Thousands Mark Land Day at Beaufort Castle Amid Heavy Security
More than 3,000 Lebanese, Palestinian and foreign demonstrators marched to the Beaufort Castle in Nabatiyeh on Friday to mark Land Day, an annual protest against discriminatory Israeli land policies.
Waving Palestinian flags and singing Palestinian national songs, the protestors performed the traditional dabke dance as security forces kept them from moving beyond the Crusader-built castle that lies 15 kilometers from the Israeli border.
The protestors also attended together noon prayers.
The Lebanese army and security forces took strong measures to prevent the protest from spiraling out of control. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon also carried out patrols and monitored any suspicious activity from its bases near the border with Israel.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper had quoted high-ranking Palestinian sources as saying that the mainstream Fatah movement put at the disposal of Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sidon, Tyre and Beirut around 50 buses.
As for the Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah, they have respectively put 30 and 40 buses at the disposal of protestors, they said.
Similar protests were held in the West Bank and Gaza. While organizers said the events would be nonviolent, Israel's army and police were girding for trouble after similar demonstrations last year turned deadly.
At least 15 people were killed in clashes with Israeli troops in May 2010 when the protestors tried to cross the Syrian and Lebanese borders with Israel during a Nakba Day rally marking Palestinian sorrow over the Jewish state's creation in 1948.
In June that year, Israeli troops also killed 23 demonstrators who crossed into the no-man's land between Israel and Syria in a demonstration against Israeli control of the Golan Heights.
Israeli forces raised their alert level on Thursday ahead of the protests.
The Northern and Southern Commands have deployed extra forces along the borders with Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip together with riot gear to prevent border infiltrations.
The troops have been briefed on rules of engagement and ordered to act with restraint but to protect the border and not to allow demonstrators to cross it, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
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