Israel closes crossings into West Bank
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E-mail Xinhua, March 30, 2012
Israel has closed crossings into the West Bank and beefed up security along its border with Lebanon and Syria as well as in Jerusalem and some parts of the country, in anticipation of Friday's Land Day protests against the Israeli government's policy to confiscate Arab lands.
The Israel Defense Forces announced that Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the West Bank crossings closed for a 24-hour period, until midnight tonight, The Jerusalem Post reported Friday.
Large numbers of police and border police forces were deployed in and around Moshav Avivim near the Lebanese border Friday morning ahead expected protests, the report said, adding that checkpoints were set up to prevent protesters from reaching the border area.
Xinhua reporters saw Friday that a new and fortified fence has been erected along part of Israel's border with Syria, where a number of protesters were killed last year while trying to cross the border from Syria.
Protests are expected to break out in several Palestinian cities in the West Bank and at the Kalandiya crossing to Ramallah, north of Jerusalem. The Israeli authorities were in touch this week with their Palestinian counterparts in an effort to contain the protests and prevent them from escalating, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Security has also been strengthened in Jerusalem, whose eastern part the Palestinians maintain should be the capital of their future state. Policemen have limited the access of Muslim worshipers to the Temple Mount for Friday prayers. Only men over the age of 40 in possession of a blue Israeli identity card and women will be given access to the Temple Mount on Friday in an attempt to limit disturbances.
Thousands of police officers will fan out across Jerusalem, with an emphasis on the alleyways of the Old City and crossings into the West Bank, including the Rachel checkpoint to Bethlehem, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby was quoted as saying.
Israeli Arabs, Arabs in West Bank and Gaza, as well as thousands of supporters in neighboring Arab countries are expected to take part in the annual Land Day protest event, which will include mass marches across Israel's Syrian and Lebanese borders this year.
Land Day commemorates the killing of six Arabs during violent protests in 1976 against Israel's practice of expropriating Arab lands in northern Israel to build Jewish settlements.
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