RAMALLAH, September 3, 2016 (WAFA) – Palestinian protesters in the Ramallah area village of Bil‘in waved Scottish flags in their weekly anti-Israeli occupation Friday protest marches as a show of gratitude to Scottish activists for supporting Palestine during a recent soccer match between Scottish and Israeli teams, the Arabic daily al-Hayat al-Jadida said in its Saturday issue.
The three Palestinian Arabic dailies – al-Quds, al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida – highlighted on their front pages Saturday the weekly protests against settlements and Israeli occupation in various West Bank locations that left scores of Palestinians injured as a result of violent Israeli army crackdown.
While al-Ayyam made this subject its main front page story, al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida placed it further down on the page, yet giving it large headlines and space.
The dailies said scores of Palestinians suffocated after Israeli forces showered them with a barrage of tear gas canisters, mainly in the Qalqiliya village of Kufur Qaddoum and the Bethlehem town of Taquo.
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida said a Palestinian photojournalist was injured in Kufur Qaddoum.
Al-Ayyam said Israeli forces detained eight Palestinians in raids across the West Bank.
The dailies said Israeli police and crews from the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem delivered demolition orders for Palestinian houses and stores in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, bordering the Old City.
Al-Ayyam added Israeli forces also delivered a stop-construction order for a Palestinian house in the Hebron area in the south of the West Bank.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida quoted deputy secretary of Fatah Central Committee, Jibril Rjoub, as stating that the Palestinian leadership refuses to normalize relations with Israel in a manner that does not comply with the Arab Peace Initiative.
Al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida highlighted a European Union’s statement condemning Israeli decision to approve plans for the construction of 463 new housing units in West Bank settlements describing the decision as a cause of serious concern.
Al-Quds said the Italian foreign ministry stated that settlement construction and the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure were the highest threats to peace making.
Foreign Minister Riad Malki’s meeting with International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda also hit the front page headlines in the dailies.
Al-Ayyam reported Malki stating that he has requested Bensouda announces opening an official investigation into Israeli war crimes during the 2014 Israeli military onslaught on Gaza.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported that Malki briefed Bensouda on the gravity of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. Al-Quds said in this regard ICC representatives might visit Israel and the occupied areas.
Referring to an article published in the Israeli newspaper of Ma’ariv, al-Quds reported in its main front page news item that a leader of the Zionist terrorist organization, the Palmach, that operated in the 1940s in Palestine revealed that Palmach militants committed a horrific massacre in 1948 in Ain al-Zaytun village, near Safad in the north of the country, cold-bloodedly slaughtering 56 Palestinians.
K.F./M.A.
