NEWSPAPERS REVIEW: PRISONERS STRIKE, NAKBA ANNIVERSARY FOCUS OF DAILIES    
❶ ― (ᴀ) Palestinians mark 69th ‘Nakba’ anniversary with rallies
❶ ― (ᴃ) Israeli forces suppress Nakba day rallies in Bethlehem, Ramallah
❷ 29 Days of Hunger Strike: Commercial strike in the West Bank; Barghouthi, Sa’adat receive legal visits
❸ ― (ᴀ) Athens protests and actions support Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike, struggle for freedom
❸ ― (ᴃ) Irish Republican prisoners’ statement of solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners
HISTORICAL NOTE  
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NEWSPAPERS REVIEW: PRISONERS STRIKE, NAKBA ANNIVERSARY FOCUS OF DAILIES       
Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
May 15, 2017
Twenty eight days of hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the 69th Nakba anniversary were the focus of the three Arabic dailies on Monday.
[. . . .]___ The papers also said the strike coincides with the anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe), which marks 69 years since the dispersal of the Palestinian people and uprooting from their homes and land in historic Palestine in 1948.      MORE . . .  

❶ ― (ᴀ) PALESTINIANS MARK 69TH ‘NAKBA’ ANNIVERSARY WITH RALLIES:  Protests and vigils in occupied West Bank, Gaza and Israel as Palestinians mark forced displacement from lands in 1948.
Al Jazeera English
May 15, 2017
Palestinians are commemorating the 69th anniversary of the “Nakba”, the “day of catastrophe” in which Israel was officially declared a state following the forced removal of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and the destruction of over 500 villages and towns.
___People across historic Palestine – including Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip – are holding rallies, marches and candlelight vigils on Monday, as well as sounding sirens.
___Israel has made publicly commemorating the Nakba increasingly difficult for Palestinians, with a “Nakba Law” that authorises Israel’s finance minister to revoke funding from institutions that reject Israel’s character as a “Jewish state” or mark the country’s “Independence Day” as a day of mourning.     MORE . . .
❶ ― (ᴃ)  ISRAELI FORCES SUPPRESS NAKBA DAY RALLIES IN BETHLEHEM, RAMALLAH  
Ma’an News Agency  
May 15, 2017
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces cracked down on Palestinians commemorating the 69th anniversary of the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” on Monday, with several Palestinians sustaining gunshot injuries and suffering from severe tear gas inhalation during marches in Bethlehem and Ramallah.
___At least three people were hospitalized after Israeli forces violently suppressed a Nakba march in the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem around midday Monday, with one march participant describing the use of force as one of “the worst (tear) gas experiences” they had witnessed in the city in five years.
___Witnesses told Ma’an the Israeli forces were deliberately launching tear gas canisters directly at demonstrators on the main street in northern Bethlehem where the march culminated, and continued to shoot tear gas at those attempting the escape, causing numerous people to suffer from tear gas suffocation.    MORE . . .

❷ 29 DAYS OF HUNGER STRIKE: COMMERCIAL STRIKE IN THE WEST BANK; BARGHOUTHI, SA’ADAT RECEIVE LEGAL VISITS 
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network 
May 15, 2017
As Palestinians and their supporters around the world mark the 69th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe of the occupation of Palestine and the forced displacement of over 750,000 Palestinian refugees from their homes, lands and villages by Zionist forces, Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails enter their 29th day of hunger strike on 15 May 2017.       ___Palestinian prisoners have a long history of hunger strikes in Israeli prisons, stretching back to 1968. This strike, the Strike of Freedom and Dignity, was launched on 17 April 2017, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, by approximately 1,500 out of the total 6,300 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. They are demanding basic human rights, including an end to the denial of family visits, proper health care and medical treatment, the right to pursue distance higher education and an end to solitary confinement and administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial.    MORE . . .

❸ ― (ᴀ) ATHENS PROTESTS AND ACTIONS SUPPORT PALESTINIAN PRISONERS’ HUNGER STRIKE, STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM 
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network      
May 15, 2017
Organizers in Athens, Greece have organized a series of actions in support of Palestinian political prisoners. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Athens has participated in protests, marches and contingents to express solidarity from Greece to all Palestinian prisoners, and to the 1500 prisoners who launched the Strike for Freedom and Dignity on 17 April 2017, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.    MORE . . .     
❸ ― (ᴃ) IRISH REPUBLICAN PRISONERS’ STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS     
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network  
May 15, 2017
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is honored to republish the following statement from Irish republican prisoners in Maghaberry Jail. Throughout the history of the Irish and Palestinian struggles, these movements have extended their support and solidarity to one another. Nowhere has this solidarity been more poignant than inside Israeli and British colonial jails, as Palestinian and Irish hunger strikers and political prisoners expressed their joint commitment to liberation struggle. The 1981 message from Palestinian prisoners in Nafha to the H-Block strikers continues to powerfully resonate today.  MORE . . . .             RELATED . . . .         RELATED . . . .  

Historical Note

THE PALESTINIAN NAKBA: FROM NAPOLEON TO BEN-GURION
Al-Hourriah       
May 15, 2017
The term “Nakba” (“catastrophe” in Arabic) conjures up memories of two pivotal events in Palestinian history: the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the expulsion of some 800,000 Palestinians from their ancestral homeland.
___The word has not only come to symbolize the tragedy that befell Palestinians in 1948, but also of the trials and tribulations the people of Palestine continue to endure under Israel’s decades-long occupation.
___The Nakba is the story of a humanitarian tragedy: the forced displacement of some 800,000 Palestinians and the destruction of most of Palestine’s political, economic and cultural heritage to make way for the self-proclaimed Jewish state.    MORE . . .