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Divided and angry, Palestinians mourned Israel's 60th birthday with protests, sirens and black balloons on Thursday.
Normally a show of Palestinian unity, ceremonies marking the "Nakba" or catastrophe underscored an internal split between President Mahmoud Abbas, who is trying to negotiate a peace deal with Israel, and Hamas Islamists who oppose the talks, as Reuters reports.
In Gaza, where Hamas seized control in June, nearly 1,000 children dressed up as anti-Israel militants, with fake guns and mortar launchers.
In the West Bank, Abbas appealed for reconciliation and an end to Israeli settlement building on the 60th anniversary of Israel's birth, which Palestinians mourn as the loss of their homeland in 1948.
"Sixty years have passed ... It's time to end the Nakba for the Palestinian people," said Abbas, whose U.S.-backed talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have shown little sign of progress.
While Abbas urged continuing with peace talks until an agreement was reached, Hamas's "Nakba" message called on Palestinians to join the "resistance" against Israel and said Abbas should "abandon the illusions of negotiations".
In Jerusalem, U.S. President George W. Bush feted the Jewish state as "a homeland for the chosen people" in a speech to the Israeli parliament.
Sirens sounded at noon in West Bank cities, bringing traffic on some streets to a standstill for two minutes.
Gazans protested against Israel's blockade of the coastal territory. Israeli police fired bullets and teargas as hundreds of Palestinian youths marched to the border with the Jewish state. Medics said one boy was shot in the leg.
Tensions between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah faction were high in Gaza where Hamas security forces prevented Fatah loyalists from holding a Nakba rally in the Jabalya refugee camp.
Protests highlighted the plight of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, 4.5 million of whom now live in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip or further afield, many in grim camps.
In Ramallah, school children walked the flag-lined streets in black t-shirts that read "1948" on the back and "Not for Sale" on the front. Some held old, rusty metal keys of homes their families were expelled, or fled, from.
Thousands of black balloons, denoting each day since Israel was established on May 15, 1948, were released above the West Bank as Bush in Jerusalem marked the Jewish state's founding with a congratulatory speech to parliament.
Most Arab lawmakers boycotted the speech and three others were escorted out of parliament by security guards after they waved banners that read "We shall overcome".
The speech contained just one reference to Palestinians and no mention of Bush's hope of sealing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before he leaves the White House in January.
Bush told parliament Israel's establishment "was the redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham and Moses and David -- a homeland for the chosen people".
Palestinian political analyst Ali Jarbawi said Bush's speech showed he was siding with Israel.
"He is not talking about a two-state solution," said Jarbawi of Birzeit University near Ramallah. "He is talking about a state of left-overs for the Palestinians."
// 15.05.2008 18:35
News URL: http://news.mediaport.info/eng/world/2008/4080.shtml
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