.
Since 1977, half of the Nabi Saleh’s farmland has been lost to encroaching Israeli settlements. (T/P04/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
