Sunday Demo Organizers Replace It by Palestinian Camps Strike

The coordination and follow-up committee of the Right to Return Campaign on Friday announced “the suspension of the popular march on the Lebanese-Palestinian border” previously scheduled for Sunday, calling instead for “a general strike in all (Palestinian refugee) camps across Lebanon” on that day.

An Nahar daily reported Friday that the Lebanese army has taken a firm decision to prevent Palestinian refugees from marching towards Lebanon’s border with Israel on Sunday to prevent the Jewish state from launching an assault on Lebanon.

The coordination and follow-up committee said in a statement that it was “surprised by the decision of the official political and security authorities in Lebanon to prevent participants from staging the Return March towards occupied Palestine to commemorate Naksa Day.”

It stressed that “staging demonstrations is one of the Palestinian people’s rights,” noting that the march was aimed at highlighting the plight of the Palestinians and their adherence to their right to return to their homeland.

The committee also stressed that “refugees have the right to stage peaceful popular rallies on all Palestinian borders and the right to receive the proper protection from all authorities concerned, including UNIFIL (the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon), which is in charge of implementing U.N. resolutions in south Lebanon.”

Furthermore, the coordination and follow-up committee called on the Lebanese political authorities to “take the steps necessary to confirm their rejection of the naturalization conspiracy, through action instead of words, and facilitate the arrival of the refugees to their homeland’s border,” stressing that it would carry on with its efforts and contacts “in order to lift the ban.”

An Nahar reported Friday that the army command informed all involved officials that it took a “final and firm decision” to prevent demonstrators from crossing the area south of the Litani river on the anniversary of the 1967 Six Day War, during which the Jewish state seized east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Syria's Golan Heights.

The army told the officials that it was afraid the Jewish state would launch an attack on Lebanon or would open fire on demonstrators as it did on May 15 when Palestinians marched on Israel's borders with Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip in a mass show of mourning over the 1948 creation of the Jewish state.

The Lebanese army’s decision also came after it received information that Sunday’s protestors would resort to riots and were planning to cut through the border fence separating southern Lebanon from Israel.

Although the march might not take place, security authorities informed Lebanese officials that the army began taking precautionary measures at all roads leading to the south, al-Liwaa daily said.

The army and security forces were ordered to carry out a thorough inspection of the IDs of all occupants of vehicles and prevent Palestinian buses from crossing into southern Lebanon without permits issued by the military leadership.

On Thursday, Israeli soldiers put up new barbed wire on the border with Lebanon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said that he had ordered the Israeli army to act firmly but try to avoid bloodshed during any protests on Israel's borders.