Israeli border police officers use pepper spray as they detain an injured Palestinian protester during clashes on Land Day outside Jerusalem.
Israeli border police officers use pepper spray as they detain an injured Palestinian protester during clashes on Land Day outside Jerusalem.
Israeli border police officers use pepper spray as they detain an injured Palestinian protester during clashes on Land Day outside Jerusalem.
Israeli border police officers use pepper spray as they detain an injured Palestinian protester during clashes on Land Day outside Jerusalem.

One Palestinian killed as thousands mark Land Day


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QALANDIA // Israeli security forces shot dead a Palestinian man in Gaza yesterday during one of many pro-Palestinian rallies to mark Land Day.

Mahmud Zakut, 20, was killed in Beit Hanun in an area near the border fence with Israel, said Adham Abu Selmiya, the emergency services spokesman.

Large-scale demonstrations have intensified in recent years, a sign of growing Palestinian frustration with stalled peace talks and expending Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

Skirmishes between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators erupted on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Scores of Palestinians waving nationalist flags marched on Jerusalem's Qalandia checkpoint, which divides the city from the West Bank.

Israeli security personnel fired tear-gas canisters and, according to witnesses, rubber bullets. Israel's military said they responded to young men who joined the demonstrations by using slingshots and throwing rocks.

Dozens of Palestinians and at least one Israeli security officer reported to have been injured.

Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian activist and former presidential candidate, was among those injured during the march on the checkpoint. Two Israeli tear-gas canisters struck his head and back, he said by telephone from the hospital.

Witnesses said, however, he was injured by men in plainclothes. He was injured while attempting to lead a march of Palestinians and international activists into Jerusalem.

Using permits, checkpoints and its concrete separation barrier, Israel prevents many West Bank Palestinians from accessing the city, which is revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews.

"I want to say that our demonstration today was totally peaceful and non-violent," Mr Barghouti said. "We were approaching with flags, and then they started attacking."

Thousands also rallied nears Israel's border with Lebanon and in Jordan, where some 15,000 Islamists and trade-union figures gathered near the occupied West Bank. Jordan is one of two Arab countries that have a peace treaty with Israel. The other is Egypt.

Palestinian, Arab and international organisations planned the demonstrations to mark Land Day, the annual mourning and protest of Israel's killing of six Palestinian citizens of Israel in 1976. They were shot while protesting the confiscation of Arab-owned lands by the Israeli government in the predominantly Palestinian Galilee area.

Clashes during these annual events have put Israel on edge. Preparing for yesterday's demonstrations, Israel's military issued a general closure of the West Bank.

Last May, thousands of people tried to storm into Israel from Syria and Lebanon to mark the Nakba, or catastrophe - the Palestinians' term for the creation of Israel in 1948. Eleven people were killed by Israeli gunfire in those clashes and hundreds injured, according to United Nations statistics.

Then in June, at least 10 more demonstrators were shot dead and scores more injured in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which it captured during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. The demonstrators, marking Israel's victory in that war, again tried to enter Israel from Syria.

In the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip yesterday, Palestinian demonstrators also were reportedly injured by Israeli fire. Israel's military confirmed that it shot and wounded one protester, who was part of a group of as many as 15,000 demonstrators rallying near the Israeli-built concrete barrier that surrounds Gaza.

Demonstrators also rallied in Bethlehem and near Jerusalem's Old City.

Unlike last year, however, demonstrators in Lebanon did not try to cross into Israel. Several thousand people instead gathered near the Beaufort Castle, about 15 kilometres from Israel, to demonstrate, suggesting that Lebanese officials did not want a repeat of last year's violence.

They held banners saying "Land Day is the day when we rededicate ourselves to the right of return," in reference to a return to Israel of the Palestinians who became refugees during the fighting that led to Israel's creation.

Near Qalandia yesterday, Amjad Khalifa, 26, who lives in Ramallah, was preparing to march on Jerusalem even though he doubted he would ever set foot inside the city. He had not been allowed to visit in a decade.

It was to show Israel that the Palestinians were capable of launching a non-violent uprising, he said.

"Israel wants to steal every metre of our land, and we want to show them that they can't keep doing this," he said.

Shortly after, he and hundreds of others were repelled by clouds of Israeli-fired tear gas.

* With additional reporting Associated Press and Agence France-Presse

Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW

Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman

Director: Jesse Armstrong

Rating: 3.5/5

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

The Facility’s Versatility

Between the start of the 2020 IPL on September 20, and the end of the Pakistan Super League this coming Thursday, the Zayed Cricket Stadium has had an unprecedented amount of traffic.
Never before has a ground in this country – or perhaps anywhere in the world – had such a volume of major-match cricket.
And yet scoring has remained high, and Abu Dhabi has seen some classic encounters in every format of the game.
 
October 18, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders tied with Sunrisers Hyderabad
The two playoff-chasing sides put on 163 apiece, before Kolkata went on to win the Super Over
 
January 8, ODI, UAE beat Ireland by six wickets
A century by CP Rizwan underpinned one of UAE’s greatest ever wins, as they chased 270 to win with an over to spare
 
February 6, T10, Northern Warriors beat Delhi Bulls by eight wickets
The final of the T10 was chiefly memorable for a ferocious over of fast bowling from Fidel Edwards to Nicholas Pooran
 
March 14, Test, Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by six wickets
Eleven wickets for Rashid Khan, 1,305 runs scored in five days, and a last session finish
 
June 17, PSL, Islamabad United beat Peshawar Zalmi by 15 runs
Usman Khawaja scored a hundred as Islamabad posted the highest score ever by a Pakistan team in T20 cricket

Results

2pm: Handicap Dh 90,000 1,800m; Winner: Majestic Thunder, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).

2.30pm: Handicap Dh120,000 1,950m; Winner: Just A Penny, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson.

3pm: Handicap Dh105,000 1,600m; Winner: Native Appeal, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.

3.30pm: Jebel Ali Classic Conditions Dh300,000 1,400m; Winner: Thegreatcollection, Adrie de Vries, Doug Watson.

4pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m; Winner: Oktalgano, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer.

4.30pm: Conditions Dh250,000 1,400m; Winner: Madame Ellingtina, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.

5pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,600m; Winner: Mystery Land, Fabrice Veron, Helal Al Alawi.

5.30pm: Handicap Dh85,000 1,000m; Winner: Shanaghai City, Jesus Rosales, Rashed Bouresly.

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sav%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Purvi%20Munot%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%24750%2C000%20as%20of%20March%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Angel%20investors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A